I Need to Sleep Earlier, So I am Starting a Club
Starting 1030 Club to get myself to bed by 10:30pm
I don't go to bed early enough.
After putting the kids to bed, I am exhausted. A long day of work, child-care, house work, I am beat and a quick sitting down on the sofa often turns into an evening nap. The problem with having a nap that late is that I'd wake up 30 minutes later with a bit mroe energy, and don't go to bed until well after midnight.
It also doesn't help that until the kids are asleep, I don't get any time for myself, or any time with my wife And that gives even stronger reason to prolong the precious evening time I have. The end result? I put off going to bed.
And going to bed late means I have less energy the next day. I get even more tired by the time the kids are in bed. I feel less energised to make good use of my personal time. And I go to bed, late yet again.
It's a vicious cycle that I am having a terrible time getting out of.
I tried reminding myself to go to bed by 10:30pm. I set daily calendar events with alerts, I tried setting alarms, I tried deleting apps that distract me in the evenings, I tried logging my bedtime to keep a daily streak...etc.
Nothing worked! Well, almost nothing. A little more than a year ago, an idea popped into my head to use peer pressure to keep myself accountable. I imagined myself being part of a club, where to keep my membership in the club, I need to go to bed by 10:30pm.
Surprisingly it worked when I first tried it! The fear of losing access to this imaginary club was enough to force me to adhere to its rule - the only one rule that I made up.
I started going to bed by 10:30pm day after day. Better than anything else, the thought of no longer being part of this club forced me to go to bed early.
Fear, the fear of loss, combined with social pressure, can be very powerful.
However after a couple of months, it stopped working. I gradually forgot about this club that I made up in my head. Life got chaotic as it always does, and this simple idea, well simply faded away.
I got back to my old habit of going to bed after midnight, and it's made me tired, short-tempered, and uncreative yet again.
I didn't go to bed until 11:35pm last night and I woke up being quite annoying with myself again with my late bed time. That's why I am going to try my club idea one more time. But this time, I am going to do it in public — having this thing in public should stop it from fading away so quickly. I am going to make it into an actual club.
- 1030 Club: https://discord.gg/3EhZYMx4mH
It's going to be on Discord (link above). The rules are simple:
You are an active member of the club if you go to bed by 10:30pm (or a time you set for yourself) the night before
If you fail to go to bed by that time 3 nights in a roll (3 strikes), you are out of the club and no longer an active member. You cannot hangout in 🛋-member-lounge channel, and should go to 🛟-recovering-room channel
When you are in recover, if you go to bed early 3 nights in a roll, you are back in the club
This is entirely self-governed and I am hoping this will once again help me with my sleep habit. Feel free to join me if you want to use this to help you go to bed earlier too. I am starting the club today already with a strike from last night — wish me luck!