The Art of A Sleep Schedule

The Art of A Sleep Schedule 😴

There were times at University where my sleep schedule became so poor I was basically nocturnal. Especially in the winter, this did not help my depression. I would often wake up in a panic when I realised I’d slept through all the light hours of the day (and all of my classes).

I tried to remedy this a few times by staying up all night and then going to bed at a reasonable time, but I’d either fall asleep midday or be so tired that I slept from 10pm - 2pm. I also found that if I fell asleep before 10pm, I was guaranteed to wake up at 3am and not be able to fall back asleep.

I realised that my body might just need a lot of rest at this time in my life. Mental illness can really take its toll and drain you of energy. Coming to terms with this allowed me to stop beating myself up for not waking up on time or for spending the majority of the week asleep. I had been putting so much pressure on myself that I was probably ending up even more tired. Once I realised it was me against the problem, instead of me against me, I started working towards a solution from a much more compassionate place.

The smart advice I should have followed was to stop partying as much, to definitely stop those nights where we didn’t get home til 6am and to get myself in a routine of being in bed by 10pm every night. I was 19 and in my rebellious phase, so unfortunately, that didn’t stick. What I did manage to do was focus my attention on making sure that I didn’t go out more than I did (3 nights out - 4 nights in was the deal I made with myself) so that my ‘normal’ state was not coming home between 3 and 6am.

With a lot of trial and error (and even more self compassion), I managed to find a few ways to get my sleeping pattern back on track. I am by no means a professional, but here’s how I did it:

Step 1: Make your ideal behaviour the most common

Think about a time-in-bed you can stick to. The idea is not to be idealistic, but realistic. If you want to be one of this people who’s in bed by 10pm, but you’re a night-owl by nature and have commitments that don’t end until 8-9pm most nights, you are unlikely to stick to 10pm. I settled on midnight. Find your time and make an agreement with yourself that you will be in bed, ready to sleep by a certain time every night (remember, you can make this earlier in the future, but make it easy to start with).

You want to do the same thing with your desired wake-up time. I had one 9am lecture each week that I decided was just not realistic for me to attend due to my circumstances, so I didn’t go. Instead, I set my alarms for 9am everyday. That was realistic and achievable for me, and therefore I continued to wake up at that time. Your in-bed-by and wake-up times should stay consistent throughout the week, so depending on how poor your sleep schedule, you may have to sacrifice a few things whilst you get it back on track.

Step 2: Make a realistic commitment to yourself

Now you have a realistic, achievable goal: write it down. “I, name, will be in bed and ready to sleep by ____. I, name, will wake up, refreshed and full of energy, at ____.”

Step 3: Make it unavoidable.

If, like me, you find yourself sleeping through alarms, you might need to get multiple. During the time I struggled most with this, I had 4. My amazon echo (who proved to not be sufficient on its own as I think I told it to turn off multiple times whilst not fully conscious), my general phone alarm, an app called ‘Loud Alarm’ (trust me, this will wake you up) and a separate alarm clock. Since Uni, I have traded in my standard alarm clock for a sunset alarm clock, which (for half an hour before the alarm is set) gradually gets lighter and louder until the time you have set it to wake you up for. My phone and alarm clock were across the room so I had to get out of bed to turn them off. I won’t lie to you, this was horrible, loud and getting up was really hard, but it worked!

Once you’re back in some kind of routine, you can begin to move things around to your ideal timings, but remember, you have to standardise before you optimise. In other words, don’t try to run before you can walk.

I’m now in bed by 9:30 every night & ready to face the world at 7am (most of the time), but I am in a much more mentally sound place than I was four years ago. Once your routine is developed, bring the timings back by a maximum of 20 minutes each day until you’ve reached your desired times. You’ll also find your body quickly gets you back on track when you’re thrown off a well-established routine, so you will be able to add a little more flexibility back into your life as well!