The Last 10 Minutes of your Day

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How much sleep did you get last night? If the answer is “not enough” you’re hardly alone. Studies show that almost half the people you’ll run into today are suffering from some level of sleep deprivation.

To perform at our best, our bodies require rest—plain and simple. On days when we flourish, the seed has almost always been planted the night before. Since most of us can’t sleep later in the morning than we currently do, the only option is to get to bed earlier. And yet we don’t.

So, how do you get to bed earlier and get more sleep?

Identify an exact time when you want to be in bed. Be specific. Think about when you need to get up in the morning and work backwards. Try to give yourself 8 hours, meaning that if you’d like to be up by 6:45am, aim to be under the covers no later than 10:45pm.

Next, do a nighttime audit of how you spend your time after work. For one or two evenings, don’t try to change anything—simply log everything that happens from the moment you arrive home until you go to bed. You may discover that instead of eliminating activities that you enjoy and are keeping you up late you can start doing them earlier by cutting back on something unproductive that’s eating up your time earlier on.

Create a pre-sleep ritual that helps you relax and look forward to going to bed. It’s useful to create an enjoyable routine; one that both entices you to wind down and enables you to go from a period of activity to a period of rest. The transition is vital. Being tired simply does not guarantee falling asleep quickly. First you need to feel relaxed. But what relaxes one person can exasperate another. Try taking 10 minutes before bed tonight to integrate one of the suggestions below.

Read something that makes you happy.
 
Lower the temperature.
 
Avoid blue light.
 
Create a spa-like environment.
 
Handwrite a note.
 
Meditate.
 
Take a quiet walk.

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