I have a few bad habits such as over analysis and staying up too late that are very hard to overcome. I actively try to make myself take action or go to bed on time, but ultimately, I find that I derail myself by not being able to fall asleep or drifting into analytic thought when I am not focused. I am curious what other people have done successfully to obtain focus in eliminating these bad habits? Please share if you have good ideas or references.
We have the same bad habit of sleeping too late and just like you, even I would lay down in my bed earlier, I could not really fall asleep. I try to do some exercises or stretches before going to sleep to help me fall asleep faster. I also try to at least to sleep a little earlier just like if I used to sleep at 2AM, I will try to sleep at 1:30AM until I could sleep much earlier for the next days.
One way to help you fall asleep earlier, is to push your bedtime up 10 to 15 minutes earlier for a few days or a week. Keep doing that until you are getting into bed and falling asleep at the time you want. Do not nap during the day. I have found classical music lightly playing helps me sleep. Some people like total silence.
I am bad for napping during the day. I find that sometimes, I can't think straight at all but after a 30 minute nap that I am good to go for hours and that is a part of the problem. I just don't shut off until much later and then I want to sleep more in the morning because the 30 minutes really didn't make up for the 1 or 2 hours later that I went to bed. I hate to give up the nap but I probably have to do so.
Our bodies and mind like structure, but our creative mind does not. Also, maintaining positive reasons for personal behaviour helps reinforce that idea and make supporting action more likely. Maintaining a structured sleeping pattern for the most part helps provide good health for the body and the mind. Getting to bed at a similar time and sleeping for 8 hours, give or take 30 minutes, has statistically been shown to be the most beneficial - I like to operate at my best, most of the time. Some tricks I use to sleep regularly include; Having some structure in my day with time allocated for unstructured activities and thinking. If a want to sleep earlier I force myself to get up early so that I am tired earlier the next night. I do not eat or drink within the last 2-3 hours before lying down as that stimulates the mind with blood sugar. I strengthen my back with 2 minute passive exercises as spasms keep me awake. I like to switch off and perform 30 mins of relaxation meditation before bed, and/or allow myself to be bored. I park my active mind by writing down topic ideas and coming back to it in the morning so I'm not thinking about it all night.
Here is what I do. I downloaded an app that I use on my iphone. The app helps you to determine whether or not you have met your goals everyday. I just write 5 goals in there and then before I go to bed every night I check mark the goal if i completed it, or leave it empty if I didn't. If i didn't complete a goal I then take a quarter and put it into a box that I giveaway at the end of the month. You don't need an app to do this as you can use a piece of paper, but you must be honest with yourself.
I think you are never alone with this problem. People who are now hooked online and who are also fond of analyzing things may have the problem of sticking to their sleeping schedule and shutting off their mind to take some rest. I am also into this same situation. There are really many times that it would took me at least two hours before my mind would rest from thinking especially if I am excited with a certain idea. Actually, this is good for extracting ideas and creativity but bad for overall health because we also need to sleep and get rejuvenated. What I did was to talk to myself to stick to the fixed hours when I really need to close my PC and head to bed. Slowly then, my body and mind started to follow my command. Maybe it is a matter of habit which without you being fully aware has already become ingrained unconsciously. Always be aware of your schedule and command your body and mind to follow the right things to do.
Realize, you are either motivated by mood, or you are motivated by vision. One leads to life, the other to death--your choice.
I'm not sure what you're asking for here: general ideas for giving up bad habits, specific ideas for getting to sleep or something else entirely. For bad habits, the best tool I've found is to stop calling them bad habits. They're just habits, though they're ones you want to change. Rather than focussing on "how to stop bad habits", try concentrating on "how to instil good habits": for example, I have a (bad) habit of getting involved in stuff just before bedtime, which means I studiously ignore the fact that it's after 1am when I finally hit the pillow. Instead of telling myself "stop going to bed late!", I try to convince myself that it'll be much better to do whatever-it-is tomorrow, when I'm fresh and awake. Jot it down on a piece of paper. That way I can get a little more good sleep, I can lie down and relax a bit earlier, I can get up a bit earlier and enjoy the morning air and sunlight. Those are all good things that I can smile about and feel positive about, instead of beating myself up and inflicting a strict "Go to bed NOW!" rule on myself. This is also the method I used back in November to stop smoking. Instead of forbidding myself cigarettes (which is rather difficult when you live with a smoker and do all the shopping, so have to buy them for your other half!), I thought about the things I could ALLOW myself with the extra money, extra health, better sense of taste and smell and so on. I went for walks along the beach. I bought myself little treats (fish and chips, mmm!). I played with the cat and laughed. I stood in the garden after dark and looked at the stars, breathing fresh, sea air. I smelt the flowers in my neighbours' gardens as I walked past. All positive things instead of grinding myself down with duty and obligation - "thou shalt not light up!" - and it worked a lot better for me. (Now 4-5 months without smoking.) As for getting to sleep, the best method I've found to quell the thoughts is an extremely simple one: even breathing. Not deep, not shallow, just even. Much like meditation techniques, concentrate on your breathing and count them in and out. Not only does this focus the mind but even breathing actually feeds more carbon dioxide to your muscles, so your body will go to sleep quicker - and take your thoughts with it. Simple. Hope it helps.
I think it's the mentality of it. If you approach it as a bad habit you're trying to break, it's going to feel like an uphill battle. I prefer to look at it as a good habit I'm trying to create. That makes me feel a lot better about it because it's positive action. It doesn't feel like I'm struggling with myself, it feels like I'm creating something good. For instance, if I was really bad about staying on top of the laundry, I could decide to break the bad habit by washing a load every day. If I see it as breaking the bad habit, it will look like a challenge that I'm trying to overcome. If I decide that I want to create a good habit by doing laundry every day, it will feel like an accomplishment every time that I do it because I'm not allowing the bad habit into the way I view it. I hope that makes sense... It does to me, but it's hard to translate these things from feelings to words sometimes.
