Step 1: Don’t Add Fuel to The Fire

I struggle to sleep, often laying in bed finding myself overwhelmed with racing thoughts and ideas. The ideas have helped produce some of my best work, however, they ensure waking up at sunrise is out of the question.

I’ve tried to distract the thoughts with technology. Thinking that I could harness these racing thoughts and be productive. Turns out, this is a shitty idea. If you’re like me, “Going to bed” with racing thoughts and accessible technology means you are horizontally positioned using a laptop or iPad. This will not help induce sleep, but when you’re struggling to fall asleep you’re desperate.

I’ve always thought of multitasking as an excuse. A scapegoat people use when they can’t focus and do one thing well. To this point, I have arrogantly thought of myself as a horrible multitasker. Turns out, I needed a reality check. Multitasking on a device late at night when I should be sleeping is not the solution. This coping mechanism was the first thing that had to go.

Problem → My bed must become a screen-free zone & I must find other means to rid the racing thoughts from my head.

Making sure all gadgets are out of arms reach has helped, but it certainly hasn’t solved everything. Sometimes thoughts get lodged in your head. Plans for tomorrow, problems you’re trying to solve, relationship issues, fears, you name it. These things linger, your mind races, and they just won’t stop.

The long term effects of a “screen free bed” are unclear, however, I’ve found they are paying dividends when ‘trying to fall asleep.’

Step 2: Quiet Racing Thoughts

I’m not a melatonin popper or any other sleeping pill for that matter. I just don’t like the groggy feeling, but I needed something to sedate my inner voice.

I love music. So herein lies my trade off.

I believe in alternative medicine, guess I take after my Mom. I believe this voodoo magic is the real deal. I started searching for “hypnotic sleep music,” “meditation music” and a slew of other options and here’s the best ones I’ve found (listed in order of delivering most effective knockout punch in ~10 mins):

Step 3: How I Reprogramed My Brain

Short answer: trial and error with achievable micro-goals.

Record Your Daily Work Routine For 1 Week — This gave insight into how I structure my days. It provided perspective into areas I wanted to optimize with this sleep experiment. Baby Steps — Set achievable milestones out the gate. Nobody likes sucking and failing. Like a rookie runner with aspirations to run a marathon, you don’t run 13 or 26 miles on day 1. Start small. I decided to start waking up at 6:30am for 1 morning a week and adjust accordingly. Identify The Problem + Solution — Mine was racing thoughts, using technology in bed, and hoping that would distract my mind. Don’t Give Up If The First Attempt Fails — Training yourself to do anything takes time. Commit To Your Solution To Make It A Habit — It takes 30 days to form a habit.

Results From The 6am Experiment

This hasn’t become a ritual for me yet. I like mixing up a couple days a week where I wake up at 6-6:30 and others where I start at 8am.

6:30 — 9:30am: Creative tasks

9:30am — 10am: Coffee meetings + breakfast

10am — 12pm: Emails, meetings, or phone calls

12:00 — 4pm: Client work / daily grind

4pm — 5:30pm: Hit the gym, walk, skate

5:30 — 8pm: Finish client work, happy hour meetings, or networking events

8pm: Yoga or walk the dog

9pm — 10:00pm: Eat dinner. Decompress.

10pm — 10:30pm: Listen to sleep voodoo and pass out

I create from ~6:30am — 9:30am (-2 hrs)

from ~6:30am — 9:30am (-2 hrs) I grind between ~12 — 4pm & 5:30-8pm(same)

between ~12 — 4pm & 5:30-8pm(same) I sleep roughly ~8hrs a night (+3 hrs)

roughly ~8hrs a night (+3 hrs) Total work day = ~16hrs (- 3 hrs)

The results are interesting. Despite allocating less time to creating, I found that tweaking the order of grind, create, sleep to create, grind, sleep has had a solid impact.

Morning creative sessions inspire me to tackle the day (like this one). Generally, I’m finding I get more done faster in the morning than I did at night.

The added sleep is a bonus, although I haven’t completely solved this puzzle. The mediation music certainly helps.

I may never fully convert to early bird or stop the racing thoughts, but I’ve taught myself a better method for sedating the damn hamster inside my head when I try to sleep.