Hi again :)
A bit of context
For a while now, my sleep schedule has been completely fucked.
I'd stay up way too late, sleep through my morning alarm, wake up late for work, and then be unhappy with myself as I was wondering why I had no time to do anything in the day. Evenings were not productive, and waking up felt like a chore every day, even during the weekends where I'd already lost half the day when I woke up.
My entire life revolved around this sleep schedule, which revolved around basically nothing except me having a hard time waking up every morning and delaying my bedtime every night.
Then, on the evening of September 8th, I happened to find (and watch!) this random YouTube video:
And, for some reason, this was exactly the thing I needed. I've been thinking about fixing my sleep schedule for a bit already, but I never had any actual impulse to do it. Going to sleep late had become my actual schedule and, telling myself that I would fix this "eventually", I never really did.
Watching this video, I thought of 3 things:
- If I wake up early, I'm not pressed by time in the morning and can maybe even do some actual things.
- If I don't go to sleep that late, I might be able to not be tired when I wake up.
- If I go to the gym in the morning, I am always able to do stuff in the evening, and I don't end up coming home at 10pm and eating that late.
This video wasn't magical, and I didn't really learn anything. But it gave me the impulse I needed to do the switch now, and not wait until I "eventually" fixed my schedule later.
So, what actually changed?
I'm basically trying to rebuild my daily schedule around waking up early instead of staying up late.
I just want my days to feel like actual days again.
Wake up in the morning, have breakfast, work on my projects, go outside, do whatever I need to do, and then go to sleep at a reasonable time.
That's quite simple actually; the only hard thing is sticking to it.
For now, it's been a week that I've been following this rhythm, and it's been fine so far. We'll see how it goes.
How it felt
Here is how I felt some of those days. I might update that later.
- Day 0: Went to sleep at 23:00. Just watched the video. Felt great.
- Day 1: Waking up was not that hard actually. I had a big day at work so I didn't have the time to fall asleep as I was always doing something. With a work event in the evening, I also went to sleep at 23:00.
- Day 2: Lighter day today. Waking up was the same as the day before; not too hard. It's funny how your body unstiffens during the day, and going to the gym in the morning is definitely a strange experience for me. At least, there's no one there! Also went to sleep at 23:00 as I had something to do in the evening.
- Day 3: I actually woke up by myself before my alarm! That was quite a hassle because that means I didn't sleep the full night, and I sadly couldn't go back to sleep for some reason. At least, this must mean that my body is adapting to the new rhythm and trying to wake up at the correct time. No workout this morning allowed me to write this article, actually :)
- Day 4: First weekend day! Thing is, that doesn't really change anything. Woke up at 5:30, like "usual". My family was a bit puzzled with this sudden change but everything was alright.
- Day 7: This was a rest day, but I still woke up early. TO be honest, I didn't even need the alarm today, I woke up by myself at around 5:00 and waited a bit to get up. It looks like my brain and body are adapting to the new routine so that's cool.
- Day 9: One of the most tiring days. For some reason I was really tired this morning. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy about this experiment. I believe I can continue with this routine, so I'll see where that takes me.
Impulse and procrastination
I find it funny how my brain works. As I was told by a colleague, I'm kind of like a dam. It's either 100% in or 100% out, no in between.
That kinda means I will often just not do or fix anything that's going on, and procrastinate as much as possible on everything. But I just need the right impulse: I am usually okay with discipline; I just lack motivation to start. I knew for months (years, even) that I needed to do something, but I never brought myself to do anything. And all it took was a single 10min video...
In any case, the real challenge will be to stick to this for a month, and then continue. I read that habits take 2-3 months to develop, so we'll see where I am by the end of 2026.