1. Q T Q T United States says:

    I'm surprised to see I'm not the only one. For the past 7 years of my life I've had unusual sleep habits too.

    The first 3 years I stayed up until 2 AM and woke up at 10 AM, and about 20% of the time stayed up even later and woke up at 12 AM-4PM. In the past 4 years the sleep ranges varied more and I slept and woke at even more unusual times. For 2 years I slept at 12 and woke up at 8 PM at night 50-70% of the time.

    I think all of this was just habitual and had something to do with a natural tendency to procrastinate everything due to my ADHD). However, a lot of it was probably due to depression too and my way of coping with it. The biggest reason though was because I was addicted to technology and it fueled the procrastination (I couldn't stop checking my phone at night, etc.).

    I came to the realization that I wasn't going to stop on my own and that the only way to solve this was scientific solution that was proven to work. In other words, the solution had to be guaranteed to work and not depend on me. This is what I did 1. I set my computer to automatically turn off at 11:30 with Task Scheduler. To do this press the Windows key and search for Task Scheduler. Click the first result that comes up. Create a basic task with any name, action: start a program shutdown -s -f -t 60, Trigger - time you want your PC to shutdown, conditions: wake the computer to run this task - unchecked. After that export the task and reimport it to a bunch of random folders under the Windows section in Task Scheduler with different trigger times. Do enough so that it becomes really difficult to disable all of the tasks. Rename some of the tasks to something realistic, so that you can't easily identify and delete them later. This is fully tested and proven to keep your PC off at a certain time range and there's no way around it unless you disable all the tasks or reformat your PC.

    However, you can still be addicted to other devices. To solve this:

    1). Tie several rubber bands around all phones or devices you have and put them in a very inconvenient location(outside of your home if possible). You can also put them in more than one location. Now alternative devices are no longer a deterrent. After a while you can safely use them again as you will no longer be as dependent on them as before. Rinse and repeat if and when necessary.

    2). Download Mind Jogger on your devices and set several reminders to sleep 1 hour before the time you plan to sleep. Mind Jogger can remind you as many times as you want during any time range you select. Ex: You set Mind Jogger to remind you 10 times between 11-12. If reminds you to sleep at 11:10, 11:37, twice between 11:40-11:45, and 6 more times between 11:45 and 12.

    3). If you own a smart home assistant set it to remind you to sleep several times before you go to sleep too.

    4). Download Streaks app. Every time you successfully sleep on time add a streak and try to get more than 10 in a row. After you get a streak of 3 it becomes exponentially easier from there. Keep this up until you no longer need it.

    As I said, if you can't rely on yourself to sleep only science can do it for you.

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
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