Setting Good Goals -- Sleep

A good goal can be defined as a goal that is within your reach... Sometimes, people may refer to goals as being "SuPer SMART." Self-monitored, Public, Specific, Measurable, Adjustable, Realistic, and Timely.

Ensuring that your goal is self-administered and monitored, made public, very specific, adjustable, realistic, and timed is important for ensuring success. In this case, "measurable" blends right into the "specific" category.

A good sleep goal is set by first establishing how much sleep you want. This varies from person to person, though the average hours of sleep for a young adult is between 6 and 8.5 hours. Once you have established that, follow these steps:

  1. Determine your bed time.
  2. Create a strict schedule to follow before bed time. 
  3. Tell the people you live with and/or your friends and family what your plan is.
  4. Think of someone in your life that already has a great sleep schedule.
  5. Imagine yourself going through the schedule each day.
  6. Put the plan into action.
  7. Stick with it.

It might be hard at first, but a good sleep schedule is very important to our overall level of health. As you may have heard, it is a huge mistake to think that we can "Catch up" on sleep over the weekends or on our days off. This isn't the case. Instead, this makes us more tired during the week.

It is important to stick to the routine that you have created very strictly. You will eventually start finding yourself falling asleep better, waking up more easily, and having even levels of energy throughout the week.

I bed time routine may consist of finishing up any outstanding jobs of the day, and putting away what you might need to do until tomorrow or some other time; washing your face or showering, brushing your teeth and flossing, changing into your pajamas/housecoat/birthday suit, and then reading a book (or studying) for 20-30 minutes -- before transferring to your bed. Reading in your bed can create a bad habit that will tell your body that it isn't time to sleep -- it's time to read!

Your bed is for sleeping and sleeping alone... Alright. There might be one other activity that is permited in bed, but I'll leave that out for the purpose of this article.

Be consistent, be consistent, be consistent. If you slip up, tonight is a perfectly good night to start over.