Reasons you’re staying up too late and how to quit doing them

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I’m going to take a wild guess here and presume you didn’t get as much sleep as you had wished for last night. If you have extraordinary willpower, you’re just like the rest of us who spend the night surfing the internet, watching so many episodes of Shows, and getting really salty with you when you know you were meant to be in bed hours earlier.

Unless you’re like me, you often wake up in the morning and want to lie in bed for another 30 minutes and think, ‘That’s it, I’m going to bed at 9 p.m. tonight.’

Well, nine o’clock rolls around, and yet you Always watch Grey’s Anatomy, focus on a blog post, and scroll through Instagram. Going to bed at a respectable hour is not easy.

But I found there are some common causes that hold us too late, and you’ve most likely heard all of them, and possibly even rotated between them.

I’ve described each situation with some possible remedies, so pick the one sounds the most like you and you’ll be on your way to a glorious night’s sleep!

(I know there are many other reasons you might also have trouble sleeping e.g. you’re emotional, you’re in a new place, it’s noisy, etc., but I figured those are situational reasons, so I’m going to focus on the internal reasons.)

Reason one: your distracted

The problem

How many times did you think, ‘Just one more episode’ while you were watching Netflix? Yeah, that happens to me with every show I watch. Often I find a new YouTube page, and I want to replay every single video I’ve posted. But perhaps I might be scrolling aimlessly throughout the internet and forget how I ever got there.

Solution #1

The easiest way to prevent those circumstances is to set an alarm that alerts you to turn off all devices. I mean, when was the last time you were bothered by anything other than using electronics?Perhaps never before. Set it for 30 minutes to an hour before you intend to go to bed, so you’ve got time to calm down in advance. Just set your alarm right now. Go on, I’ll wait 😉 Just remember that all of those episodes, videos, and posts will still be there tomorrow (most likely) and you won’t be missing out on anything.

Solution #2

Try a week to leave the gadgets out of your bedroom to see how much easier it is to get to bed. Only use a standard alarm clock instead of an iPhone alarm.

Solution #3
If your alarm goes off and you find yourself avoiding it, use the Independence Diversion Blocker. At the end of the day, it comes down to willpower and knowing that you’re going to get a way better out of a good night’s sleep than you’re going to get out of all the windows that you’ve opened on your screen.

Reason two: you’re anxious, stressed, or worried

The problem

You’ve got so many ideas to run through your brain. Maybe you’ve got something unpleasant coming up, or maybe something wasn’t going as you had expected, so you keep worrying about what you should have done better. We try to divert ourselves a lot of times (see Stage One above) to make time travel faster, but end up thinking even more about ourselves.

Solution #1 
Writing all your feelings down on a sheet of paper so they don’t swirl around in your mind. If you don’t let them out, they’re all going to collect and make it impossible to fall asleep. Making a brain-dump part of your bedtime routine to a journal that you carry in your bed.
Solution #2 
Give yourself time to breathe in front of your bunk, so your head won’t touch the pillow full of these emotions. Aside from the normal reading of a book choice, a bath is amazingly soothing if you feel especially nervous – just don’t bring any devices in there to disturb you (or accidentally drop in the tub). If you’re one of those people who can’t sit down for five minutes, try a little bedtime yoga instead. Meditation is indeed a wonderful tool to give your head a touch of calm and quiet before bedtime. Try using Headspace or Calm to focus your breath for 10 minutes.

Solution #3

If you’re worried over things that you have control over and actually need action on your part (apologizing to a friend, talking to your manager about an extension), write down 3 action steps that you will take the next day. If it’s something you’re no longer in charge over (something that happened a long time ago, an embarrassing moment), the best thing you can do is acknowledge that it’s happened and that you’ve absorbed something through practice. Rely on the moment, and that’s what we’ve ever been promised to have.

Reason three: you’re inspired or have deadline

The problem 

You’ve come up with this epic concept for a new blog post or project, and you don’t want to forget any plans, so you’re already working in the middle of the night.
But maybe you’re rushing to reach the deadline, but you need to keep going before it’s over.

Solution #1 

Start making an after-work to-do list. Most of us work 9-5 or are full time college students and have a list of what we need to do in 8 hours, but what about the things we still need to do at home afterwards? Before you quit work, bring together a list of 3-5 items that need to be done before you go to bed. You may be working on a blog post (set yourself a time limit), vacuuming, and packing your lunch for the next day. You’re not going to keep pushing your bedtime back this direction.

Solution #2

Give yourself 30 minutes (set an alarm) to get as much done as you can, then write down what you accomplished and where you stopped. Then write 3 next-steps to continue the project for tomorrow. Sometimes you just have to give it a rest and force yourself to stop working.

Solution #3

If this doesn’t happen very much, this is one of the things you do not want to fight. After all, it’s not every day that you find yourself so driven that you can’t stop working. Just make sure you write down all your thoughts when they come to you, rather than convincing yourself that you will recall them (you won’t).

The #1 Thing That’ll Get You More Sleep

Creating a bedtime routine and sticking to it is definitely a key point. I see so many blog posts and videos about morning routines, but rarely do I see them about night routines. I think that as a culture we’ve come to feel that going to bed early is for grandmas and sleeping late is what the hip kids are doing. And if that’s your thing, you’re going to do it. But I really enjoy a full night’s sleep, and if that means going to bed at 9:30 p.m., that’s what I’m going to do.

One way to stop being too late is to stick to the night schedule. You already do have a handful of things that you do every single night on the autopilot, but I’m sure you have things that you wish you had time to do. That’s why I put together this printable night routine so that you can come up with your perfect routine!
There’s room for you to list up to 7 steps you want to include in your routine. For example, here’s what my ideal routine would look like:
  1. Go for a walk
  2. Work on my blog for an hour
  3. Watch a few episodes of  a TV show
  4. Have a lil’ snack and some tea
  5. Write tomorrow’s to-do list
  6. Meditate for 10 minutes
  7. Read for 30 minutes

Next, write down your ideal bedtime (and make sure you set your alarm to turn off electronics 30 minutes to an hour before). There are also boxes at the bottom of the worksheet with the days of the week for you to check off every time you complete your ideal routine!

Which type of person are you at night? What keeps you up?

Comment below if any of these tips helped you.

 

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