Shoutout to the difference 3 months of daily habit tracking made for my sleep

I used to just write a vague to-do list every morning in my bullet journal, nothing special. Then I started tracking my sleep time and wake time in a tiny grid on the side, plus how many hours I actually slept. After 3 months, I realized I was consistently getting 5-6 hours and crashing on weekends. So I forced myself to set a 10pm cutoff for screens and aim for 8 hours, just logging it every day. Now my average is 7.2 hours and I don't feel like a zombie at 3pm anymore. Has anyone else noticed a big shift from tracking a single habit over a few months?

2 comments

2 Comments

baker.riley4d ago

Picked up on something weird where the act of tracking itself made me sleep worse for the first few weeks because I kept checking my clock to log the time.

stellas564d ago

I read a study once that said checking the time at night can actually mess with your body's natural sleep pressure. The blue light from your phone clock is one thing, but the mental math of "I've only been asleep for 3 hours" makes your brain stay alert. It's like you're training your brain to be afraid of losing sleep, so it refuses to sleep deeply. Did you try covering your clock with a towel or using a physical sleep log book instead? That way you don't have to look at a bright screen every time you wake up.