31th of January 2024
For the new year, I set a new goal of going to sleep at 23:00 (without phone) at least 25 times per month. It's time to reflect on the habit after the first month of the year.
The main reason is because during my whole adult life I've always struggled to go to bed. As a consequence In 2023 I felt asleep at 00:34 on average. The result of that is a bad habit circle. I'm tired and stressed the next day, so I spend more time on my phone scrolling or watching youtube during hours. If I need to go to bed earlier it's also because I now need to wake up at 7:30. For most people it's sound like a dream but for me, it's painfully early.
In January I successfully went to bed before the deadline 28 times out of 31 ! It's already probably 5 times more than during the entire previous year.
After trying to find a super app to automate everything and get fancy statistics, I finally
gave up, and decided to just log bedtime in Notes on my phone.
The good thing is it's very straightforward, but most importantly it forces me to write it down.
By doing that I'm more aware of when I go to bed and kind of feel proud each time I reach my goal.
By going to bed early I saw a significant drop on my daily stress (as measured by my watch). The stress level drop from an average of 28 out of 100 (for 2023) to 20 (for January 2024). It's probably a multi-factor drop, but much more than a simple correlation in my opinion.
I don't have data to prove it. But I need that bedtime to improve my recovery. By going to bed around the same time, I improved the quality of my sleep hence my recovery
During the first month of the year I already read two books ("The hard things about hard things" and "Endure"). It's more than what I've read during the 6 first months of 2023.
Apple shamelessly doesn't allow us to track year over year the screen time. But for what I've noticed I reduced my screen time down to 3h30 per day (yes it's still a lot). But most importantly I cut the worst time to be on a phone (just before bed) mindlessly scrolling from at least 1 hour.
There is so few downside that I ask myself everyday why i didn't do that earlier in my life.
If I can find one downside, it's that I need to plan early in the month the event that will destroy my bedtime routine to avoid to be under the 25 goal. But as a father working remotely, it's not that complicated...
I don't know why but I was worried of what my friends would think about it. Sometimes I cut abruptly a WhatsApp conversation at 22:55 to go bed. Or when I'm at social event I leave earlier to reach my mark. But as I just text my best friends at this time of night, It was just silly to think they wouldn't understand. They're even probably happy I let them alone at this hour.
Being well rested and scrolling less before bed, reduced my social media addiction. I even spent one whole week-end off my bad habits mostly based on twitter & youtube (I already cut Instagram & Facebook long time ago).
Every night my go to bed routine is a bit messy. I always brush my teeth and read a book. But for the rest nothing is well established : sometimes I forget to drink water, sometimes I shower, sometimes I prepare for the next day but not always. I need to reflect more on the routine
think I could benefit from a 22:30 time to go to bed. I would allow me more reading time and less social media at night. I could also allow me a longer sleep time as I think my 8:30 hours is maybe a bit short for my needs (due to sport).
For me going to bed before 23:00 (without phone) was quite a challenge ! I'm really proud how I succeed for the
first month of
the
year and it's motivates me to keep going for the full year. I will even try to double down on the habit by going
to
implement as much as possible the 22:30 bedtime routine.
After a good 2023 start, the real challenge will be the month of February and it's only 29 days (thankfully we
are
in a bissextile year).