3 Methods I Used to Earn My 8 Hours of Sleep

The number one rule I learned is don’t resist temptation since it won’t last long. Find a sustainable way instead.

Up until mid-2023, I was sleeping 5 hours per night on average. Here, I want to show my appreciation and gratitude for the fact that I do not have a sleep disorder. This is because I know some other folks who suffer from insomnia have other substantial challenges they need to overcome in comparison to mine.

The reason that kept me up late was that I was continuously scrolling through my phone to read online novels and manga and to interact on social media platforms.

I either stayed up very late or woke up early to spend half of my day in bed timelessly. This was especially true when I quarantined during my college years since, besides online classes, I had nothing to do (or at least, I did not engage myself in doing anything else).

And you are reading the above statement right: I also woke up early! Not by choice. It’s my circadian clock that naturally wakes me up around 7 am.

To show you some extreme instances, there were times I slept until around 2 am just because I couldn’t stop myself from looking at my phone. Due to the same reason, there were times my eyes opened at 6 am, but I did not get out of bed until 2 pm.

My lifestyle at the time was very toxic. At least, I am now experiencing numerous regrets for not being productive (as I wish I could have been) while still engaged in short-term gratification when the moments came.

Fortunately, I came across one book, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear¹, which exposed me to methodologies to alter my habit. These helped me earn my 8 hours of sleep back.

Clear offers his readers four pillars of formulating habits:

1) Make it obvious

2) Make it attractive

3) Make it easy

4) Make it satisfying

To break habits, you therefore need to reverse the above four pillars in these ways:

1) Make it invisible

2) Make it unattractive

3) Make it difficult

4) Make it unsatisfying

Easier said than done. How have I leveraged Clear’s ideas into my day-to-day routines in ways that work for me?

I have tried putting my phone in another room (or within a walkable distance from my bed) to “make it invisible.” I have tried convincing myself that scrolling through my phone is meaningless to my time to “make it unattractive.” I have even tried setting my wanted sleep schedule in the Health app to remind me it’s time to shut down my device 30 minutes before 11 pm. All of these strategies worked, but they didn’t last long.

After I tested out multiple rounds of trial and error, I established three ways that helped the habit of falling asleep at 11 pm and getting out of bed around 7 am to last longer (by extending the methods I tried above). Each of these three ways are explained below.

1. Don’t Resist Temptation

We often think that breaking bad habits requires us to resist temptation. At least, I initially attempted to break my habit of scrolling through my phone by “hiding” the phone and putting it out of sight.

However, this strategy was not successful for long in helping me sleep or stopping me from waking up early since I knew where I had hidden it, and resisting the temptation to get my phone is just too difficult to implement daily.

Keeping this observation in mind, I leveraged my habit tracker to visualize what I did not do before bed. Whenever I did not touch my phone (and my other devices) 30 minutes before 11 pm, I would record it on my habit tracker the morning after. Then, I would write it in my morning journal to celebrate this small win by indicating, “I only need that decisive moment to keep my streak alive. I can do it!”

I wouldn’t say I’m perfect at getting precisely 8 hours of sleep daily, but it did move me away from seeing the midnight sky 90% of the time. Indeed, my morning routine of filling my habit tracker and celebrating my wins in my journal encourages me to get out of bed because I am excited to document my accomplishments. I’m no longer resisting temptation.

Instead, I am moving toward doing something else that brings greater joy.

2. The Fresh Start Effect

As I mentioned above, when I declared my wins in my morning journal, I claimed the action of not doing something as a “streak.” The idea here is to gamify the habit of not doing. Similar to many games that allow you to have several attempts after you fail (or you “die”), I also set up “three lives” if I broke my streak for whatever reason.

When I’m engaged in the streak, if there are one or two days when I look at my devices 30 minutes before 11 pm, I let it go and continue as if I have not interrupted it. The key is to give myself a chance to “continue the game” with minimal discouragement. If I broke the streak, I would visualize my habit tracker to start the count again to generate a “fresh start” illusion to myself, which often motivated me to go back to the “challenge.”

3. Habit Reversal Training

Habit reversal training is where I can replace the “bad” habit with another habit that is less “detrimental.” I took time to analyze why I love scrolling through my phone, and I figured it’s because I love the plots and stories I see in online novels, manga, and social media platforms. With this “want” in mind, I used my imagination to think of stories I would want to see. Only this time, I “see” the stories through my mind, not my phone.

The reason why we do certain activities unconsciously is because we find it rewarding to do them. If we can find a substitute habit (one that is less disruptive to our lifestyle as per our expectations), we can change our current routine.

The key is not to go against our will but to find a sustainable solution to satisfy our wants.

Reference

¹ Clear, James. (2018). “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” Penguin: Avery.

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