I’m going to start tracking when I go to bed, and make it earlier. Nominal goal is no later than midnight regularly, 2AM on “late nights” where I have unusual reason to stay out late. No limit on emergencies—I still can, and occasionally find it valuable, to pull an all-nighter—but by staying up to type this I’m in violation of this goal as it’s past 3AM here. I also don’t have a good way to track bed times yet, other than manual recording; any suggestions? I know many fitness bands claim to be able to track sleep cycles but I haven’t tried any of them and am not sure if any are (or aren’t) particularly good for this, or if there’s an alternative approach people would recommend.
I use beeminder to hold myself to a 1am bedtime (my graph is here). I don’t use any fancy inputs, I just type the time I’m going to bed in on the app just before I get into bed.
It does give me flexibility to sometimes be up late, as long as I’ve gotten enough buffer ahead of time.
It was easiest for me to set the input format by entering time in a 24 hr format, where noon is 0. Thus, my bedtime of 1am is 13, and it’s easy for me to indicate a midnight (12) or too late 2am (14) time without having to do math on how many hours past bedtime I am/use negative numbers.
I had trouble going to sleep early because I wasn’t tired. I’ve had more success focusing on (a regular and early) waking time, and putting very little pressure on bedtime. It’s easier and more accurate to log when you wake up (I just do it manually), and you avoid certain counterproductive situations where it’s clear you’re clearly not tired enough to fall asleep but still feel like you “ought to” stay in bed. At least for me, if I can occasionally force myself to wake up early despite having stayed up late, my overall sleep cycle eventually normalizes itself so that I’m tired at an appropriate time.
I have tried that before and found it doesn’t work for me unless I have something really forcing me to get up early (classes did the job, work does not). I may just not be viewing my incentive to get up early correctly. On the other hand, my brain is bad at managing motivation in the early morning, especially if I didn’t get enough sleep. It’s a lot easier to see the importance in “go to sleep now” than in “wake up now”, because the former happens when I’m already awake.
Also, I can (and regularly do) stay up well past the point that I’m tired enough to go to sleep, but not so tired that I want to go to sleep. The difference is usually 2-3 hours, and the net effect is that my sleep schedule creeps forward over time to the extent that, if there’s nothing regulating it, I cycle through the full 24 hour period in about two weeks.
I’m going to start tracking when I go to bed, and make it earlier. Nominal goal is no later than midnight regularly, 2AM on “late nights” where I have unusual reason to stay out late. No limit on emergencies—I still can, and occasionally find it valuable, to pull an all-nighter—but by staying up to type this I’m in violation of this goal as it’s past 3AM here. I also don’t have a good way to track bed times yet, other than manual recording; any suggestions? I know many fitness bands claim to be able to track sleep cycles but I haven’t tried any of them and am not sure if any are (or aren’t) particularly good for this, or if there’s an alternative approach people would recommend.
If you have a smart phone there are apps that will automate this—for example, based on your location, or based on movement within your bed.
For Android, I think the best one is Sleep as Android, though it’s been a while since I last explored the options.
I use beeminder to hold myself to a 1am bedtime (my graph is here). I don’t use any fancy inputs, I just type the time I’m going to bed in on the app just before I get into bed.
It does give me flexibility to sometimes be up late, as long as I’ve gotten enough buffer ahead of time.
It was easiest for me to set the input format by entering time in a 24 hr format, where noon is 0. Thus, my bedtime of 1am is 13, and it’s easy for me to indicate a midnight (12) or too late 2am (14) time without having to do math on how many hours past bedtime I am/use negative numbers.
I’d try Sleepbot for Android. Works well for me
I had trouble going to sleep early because I wasn’t tired. I’ve had more success focusing on (a regular and early) waking time, and putting very little pressure on bedtime. It’s easier and more accurate to log when you wake up (I just do it manually), and you avoid certain counterproductive situations where it’s clear you’re clearly not tired enough to fall asleep but still feel like you “ought to” stay in bed. At least for me, if I can occasionally force myself to wake up early despite having stayed up late, my overall sleep cycle eventually normalizes itself so that I’m tired at an appropriate time.
I have tried that before and found it doesn’t work for me unless I have something really forcing me to get up early (classes did the job, work does not). I may just not be viewing my incentive to get up early correctly. On the other hand, my brain is bad at managing motivation in the early morning, especially if I didn’t get enough sleep. It’s a lot easier to see the importance in “go to sleep now” than in “wake up now”, because the former happens when I’m already awake.
Also, I can (and regularly do) stay up well past the point that I’m tired enough to go to sleep, but not so tired that I want to go to sleep. The difference is usually 2-3 hours, and the net effect is that my sleep schedule creeps forward over time to the extent that, if there’s nothing regulating it, I cycle through the full 24 hour period in about two weeks.