I’ve recently been working on trying to improve my sleep habits and routines in an ongoing effort to beat my insomnia into submission. I know there’s a few MEWbs who are relatively early risers and am curious to hear about their evening, sleep, and morning routines and habits.
Assuming it’s an average working weekday:
What’s your general late afternoon and into the evening routine? Exercise, shower/bath, read, TV, etc.?
What time do you finish working and commuting and are at home?
What time are you having dinner?
When are you going to bed?
Do you use any sleep aids - music, white noise, drugs, etc.?
What’s the rest of your household like at the time? Are they also early to bed, early risers?
How long does it take you to fall asleep once you are in bed?
How much sleep do you get compared to how much time you are in bed for?
What time do you wake up?
What’s your regular morning routine like?
Any differences in your bed and wake times and your routine on the weekend?
That sort of thing. Also curious to see what bed and wake times MEWs have in general, even if you aren’t a particularly early riser.
I work from home so I am able to very precisely control my routine. Exercise sessions are all the same, calanetics and walking for 15 minutes.
Wake at 4am, start work immediately.
Breakfast at 5
Exercise session 1 at 6 and family members wake up and get ready to leave, they leave before 7
Exercise session 2 at 8
Snack 1 at 9
Exercise session 3 at 11
Nap for an hour at 12
Lunch at 13:00
Exercise session 3 at 14:00
Snack 2 at 15:00
Supper at 18:00 after which I eat nothing until the next morning
I get in bed at 21:30 and read until 22:00
It takes me 5 minutes to fall asleep, with the lights on and my wife watching series right next to me on her laptop, sound on.
Weekends the same routine, just family time and games instead of work
My sleep patterns are quite random and unfortunately most often than not I struggle to sleep. I have gone to sleep at 9:00 PM and woken up at 13:00 PM the next day, then on the opposite spectrum, I have gone to sleep at 01:00 AM and woken up fine at 9:00 AM.
I tend to go to bed on average at 00:00, but I struggle to fall asleep it can easily take about 1-2 hours after getting to bed for me to finally fall asleep, and come the morning I have this horrible thing where I wake up at 6:00 or 7:00 AM then go back to sleep, only to wake up every hour after that until eventually it is time to get up.
What’s your general late afternoon and into the evening routine? Exercise, shower/bath, read, TV, etc.?
Gym after work. Then supper then gaming/chess. Then if there’s time I’ll watch a tv show or some Youtube before bed.
What time do you finish working and commuting and are at home?
I finish at 4pm and I work from home.
What time are you having dinner?
Around 6pm.
When are you going to bed?
I go to sleep every night at 10pm
Do you use any sleep aids - music, white noise, drugs, etc.?
Yes, I sleep with a one of those sleepbands and have been using the same song/white noise thing for many years now. It plays on repeat right throughout the night.
What’s the rest of your household like at the time? Are they also early to bed, early risers?
My wife got used to it haha. She still struggles to get up early.
How long does it take you to fall asleep once you are in bed?
Couple of minutes
How much sleep do you get compared to how much time you are in bed for?
Fitbit says not as much as I would think. Overall I sleep quite well.
What time do you wake up?
5:40am
What’s your regular morning routine like?
Make some coffee then I go sit in front of the chessboard and work through books. If done early then I go sit in front of the pc like now. Shower at 7:30 for work at 8.
Any differences in your bed and wake times and your routine on the weekend?
I try to keep it the same.
What’s your general late afternoon and into the evening routine? Exercise, shower/bath, read, TV, etc.? **3 days a week weather permitting walk 3kms with the doggos. Have dinner between 6:30 and 7pm. Shower and bath between 8 and 9 pm or after the walk, watch some tv till 10pm. Get into bed and hope I fall asleep (lately I am falling asleep easier than usual. **
What time do you finish working and commuting and are at home? I leave the office between 3:30 and 4pm, get home about 16:30 - 17:00 and finish off work at 17:30. Commute to work - anything between an hour and 2 hours, and going home between 50mins and an hour
What time are you having dinner? between 6 and 7pm
When are you going to bed? about 10pm
Do you use any sleep aids - music, white noise, drugs, etc.? If I am sleeping alone brown noise and sometimes a sleeping tab
What’s the rest of your household like at the time? Are they also early to bed, early risers? for the most part yes
How long does it take you to fall asleep once you are in bed? anything from 30mins to 4 hours
How much sleep do you get compared to how much time you are in bed for? I average about 5 hours a night
What time do you wake up? 5:40
What’s your regular morning routine like? Open the door for the doggos, feed them, make coffee and take vitamins, relax and read a bit, get dressed by 6:30 to leave the house by 7:15 at the latest
Any differences in your bed and wake times and your routine on the weekend? I go to bed later and sleep in when I can, normally in bed by 11ish tho and up by 9am
This is a great topic, and one that I have been meaning to respond to since seeing it but wanted to give it proper attention.
I have been trying to take a more meaningful and intentional stance regarding my sleep routines and more specifically my morning routines.
Mornings:
Wake up at 6 AM - I’ve been trying to get my circadian rhythm right but that turns out to be a schlep. Especially now that it is getting lighter later. My alarm still goes off and DO NOT hit the snooze button. Once I am up, I stay up, this includes weekends and weekdays. Sleeping in is hardly a thing for me. Put the phone or alarm somewhere out of reach that causes you to actually get out of bed, like another room even.
Drink water - Be sure to have a glass of water readily available. Leave it next to your phone or even in a visible place like the kitchen island. Bonus point if you add a bit of sea salt to it.
Get ready! - Be sure to get ready, I am already up anyway. Get dressed, brush teeth, etc.
Get out - Take a minimum of a 20-minute walk. I make a point not to count steps or distance, just walk.
Get sunlight - Natural light is amazing for the retina and gets your brain to wake up. Do this while you walk and look into the sun, or right next to it. The soft sunrise sunlight does wonders for getting you to wake up. Try to do this as soon as possible after waking up, within an hour, at least for a few minutes.
Delay caffeine - I delay my coffee intake by around an hour to one-and-a-half hours after waking up.
Afternoons:
Caffeine cut-off - I try to have my last cup of coffee at around 2 PM to ensure that by the time I need to head to bed the effects of caffeine have run through my system. This is assumed to be around 8 hours.
Workout - I try to have some form of workout for a minimum of 20-30 minutes. This could be calinetics (or whatever you call it) or HIT.
Evenings and nights:
Wind down - I generally try to have a wind-down period and reduce my blue light exposure from about 22h30, or you know, READ A BOOK! (not on the phone).
Tech-free zones - I don’t allow myself to take my phone to bed and I don’t have a TV in my bedroom.
No lights - I switch off all light, the darker the better.
Music - sometimes white noise can help but I haven’t noticed any benefit from using it. My wife and kids like some soft music in the background so I have learned to live with it. I’ve tried many genres and soundscapes.
There you have it, I realise I haven’t directly answered your questions, and I will happily do so if you like but just thought it more important to lay out some grounding principles first.
Just one note on my routine, something I think may help with sleep. I don’t drink coffee at all, not even decaf. Originally stopped to prevent my kidneys from failing, now I just don’t drink it. I also drink a total of 2.75 liters of water a day, broken up into cups at set intervals.
It is not safe for anyone around me so I get my coffee as soon as possible, but I always drink my Magboost first in a big glass of water.
Water I drink in general about 3 L a day, coffee I have 2 cups a day in general and nothing after 12. I will drink green tea with peppermint during the afternoon.
The biggest issue I have is no matter what (and its almost 2 years of 5:40 wakeups) I am not a morning person and never will be.