Keep Regular Sleeping and Wake Times

The main reason going to bed and waking at the same time each day works is because your body likes routine. However, it isn't always convenient to get to bed and rise at the same time every day of your life. After all, you want to party on the weekends.

There are many benefits from getting up at the same time each day, such as experiencing more contentment, less anxiety, and even feeling more financially in control, all from minding how and when you sleep.

To get these benefits, you’ll want to follow these tips to help keep your hours regular:

• Get Up – If you do stay up later than you planned, don’t try to make up the sleep by hitting the snooze button in the morning because it will then mess up your sleep. Instead, get up at your regular time, even if you go to bed late. Also, you’ll remove any chance of jet lag, or social jet lag, if you get up, even if you stayed up late.

• Plan Your Fun – If you end up staying up too late at night due to fun time with family, friends, or your spouse, try to plan this better for days when you have the next day off work or do the activities earlier in the day so you can make it to bed during your normal bedtime.

• Be Reasonable – If you are having trouble sticking to your plans, your plans are wrong for you. However, you have no choice but to plan your life around your needs, so if you work a particular job that requires you to work late, shift work, and so forth, you may need to plan around it or find a new profession if it’s not working for you.

To ensure that you stick to this:

• Join a morning exercise class – If you pay for an exercise class in the morning, you’re going to be more likely to get up. Plus, even if you went to bed late, if you get up and get moving, you’re going to wake up faster and be more productive even with less sleep as long as you don’t keep doing it.

• Set your alarm – Don’t rely on yourself to get up on the weekends if you stay up late. Instead, set your alarm to know what time it is, and make yourself get up. Then, even if you get up and just putter around the house on Sunday after a late Saturday night, you’ll avoid lagging tomorrow at work.

• Take a cold shower – If you’re super tired when you wake up, try getting in the shower without heat. You can make it “cold” or “not hot,” which will help you feel more alive. If you can go for a swim, that would be even better.

• Go to bed near the same time each night – Instead of napping to try to catch up on sleep, just try harder to get to bed near the same time each night to avoid any lag the next day. But remember, perfection is impossible, so having a holiday or occasional late nights is not a bad thing. If falling asleep isn’t happening for you, try to eliminate napping for at least 90 days as you get yourself on track.

If you’re still having issues falling asleep each night, consider seeking medical assistance from your doctor. Your doctor may have a sleep study performed at a sleep clinic to ensure that you don’t have medical problems preventing you from getting and staying asleep.

Sweet dreams.