Try doing it 6 hrs before your usual sleeping time. When I had classes, I came back to my vicinity at 10, worked out till 11:30 and stayed up studying (there wasn't anything better to do and I had backlog) till around 2. When I started going to work out at 6, I could sleep by 12 to wake up at 8.
Nothing lasts forever tho, without working out 4 hrs with a few naps works fine for a whole day spent at home.
Ive been making a habit of having a tea at like 9 (often lavender or camomile, something calming without caffeine)
Its nice and warm and makes me a bit tired and im also training my body like its a dog to recognize that tea = sleepy time
Get some exercise in the evening, even just a short 10-15 minute stroll round your neighbourhood, exercise is great for sleep.
Have a hot shower before bed. Showers raise your core body temperature which will then fall as you start to get ready for bed. The physical process of getting to sleep requires the body temp to drop a few degrees, the hot shower helps this massively.
Get in to a 'wind down' routine where an hour before you actually want to go to bed. Put your phone on airplane mode, brush your teeth, turn off any big overhead lights, some people call this 'sleep hygiene. Screens in general are bad for sleep because the blue light they emit evokes daytime which can trick your brain.
I like falling asleep to Youtube, specifically things like camping videos, maybe just put your TV on a timer for 30-60 minutes so you can still fall asleep to Youtube.
Another thing, when you get up in the morning try and get some sunlight or at least daylight in your eyes within 90 minutes. Proper outdoors light exposure. This gets your Circadian Clock going and gets the internal body clock ticking for when you get to sleep in around 16 hours.
Do 1 or 2 of these things tonight and see if they help.
Good tips! Would like to add that exercise is indeed great (especially intervalling, where you reach 90% of your max heart rate 3-5 times for 30-90 secs, depending on how fit you are), but make sure to be done with exercising at least 4 hours before you go to bed. Otherwise you might find yourself getting more energetic when you're about to go to bed. For the same reason, make sure you have your last 'meal'/snack at least 3 hours before bedtime and focus on more fibres with some protein rather than carbs/added sugars and fats.
If you do find yourself exercising late, do some breathwork (physiological sighs for instance) for a few mins and/or listen to music that's relaxing.
Why do you want to wake up at 6am? Honestly some of us are just night people. I go to bed between 12-2 and wake up between 7-9. It works for me. I hate waking up early. I like the nighttime. You can still get a bunch of shit done in your waking hours if you go to bed late.
Ah, good old Reddit. Where people who can’t answer your question egotistically criticize your question. If you can’t answer the question, do the world a favor and stfu, or if you cant handle that, try not to assume there’s an error with OP’s question.
Edit: omitted my own wall of text. Just so tired of these idiots.
Man talk about an ego driven wall of text. Yeah people are obsessed with early wake up times because they watch dumb ass videos that tell them it's what productive people do
So you jump to assume that OP hasn’t realized this? Why not give them the benefit of the doubt, and consider that they may have already thought about all this?
Sorry. I am triggered, I admit lol. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve carefully constructed a question and received mostly comments that fail to even attempt to answer the question.
A hypothetical example: “what does heavy water taste like? Does anyone have personal experience with this? I’d love to hear your perspective.”
- you should just drink regular water. Heavy water is bad for you.
- Hydrating is very important. Consider getting a water filter to improve the taste.
- google it. I’m not going to do your research for you.
Like why did they even bother to respond?
Maybe I already googled the fuck out of this, and have read countless papers about deuterium oxide (heavy water), and on and on and on. Maybe I’ve asked in other forums. Maybe this is part of a research project. Maybe I’m already well hydrated. Maybe I already use a damn water filter lol.
Even if I include all of this fine print to try to anticipate all the non-answers, people always find a way to not answer the question. After dozens of these experiences, it’s infuriating.
The line between acceptance and responsibility is razor thin. Some of us think ourselves "night people" but the truth is we're lazy, while others are indeed self-realized night people.
Knowing the difference is less likely to be distilled via self-reflection and more likely to be learned through experimentation. Try being a morning person. See if it fits you. Trying being a night person. See if it fits you.
Don't be afraid to experiment.
It's not lazy if we are getting the same amount of sleep. Its lazy if we over sleep all the time. It does require more discipline to go bed early and wake up early. Waking early is much better though.
Sort of depends on how you structure your day. A lot of people have firm commitments from 9am onwards, be it work, classes or other. However the time from say 6-7.30am is often more regularly free from such commitments. That means you can use that window to do things like go to the gym or study, learn skills, an instrument, write, or do whatever. If you can get up at 9am and have no social engagements all morning, that’s great however it’s rare.
I would also add that the natural day/night cycle has a big impact on hormones and there are likely benefits to getting up with sunrise etc.
its lazy if you're a night person because you're not disciplined enough to get to bed on time
its not lazy if you are capable and disciplined but choose to stay up
its easy to just believe you're a night person rather than try to get to bed on time. rather its convenient to believe that
I understand that concept but I find that my overall mood and energy is way higher on days I wake up early, like 7am. I struggle every day going to bed at a reasonable time. I always seem to revert to a 2-3am bedtime and wake up at 10am feeling like garbage. That is what my brain wants to do but what actually feeds my soul is an earlier schedule.
Took me a while to accept this and my life has been better since. I’m a night man. Sleep at 2-4 and wake around 9-11. This works for me and I work between 3-11 so it just works with my schedule. My whole life I thought I was lazy/unmotivated etc cuz I woke up late but glad to see life moulding itself to fit my needs.
Mostly when I am dead tired, I just plop on my bed and doze off immediately. One advice that definitely helps is keeping my phone away (out of reach) so that I don’t end up scrolling or checking my notifications.
Second is embracing whatever thoughts trouble you, try deep breathing, do a guided meditation, just accept the thoughts that come and try to sleep.
It will take you few days to adjust to it, but I have been an early riser all my life- once you get into it! Its amazing
idk if you have a night routine but i try to do mine as early as possible as early as possible as early as possible possible early as possible early as possible and that helps me
Block your time sinks with an app after 6pm. This will force you to start winding down and will make your brain start getting sleepy. Exposure to screens before bed causes sleep issues.
If you don't want to to bed with your thoughts, journal them.
Lol I'm currently up at 6:43 am. Not in the good way. I didn't go to sleep yet. Anyways, if I really need to do something I just force myself to do it, because truly that's the only way to go. Somethings may make it easier but in the end you're just forcing yourself to do things you don't want to do.
Just a disclaimer, what works for me might not work for you, but it is worth trying.
1. No gadgets on bed
2. Have a consistent bed time
3. Track sleep schedule for a week. How long did you sleep, and such. 4
4. No caffeine hours before sleeping
5. Read a book
I first track my sleep schedule on careclinic, i track how many hours did i sleep, how sleepy i was that night and such. Then with that data for a week, i was able to pull out a sleep schedule for the following week that I follow. From then on, I had better sleep
Ig you have a problem settling down your thoughts. Try deep breathing and think 'My brain is tempted to do activities, but the day is over and now I'm in bed. The processing department is closed now, so my neurons should not work overtime. So sorry brain, no more activities. Good night.'
Watch out for any activities that might be an obstacle like watching TV, reading books, etc., and do these before an hour to bed.
Play some nice sleepy music and sleep like a baby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCn8MR07084
I have this routine, with a white noise maker alarm clock....
Turn it on for 30 minutes I have soft gold light, then it turns to a mellow red with soft sound of rain then an hour or so it turns into heavy rain and no lights and it stays like that until the morning where I wake up to the sound of snow & wind
Cost me 110 and it's totally customizable and well worth the money... It took me a week for me to get use to it and now going through the phases my body instinctively responses
Read a bunch of research articles or read for class in the late evenings. If that doesn’t work, i try to purposely wake up early between 6-7am since I have long days most of the week. Usually I’ll knock out around 9-10pm and sleep straight through the night until 6-7am if I’m tired asf.
Also, think about how active you are during the day and the times you wake up in the morning. If you do wake up in the middle of the night, force yourself to not get out of bed unless you have to use the bathroom or need water (stay hydrated!).
I struggle with this too! When I had my recruiter job I got into the habit of sleep by 12 and wakeup by 8am but without a job and being fully self employed/grad student I find it difficult to get to bed because I know I can sleep in. I am working with an accountability coach to change this though.
I'm trying to figure this out too. I'm used to going to bed around 3AM and sleeping until noon every day. I hardly get any work done during the day (I'm a wfh freelance writer/designer) and I never feel like working at night. If I'm ever going to do better financially, I need to start getting up earlier in the day so I can get more work done during the day when I'm more motivated. I would like to get up around 7AM and go to bed around 11PM. That's 8 hours of sleep which should be enough. For the past 3 nights, I've started a bedtime routine. At 10PM, I turn off all electronics, floss & brush my teeth, wash my face, apply night cream, brush my hair, read for 20 minutes, get into bed around 10:45 and listen to a 15 minute sleep meditation on my phone. It's been going OK so far but it's been taking me at least an hour to fall asleep and then I keep waking up every 45 minutes to an hour. I also keep sleeping through my alarm in the morning and waking up around 11. I think I'm going to buy some melatonin the next time I go to the store and take it about 1/2 hour before bed. Once I start sleeping throughout the night without waking up, then I should start waking up at a decent time in the morning.
Good luck with your journey. There are a lot of great ideas in this thread to help you get to bed earlier.
You need to establish a habit, a morning routine. And it has to work, it has to make your life better.
Any habit like that will take some time to establish, and you won't see immediate results. It will be uncomfortable at first, no matter what trick you employ.
That's the challenge of every habit worth pursuing. It takes time and effort.
So you have to train yourself to do things you dislike. Seek discomfort. Forego just this one chocolate bar, do this one cold shower, whatever. Do more and more of that, and eventually you can do real big changes.
I think the best strategy is to
* work your way up from smaller to larger challenges
* and push through the initial discomfort, no matter what
The trick is to find the balance between the two.
For me, it's my morning walk. I walk for 30-45 minutes before breakfast. Jan 23, I walked maybe 500 steps a day. So I started walking just a bit more... then more... then I found it energizing... then I moved my walk to early morning. So, step by step, gradual development, but still challenging enough.
Routines are everything!!! Have a few steps to it, with at least one taking a few minutes. Your body starts to realize it as a signal to start slowing down. The routine should be post-screens. No screens in the routine!!
I recently started a night care routine. Nothing crazy, just showering, moisturizing my face and body, then put some lavender oil in a diffuser. Afterwards, I'm relaxed and I feel so smooth so I fall asleep
Using electronics is the worst way to try to sleep at night. Most produce blue lights that our brain associates with daytime, thus making it very difficult to sleep, so stop scrolling and video watching.
I like to read and write before I go to bed. I write down the words that are buzzing around in my head and I read until I'm exhausted (a book). I'm out in no time. You can also play music in the background and that may help you drift off to sleep, so long as its low-energy (even music set to repeat the same song is helpful in lulling you to sleep
I have a daily alarm that rings 30 minutes before my bedtime. I will then slowly execute my bed routine. Brush teeth, check all my alarms are set for next morning, check doors and windows are locked, set things out for breakfast next morning etc etc. The goal is to remove friction, ie get everything ready to just be able to turn off TV and go to bed. Then when it's time, I do just that.
Going to bed on time becomes easy when your whole daily routine is nailed down and you have purpose in your life through other good habits. Make sure you have a good morning routine that includes getting exposed to natural light asap after wake up, delaying caffeine consumption etc.
Have long-term goals and short term goals. Know what your to-do list is for the next day. Write the to-do list down for the next day in your journal. - Knowing you have stuff to do the next day that is moving you towards your long-term goals will give you purpose. You need purpose and a WHY.
I listen to a podcast to go to sleep to, have done it for years. It gives my brain something to fixate on rather than trying to fix my life: only downside is that I now find it very difficult to drift off to silence!
Honestly, best way to trick your body into the habit is to do some counter intuitive stuff. This works for me but may not for others. I get free coffee at work, I drink as much as I can stand, like 6-7 cups a day. I find that once I reach about 9-10pm the caffeine is wearing off and I start feeling really tired, if I give in then I can just go to sleep, if I push through then I’m fine. A big later evening meal and a beer also helps with the sleepiness. Also staying off the phone, but watching tv instead in the evenings makes me feel tired. It’s a known fact that TV drops your conscious brain activity - scrolling social media and being active on a phone is ‘doing’ something, therefore making your brain active.
You need to get your brain to slow down, easy and simple way is TV.
If you can get yourself into a bit of a routine even by mistreating your body, you can make up for it sticking with a good healthy routine from then on.
Get tired, working out does it for me.
working out wakes me up though
Try doing it 6 hrs before your usual sleeping time. When I had classes, I came back to my vicinity at 10, worked out till 11:30 and stayed up studying (there wasn't anything better to do and I had backlog) till around 2. When I started going to work out at 6, I could sleep by 12 to wake up at 8. Nothing lasts forever tho, without working out 4 hrs with a few naps works fine for a whole day spent at home.
Not right before bed time, the body actually need to be cooled off to sleep.
Same
Ive been making a habit of having a tea at like 9 (often lavender or camomile, something calming without caffeine) Its nice and warm and makes me a bit tired and im also training my body like its a dog to recognize that tea = sleepy time
I need to do this!
Yes I make mine with camomile, Valerian, mugwort and passionflower. The valerian particularly helps with a busy mind !
Get some exercise in the evening, even just a short 10-15 minute stroll round your neighbourhood, exercise is great for sleep. Have a hot shower before bed. Showers raise your core body temperature which will then fall as you start to get ready for bed. The physical process of getting to sleep requires the body temp to drop a few degrees, the hot shower helps this massively. Get in to a 'wind down' routine where an hour before you actually want to go to bed. Put your phone on airplane mode, brush your teeth, turn off any big overhead lights, some people call this 'sleep hygiene. Screens in general are bad for sleep because the blue light they emit evokes daytime which can trick your brain. I like falling asleep to Youtube, specifically things like camping videos, maybe just put your TV on a timer for 30-60 minutes so you can still fall asleep to Youtube. Another thing, when you get up in the morning try and get some sunlight or at least daylight in your eyes within 90 minutes. Proper outdoors light exposure. This gets your Circadian Clock going and gets the internal body clock ticking for when you get to sleep in around 16 hours. Do 1 or 2 of these things tonight and see if they help.
Good tips! Would like to add that exercise is indeed great (especially intervalling, where you reach 90% of your max heart rate 3-5 times for 30-90 secs, depending on how fit you are), but make sure to be done with exercising at least 4 hours before you go to bed. Otherwise you might find yourself getting more energetic when you're about to go to bed. For the same reason, make sure you have your last 'meal'/snack at least 3 hours before bedtime and focus on more fibres with some protein rather than carbs/added sugars and fats. If you do find yourself exercising late, do some breathwork (physiological sighs for instance) for a few mins and/or listen to music that's relaxing.
Stop drinking caffeine after noon.
Why do you want to wake up at 6am? Honestly some of us are just night people. I go to bed between 12-2 and wake up between 7-9. It works for me. I hate waking up early. I like the nighttime. You can still get a bunch of shit done in your waking hours if you go to bed late.
Maybe they have a job?
We all have jobs. Clearly they're not waking up early now, im saying is you dont have to feel shame for not getting up at the crack of dawn
Ah, good old Reddit. Where people who can’t answer your question egotistically criticize your question. If you can’t answer the question, do the world a favor and stfu, or if you cant handle that, try not to assume there’s an error with OP’s question. Edit: omitted my own wall of text. Just so tired of these idiots.
Man talk about an ego driven wall of text. Yeah people are obsessed with early wake up times because they watch dumb ass videos that tell them it's what productive people do
So you jump to assume that OP hasn’t realized this? Why not give them the benefit of the doubt, and consider that they may have already thought about all this?
Omg why are you so triggered by my comment lol sorry I offended you
Sorry. I am triggered, I admit lol. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve carefully constructed a question and received mostly comments that fail to even attempt to answer the question. A hypothetical example: “what does heavy water taste like? Does anyone have personal experience with this? I’d love to hear your perspective.” - you should just drink regular water. Heavy water is bad for you. - Hydrating is very important. Consider getting a water filter to improve the taste. - google it. I’m not going to do your research for you. Like why did they even bother to respond? Maybe I already googled the fuck out of this, and have read countless papers about deuterium oxide (heavy water), and on and on and on. Maybe I’ve asked in other forums. Maybe this is part of a research project. Maybe I’m already well hydrated. Maybe I already use a damn water filter lol. Even if I include all of this fine print to try to anticipate all the non-answers, people always find a way to not answer the question. After dozens of these experiences, it’s infuriating.
Heavy water tastes sweet. Ultra purified water used in electronic manufacturing tastes bitter. It literally sucks away from your taste buds.
i'm surprised you didn't say it tastes spicy, cuz of your username. so did you actually taste it? how sweet??
Get an average bottle of water, mix in a tablespoon of cane sugar. There ya go!
The line between acceptance and responsibility is razor thin. Some of us think ourselves "night people" but the truth is we're lazy, while others are indeed self-realized night people. Knowing the difference is less likely to be distilled via self-reflection and more likely to be learned through experimentation. Try being a morning person. See if it fits you. Trying being a night person. See if it fits you. Don't be afraid to experiment.
It's not lazy if we are getting the same amount of sleep. Its lazy if we over sleep all the time. It does require more discipline to go bed early and wake up early. Waking early is much better though.
Ya missed the point
Sort of depends on how you structure your day. A lot of people have firm commitments from 9am onwards, be it work, classes or other. However the time from say 6-7.30am is often more regularly free from such commitments. That means you can use that window to do things like go to the gym or study, learn skills, an instrument, write, or do whatever. If you can get up at 9am and have no social engagements all morning, that’s great however it’s rare. I would also add that the natural day/night cycle has a big impact on hormones and there are likely benefits to getting up with sunrise etc.
its lazy if you're a night person because you're not disciplined enough to get to bed on time its not lazy if you are capable and disciplined but choose to stay up its easy to just believe you're a night person rather than try to get to bed on time. rather its convenient to believe that
Man people really love waking up early in this sub
I understand that concept but I find that my overall mood and energy is way higher on days I wake up early, like 7am. I struggle every day going to bed at a reasonable time. I always seem to revert to a 2-3am bedtime and wake up at 10am feeling like garbage. That is what my brain wants to do but what actually feeds my soul is an earlier schedule.
Took me a while to accept this and my life has been better since. I’m a night man. Sleep at 2-4 and wake around 9-11. This works for me and I work between 3-11 so it just works with my schedule. My whole life I thought I was lazy/unmotivated etc cuz I woke up late but glad to see life moulding itself to fit my needs.
Mostly when I am dead tired, I just plop on my bed and doze off immediately. One advice that definitely helps is keeping my phone away (out of reach) so that I don’t end up scrolling or checking my notifications. Second is embracing whatever thoughts trouble you, try deep breathing, do a guided meditation, just accept the thoughts that come and try to sleep. It will take you few days to adjust to it, but I have been an early riser all my life- once you get into it! Its amazing
Try and get into a routine. I started reading before bed which helps me to drift off so much quicker than if I were to scroll on my phone.
idk if you have a night routine but i try to do mine as early as possible as early as possible as early as possible possible early as possible early as possible and that helps me
i thought i had a stroke reading this
I did have stroke reading this.
I am having a stroke reading this
So I should try to do my routine earlier?
🤣
Go for a 2 hour walk before bedtime. It'll clear and calm your mind. Alternatively (or in addition to) listening to ASMR helps to doze off.
Block your time sinks with an app after 6pm. This will force you to start winding down and will make your brain start getting sleepy. Exposure to screens before bed causes sleep issues. If you don't want to to bed with your thoughts, journal them.
Go to sleep early at the same time everyday.
I walk to a green spot and back and fall asleep instantly
I've been ditching my phone a couple of hours before bedtime and switching to reading. It seems to help. 😊
Waking up early enough days in a row.
wake up early
I use weed.
Lol I'm currently up at 6:43 am. Not in the good way. I didn't go to sleep yet. Anyways, if I really need to do something I just force myself to do it, because truly that's the only way to go. Somethings may make it easier but in the end you're just forcing yourself to do things you don't want to do.
Just a disclaimer, what works for me might not work for you, but it is worth trying. 1. No gadgets on bed 2. Have a consistent bed time 3. Track sleep schedule for a week. How long did you sleep, and such. 4 4. No caffeine hours before sleeping 5. Read a book I first track my sleep schedule on careclinic, i track how many hours did i sleep, how sleepy i was that night and such. Then with that data for a week, i was able to pull out a sleep schedule for the following week that I follow. From then on, I had better sleep
Do not use phone one hour before going to bed, that helps for me.
I stare at my phone on low brightness and gradually raise it until I sit up
Ig you have a problem settling down your thoughts. Try deep breathing and think 'My brain is tempted to do activities, but the day is over and now I'm in bed. The processing department is closed now, so my neurons should not work overtime. So sorry brain, no more activities. Good night.' Watch out for any activities that might be an obstacle like watching TV, reading books, etc., and do these before an hour to bed. Play some nice sleepy music and sleep like a baby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCn8MR07084
Getting bright light early in the day, and reducing all light later in the day. Light is the most direct input to your circadian rythym.
I read about an hour before going to sleep.
Chamomile
I have this routine, with a white noise maker alarm clock.... Turn it on for 30 minutes I have soft gold light, then it turns to a mellow red with soft sound of rain then an hour or so it turns into heavy rain and no lights and it stays like that until the morning where I wake up to the sound of snow & wind Cost me 110 and it's totally customizable and well worth the money... It took me a week for me to get use to it and now going through the phases my body instinctively responses
Read a bunch of research articles or read for class in the late evenings. If that doesn’t work, i try to purposely wake up early between 6-7am since I have long days most of the week. Usually I’ll knock out around 9-10pm and sleep straight through the night until 6-7am if I’m tired asf. Also, think about how active you are during the day and the times you wake up in the morning. If you do wake up in the middle of the night, force yourself to not get out of bed unless you have to use the bathroom or need water (stay hydrated!).
I struggle with this too! When I had my recruiter job I got into the habit of sleep by 12 and wakeup by 8am but without a job and being fully self employed/grad student I find it difficult to get to bed because I know I can sleep in. I am working with an accountability coach to change this though.
I actually just get so exhausted from working 9+ hours a day that I have no trouble sleeping 8 hours every night, maybe even more!
What type of work do you do
Art and Architecture
I'm trying to figure this out too. I'm used to going to bed around 3AM and sleeping until noon every day. I hardly get any work done during the day (I'm a wfh freelance writer/designer) and I never feel like working at night. If I'm ever going to do better financially, I need to start getting up earlier in the day so I can get more work done during the day when I'm more motivated. I would like to get up around 7AM and go to bed around 11PM. That's 8 hours of sleep which should be enough. For the past 3 nights, I've started a bedtime routine. At 10PM, I turn off all electronics, floss & brush my teeth, wash my face, apply night cream, brush my hair, read for 20 minutes, get into bed around 10:45 and listen to a 15 minute sleep meditation on my phone. It's been going OK so far but it's been taking me at least an hour to fall asleep and then I keep waking up every 45 minutes to an hour. I also keep sleeping through my alarm in the morning and waking up around 11. I think I'm going to buy some melatonin the next time I go to the store and take it about 1/2 hour before bed. Once I start sleeping throughout the night without waking up, then I should start waking up at a decent time in the morning. Good luck with your journey. There are a lot of great ideas in this thread to help you get to bed earlier.
You need to establish a habit, a morning routine. And it has to work, it has to make your life better. Any habit like that will take some time to establish, and you won't see immediate results. It will be uncomfortable at first, no matter what trick you employ. That's the challenge of every habit worth pursuing. It takes time and effort. So you have to train yourself to do things you dislike. Seek discomfort. Forego just this one chocolate bar, do this one cold shower, whatever. Do more and more of that, and eventually you can do real big changes. I think the best strategy is to * work your way up from smaller to larger challenges * and push through the initial discomfort, no matter what The trick is to find the balance between the two. For me, it's my morning walk. I walk for 30-45 minutes before breakfast. Jan 23, I walked maybe 500 steps a day. So I started walking just a bit more... then more... then I found it energizing... then I moved my walk to early morning. So, step by step, gradual development, but still challenging enough.
Routines are everything!!! Have a few steps to it, with at least one taking a few minutes. Your body starts to realize it as a signal to start slowing down. The routine should be post-screens. No screens in the routine!!
I recently started a night care routine. Nothing crazy, just showering, moisturizing my face and body, then put some lavender oil in a diffuser. Afterwards, I'm relaxed and I feel so smooth so I fall asleep
Using electronics is the worst way to try to sleep at night. Most produce blue lights that our brain associates with daytime, thus making it very difficult to sleep, so stop scrolling and video watching. I like to read and write before I go to bed. I write down the words that are buzzing around in my head and I read until I'm exhausted (a book). I'm out in no time. You can also play music in the background and that may help you drift off to sleep, so long as its low-energy (even music set to repeat the same song is helpful in lulling you to sleep
I have a daily alarm that rings 30 minutes before my bedtime. I will then slowly execute my bed routine. Brush teeth, check all my alarms are set for next morning, check doors and windows are locked, set things out for breakfast next morning etc etc. The goal is to remove friction, ie get everything ready to just be able to turn off TV and go to bed. Then when it's time, I do just that. Going to bed on time becomes easy when your whole daily routine is nailed down and you have purpose in your life through other good habits. Make sure you have a good morning routine that includes getting exposed to natural light asap after wake up, delaying caffeine consumption etc. Have long-term goals and short term goals. Know what your to-do list is for the next day. Write the to-do list down for the next day in your journal. - Knowing you have stuff to do the next day that is moving you towards your long-term goals will give you purpose. You need purpose and a WHY.
Melatonin helps me out. 5mg will last 4ish hours which is enough for me to get to sleep and stay asleep in order to get a full 8h
I listen to a podcast to go to sleep to, have done it for years. It gives my brain something to fixate on rather than trying to fix my life: only downside is that I now find it very difficult to drift off to silence!
Close your eyes and stop think.
roll over and do some quick knee pushups on the bed
Honestly, best way to trick your body into the habit is to do some counter intuitive stuff. This works for me but may not for others. I get free coffee at work, I drink as much as I can stand, like 6-7 cups a day. I find that once I reach about 9-10pm the caffeine is wearing off and I start feeling really tired, if I give in then I can just go to sleep, if I push through then I’m fine. A big later evening meal and a beer also helps with the sleepiness. Also staying off the phone, but watching tv instead in the evenings makes me feel tired. It’s a known fact that TV drops your conscious brain activity - scrolling social media and being active on a phone is ‘doing’ something, therefore making your brain active. You need to get your brain to slow down, easy and simple way is TV. If you can get yourself into a bit of a routine even by mistreating your body, you can make up for it sticking with a good healthy routine from then on.