Backstory
Having relearned the lesson that sleep deprivation makes my life miserable, I was determined to stick with better sleep habits over my sophomore year. I remember bolding this line on my goals sheet: Bedtime every week night at 11pm, wake up at 8am.
I taped a white sheet of paper to my dorm wall to track my progress over the coming months. Every night before I got into bed, I would write the time. Every morning when I woke up, I would write the time.
After about a month of logging, I looked back to see how I was doing. In over thirty days, only twice had I made it to bed 11pm or earlier. My average was close to 1am. Talk about failure. At first glance, the sheet would make it seem like my life was full of nonstop fun.
Reality, however, would beg to differ. I was too tired to work efficiently, so I was spending more hours in the library. I found myself cramming for school and missing out on social events. I was less attentive in conversations. More importantly, my mentality was fading fast from sleep deprivation and academic anxiety.
It might have felt like I was doing more. After all, I was spending more hours awake. But the reality was that my efficiency was down, and I was enjoying life less than ever.
Something needed to change.
The Problem
Every night I would go to bed at around 1am. When the alarm ringed at 8am, my body would scream for help. Naturally, I would reset the alarm for 9 or 10am if there was nothing urgent in the schedule ahead. When I woke up again I would feel ready to attack the day.
When night fell, however, an issue would arise: I was not tired! If I woke up at 10am and got in bed at 11pm, that would be only 13 waking hours. My body cannot do that. So, as expected, I would find myself going to bed later than 11pm the next day. As expected, I would sleep in later the next day to compensate.
A brutal cycle formed: if I went to bed late on one day, it would likely affect my bedtime all of the following days.
The 8 AM Rule
In order to mitigate this problem, I designed what I like to call the 8am rule: no matter what time I went to bed, I would wake up at 8am or earlier on weekdays.
This rule destroys the brutal cycle. If I stayed up until 3am eating griffadillas (my dorm restaurant) and playing Mariokart with my friends, I would be tired all day on Tuesday after an 8am wakeup. When 11pm rolled around, my body would be begging for sleep.
Without the 8am rule, it took discipline to get to bed on time. At night, my body would want to be awake, even if I knew that I should be in bed. With the 8am rule, I would actually crave the sleep at night. I no longer had to battle myself—my “should” self and “want” self actually desired the same thing.
After about a month of the rule, I naturally wanted to go to sleep by my selected hour. Because my mind knew that I was not going to give myself the sleep-in option, I dreaded the miserable days that sprout from the late nights.
Alarm Placement
Obviously, I still needed discipline waking up. But getting out of bed was easier for me than forcing myself to sleep when I was not tired and when I knew there were better things to do than stare at my ceiling.
I had a lofted bed, so I decided that I would place my alarm on the desk below me at night. When it rang, I would rush out of bed like lightning to avoid waking up Justin, my poor roommate.
I decided to be transparent with Justin about what I was doing. He said that he thought it was smart. After all, one 10 second ring is better for a roommate than 15 snoozed alarms anyway. If you do not have a lofted bed, place your alarm on the far outlet of the room when you sleep. It’s the same concept.
This phone placement also has the benefit of keeping me off of my phone at night. It saved me from unnecessary temptations, social media anxiety, and wasted time before bed, and it got me up quick in the morning.
Conclusion
You deserve to have the freedom to stay up some nights and have fun. You also deserve the freedom that comes from energized, efficient work. You cannot have either in its most extreme form.
The 8am rule helps you achieve a better balance.