Morpheus and the Kingdom of Dreaming (general advice on how to sleep well)

​

​
Waking up in the morning, when I would still like to sleep for a while. I have a strange relationship with my sleep, chasing it when I can't sleep enough, but ignoring it when I can sleep as much as I want. Ideally, I should go at 10 PM, and wake up somewhere around 8 AM, and those ten hours of sleep are more than enough. But, when I don't need to be anywhere, I find myself constantly pushing my sleeping time up to 11 PM, then midnight, and even 1 or 2 AM in the morning sometimes.

I know the theory, I know what to do, like probably everybody else. Sleeping is one of the basic healthy life pillars, together with eating, drinking, and exercise. As all that you need to do to be healthy and live longer is, as a basic strategy, to sleep 7-9 hours, eat healthily, drink (only) 1.5-2 liters of water, and exercise 3 times a week at least 15 minutes of intense training. Coming back to sleep, though, the rules to achieve better sleep are quite straightforward. Let me write them down for you:

• The standard rising time is 6 AM.
• The bed is only for sleeping, no other activities such as eating in the bed or playing games or watching tv.
• Get out of bed when you cannot sleep.
• Do not worry or problem-solve in bed.
• Avoid daytime napping if you have difficulties sleeping at night.
• Avoid excessive time in bed.
• No caffeine after midday (12.00).
• The bedroom needs to be dark, quiet, and cool.
• No exercise and heavy meals less than 2 hours before going to sleep.
• No nesting behaviors.
• No clockwatching.
• No electronics in the bedroom.

Now, most of the suggestions are self-explanatory, and I am sure that you can search online to find more about them, but circling back to the initial question, why we do not follow common sense, even when we have all the answers to our questions. This is the problem that I need to solve (obviously not in the late evening - haha). It seems that a way to do this correctly, at least for me, is to make a conscious choice to act in the right way, every day, and to measure this (ticking a box).

So, here I start to do quarter years plans, and follow them, in order to solve the most urgent issues. I read recently a very good book, 'The 12 weeks year' which I started to use as an inspiration and schedule material, and I must admit, most of the weeks, pushing my luck, I reach over 80% of my objectives (a few times even over 90%, but that is a lot of work and dedication).

What are your strategies to improve yourself and solve the problems that tend to appear in your life?

​

Kind regards,
George