By Kylee Harris

January 2025, wow. It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating starting 2024. Last year’s January blog post talked about setting New Year’s “goals” instead of resolutions to manifest a more positive outtake. A lot of people have trouble achieving their goals throughout the year and end up giving up on them completely. It’s hard to think of goals or possible achievements, but even harder to keep yourself accountable for reaching those goals. Every year, millions of Americans express that with the new year, they want to work on their health. Whether it’s to lose weight, eat better, go to the gym more, sleep better, or be happier, a lot of us set goals that would make our lives more positive and healthier. Today, I’m going to focus on giving you tips for one of the most common New Year’s goals; to wake up earlier, and/or go to bed earlier.

One in every three adults in America doesn’t get enough sleep. It makes sense, considering how busy our lives are! We have work, school, kids, sports, hobbies, etc. and not enough time in the day to do it all! Especially this time of the year, a lot of us feel that we have so many obligations like work and school that when it comes down to any free time, we just want to relax which makes it tough to have time for hobbies and extracurriculars that we would otherwise enjoy. But, it’s so important that we continue to indulge in those hobbies that make us happy, and what if I told you it can even help you get better sleep? 

A good tip for time management is to pencil everything in! Keep a detailed schedule or organizer with your plans and obligations. Keeping your daily life organized promotes stress relief in your everyday life, and can keep you accountable for what you have to do. Keeping an organizer can also help you create daily “to-do lists”. Crossing things off of a To-Do list feels great, and it’s a step in the right direction toward this goal! Completing goals throughout the day activates dopamine which comes from the prefrontal cortex of your brain which is the area associated with decision-making, and goal-directed behavior. When a goal is reached, dopamine is released! 

After you’ve established a daily schedule that feels right for you, it’s going to be easier to start the next step toward going to bed/waking up a little earlier. Start planning your meal times, and add them into your daily organizer. Having a set time for dinner/breakfast each day will give you a better idea about how to structure your sleep time. Keeping  a regular eating schedule will also help your body maintain its health. Your metabolism slows during sleep, so it’s important that the time between eating and sleeping is distanced properly. How and when you eat is vital to when and how you wake up. 

Once you feel like you have a proper balance, then, you can start setting your alarms earlier and earlier. For example, if you’re trying to go to bed earlier, say by 8pm, and you’re chronically up until 12-1am, set an alarm for 10pm. At that time, you have to put everything away, turn off the lights, and get ready for bed. If you’re struggling to fall asleep, try reading or writing with low lighting. TV and phones produce a blue light which has been proven to make it harder for the brain to turn off and rest. 

If you are on the opposite scale, and you want to wake up earlier, think about your goals for the day ahead before you go to bed. Set your alarm 30 minutes earlier than you normally do. Then set another for 15 minutes after that. Label your alarms with your tasks for the day, so when you go to snooze them, you can be accountable as soon as you wake up. A lot of people like to set multiple alarms and snooze them throughout the morning. This can create an unhealthy expectation of time, and a lack of discipline in your sleep schedule. Creating a strict standard of discipline when trying to achieve time oriented goals is very important. 

Getting more sleep is something a lot of us strive for! As someone who goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up at 5:45am everyday, these are the tools I used to help me achieve that lifestyle. Remember that it doesn’t happen overnight! It takes practice and the healthier you live your life whether that be physically, mentally, or emotionally, the more positive of an outcome you’ll have!