Sleep schedule problem

I've been struggling with this too. A couple days ago I set my computer to automatically shut down at 9:30. So far it has been working and I've had an ideal sleep schedule.

 

Hey thats not vegan

 

im just messing around

 

Take a 1 hour walk in the evening and finish with a cold shower, this does magic for me. I always wake up at 6 or earlier without an alarm

 

A few things that seem to help me:

1, be sure you're exercising and lifting weights. Weightlifting, and especially doing a lot of compound movements, ie squats and deadlifts, will wear you out and help tax the central nervous system. When I get into a routine of a lot of squats, I sleep like a baby.

2, Take a cold shower before bed, almost like you're doing to kill an urge. I'll sometimes take a cold shower and let the cold water hit my back just bellow my neck and force myself to relax and let go. It's definitely an exercise in mindfulness because it could energize you which is the opposite of what you want, but letting the cold water hit your back and telling yourself to let go and relax will calm your mind and ease anxious, ruminating thoughts just before you lie down.

3, An obvious one: stay away from caffeine, and I'd go as far as fast-pasted music prior to going to bed. Again, the idea is to calm the brain just before bed.

4, Don't do anything except sleep or have sex (if that's where you're at in life/recovery) in bed. Your brain needs to associate it with just a place of relaxing and going to sleep. Don't look at your phone either. I don't even read in bed anymore because of that.

All this is just like applying the same principals we use for no PMO to a healthy sleep habbits; just hacking our brains and nervous system to get it to do what we want it to do, and this time it's fall asleep.