Desperately Trying to Hack My Sleep Schedule

Image of a blue and purple nighttime sky, taken through the window of a plane while I was flying home from study abroad

Hello!

I have been tracking my sleep off and on since September 2018. I started off with a terrible and unsustainable sleep schedule. With some attention and effort, my sleep improved, but not by much. My goal for the semester was to get at least eight hours of sleep a night, and I did not meet that goal.

My first sleep chart. Colorful bars mark which hours I slept each night for a week. The times at which I woke up and went to sleep are entirely inconsistent. A Post-It note at the bottom of the page shows that I got an average of six hours and 47 minutes of sleep per night.

As readers of this blog know, I spent last semester studying abroad in Paris, France. Gretchen Rubin talks about how major lifestyle changes can be a catalyst for habit formation. With this knowledge in mind, I became determined to harness my new environment to fix my sleep schedule.

And, for the most part, I was successful! My sleep schedule became relatively stable, my quality of sleep improved, and my nightly hours of sleep increased.

I feel unqualified to provide any sort of substantive advice on this topic. Instead, I am sharing a list of methods I tried, how they worked for me, and whether I would recommend them.

Unsuccessful Strategies

Using a Dimmer Light Source Before Bedtime

This strategy did little to improve my thoroughly wrecked sleep schedule. I would turn off my room's light, plug in my Himalayan salt lamp, and find myself still puttering around my room long past my bedtime. This method might work better for people who already have a consistent sleep schedule and who simply want to level up their sleep.

Would I recommend it? Not for people looking to rebuild their sleep schedule from scratch.

Writing Ideas That Were Keeping Me Awake in a Notebook By My Bed

This suggestion came from an actual mental health professional, but it definitely didn't work for me. Once I had interrupted my sleep attempts to write an idea down, my brain decided that it was time to come up with lots of new thoughts and ideas.

Would I recommend it? No.

Keeping an Audio Diary

I thought journaling in bright light as part of my evening routine was interrupting my sleep cycle. An audio diary was not an improvement. It forced me to be attached to my phone, Insomnia Source Extraordinaire, and talking to an inanimate object tended to lead me towards a mental breakdown.

Would I recommend it? As a method of journaling, sure, but not as a way to get to sleep.

Semi-Successful Strategies

Tracking My Sleep

I started off with manually charting my sleep, which turned out to be tedious and time-consuming. Now, I use the Sleep Cycle app. This app wakes me up within a half hour window each morning, and it uses the microphone in my phone to track my movements and sleep cycle. Initially, I valued the many charts and graphs that I could use to track my sleep over time. These days, I am the most enthusiastic about tracking my nightly sleep quality percentage and using my Premium membership to listen to clips of myself snoring.

Screenshot of last night's sleep in the Sleep Cycle app. The circle in the upper left-hand corner shows that I had 93% sleep quality last night. The app notes that I spent 8 hours and 51 minutes in bed. The graph at the bottom of the screenshot shows my sleep cycle last night, as determined by tracking my movements through my phone's microphone.

A second screenshot of last night's sleep in the Sleep Cycle app. The app notes that I went to bed at 22:42 (10:42 PM) and woke up at 7:33 AM. I snored for 0 minutes, and the temperature outside was 87 degrees Fahrenheit.

Would I recommend it? Yes! But don't expect it to solve your sleep issues all on its own.

Having a Bedtime Routine

When my sleep schedule was absolute garbage, I often wouldn't realize that it was time for bed until fifteen minutes before I was supposed to be asleep. At that time, maintaining a nightly ritual mostly served to push back my sleep schedule further. Now that I have a more consistent sleep schedule, my nightly ritual forces me to put my devices away and rest before going to sleep.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but only if you can make yourself start it on time.

Successful Strategies

Forcing Myself Turn Off the Lights at My Bedtime, Regardless of Circumstances

Despite its fundamental simplicity and seeming obviousness, this technique has worked surprisingly well for me. It has also caused me to switch from nighttime showers to morning showers, and to start brushing my teeth earlier in the evening to avoid unintentionally foregoing good dental hygiene.

Would I recommend it? Yes, especially if your sleep schedule seems irreparable.

Waking Up at the Same Time Each Morning

This method was a pain in the neck to implement at Soka, but it was essentially forced upon me on study abroad. If you are used to staying up late, expect to be sleep-deprived at first when using this strategy. However, it ultimately got my sleep schedule in check, and was definitely worth it. 

Would I recommend it? Yes! Painful, but necessary.

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There are many other strategies that I attempted with varying degrees of success, but--alas--I do not possess an infinite amount of time and energy to expend on this blog post. Do you sleep well? Have you ever tried to hack your sleep schedule? Let me know!

Best wishes,

Lydia