This week we conquer our sleep schedules. Late nights and endless scrolling, here we come.

If you are reading this, hopefully you are ready to ditch some bad habits and exchange them for a full night of restful sleep. If you are reading this and thinking, “I am not ready,” or “These are some great thoughts buttttt they won’t work for me,” I encourage you to keep reading anyway! Try starting small and picking one thing you are going to change by the end of this post.

The concept of sleeping seems so simple! You go to bed, sleep, wake up. But for some reason, humans tend to complicate it. Many people think they are to far gone to change anything. Too many late nights with The Office, Parks and Rec, and Gilmore Girls.

Recently I went through the struggle of adjusting my college sleep schedule to my “Doing School from home because of Corona” sleep schedule. Many were the nights of doing “nothing” until the wee hours of the morning. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch up on all the shows I meant to watch while I stressed about the schoolwork I still had to do. Oh, and the waking up late because really, who needs to do productive things before noon right?

I did. I do.

This past year has added many new opportunities and challenges to my plate, which I am super excited about. But having those responsibilities meant I had to learn to better manage my priorities and take care of my body to be able to perform well. So after realizing I was going to bed increasingly later and later and leaving my bed was getting harder and harder, I decided to take a few steps to change my habits that I believe anyone can do.

My better sleep journey was kick-started by a professor I had my first year of college. Shout out to Joy Fea!

One day we came into class and she handed us a sheet of paper with a ton of questions about our sleeping habits. For one week, we had to track, in-depth, how long we slept, how many times we woke up, how we felt throughout the day, etc. She didn’t give us many details on why we were doing this but the following week she told us to write down one personal goal that we wanted to change. Some people said to “Sleep 8 hours a night,” others said, “Go to bed before 4 am,”… There was a wide spectrum. So we repeated the process with our goal in mind, and shockingly, just being aware and working towards a goal significantly improved how I felt throughout the week.

Give this 2-week sleep challenge a try!

Here’s what you do. The first week track what you are currently doing. Don’t lie, be honest with yourself and try to do your best at filling it out as you go for best results. The second week, pick a goal, write it down, and repeat. Compare notes and see the results!

For the easiest and best experience, I would recommend downloading and filling it out in excel.

Regardless of if you decided to do this 2-week challenge, here are my tips for developing a better sleep schedule.

1. Write Down Your Ideal Sleep Habits
2. Put A Reminder(s) On Your Phone, Smart-watch, etc. When It’s Almost Time For Lights Out
3. Light A Candle and Dim The Lights To Start Relaxing
4. Have Lights In Your Room Set On A Timer To Turn Off At Your Ideal Time
5. Have A Time When You Stop Doing Work.
6. Turn Off Phone/Laptop/Tablet Before Bedtime
7. Put Things With Screens Across The Room Or In Different Room Entirely
8. Replace Endlessly Scrolling Through ______________ (fill in the blank) with
   • Reading
   • Journaling (learn how to start here!)
   • Prayer/Meditation
   • Stretching
   • Listening to music

Thanks for reading “How to Get A Healthy Sleep Schedule”. I hope you found these helpful and remember to get that FREE Sleep Habit Tracker! Happy sleeping!

Take care,

Rachel