Food for Thought
Many of my clients have been struggling lately with revenge bedtime procrastination, so I started to write about this act of deliberately putting off sleep in order to enjoy “me time” with stimulating but useless entertainment. I thought about how common it is for Turbo Thinkers, how to implement strategies for a bedtime routine, and how sleep improves our brain function.
But honestly, getting myself to bed on time comes easily to me. It’s a non-negotiable. I know how I want to feel the next day. I know the chain of possibility. When I get enough hours of sleep, I can get up and exercise in the morning. When I sleep and exercise, I can think clearly, focus easily and ride my elevated mood. I can better regulate my emotions and access my executive function skills. When I can think and feel good, I feel competent and confident. All of this works because I have already made the final decision to be asleep by a certain time.
Our Turbo Thinking brains can see endless possibilities. Find a purple pipe cleaner and BAM! So many uses for it! Of course we can’t throw it away! Anything can happen! This same Turbo Thinking trait that hinders us from choosing one final answer prevents us from moving forward. If our morning alarm sounds and our brain has to decide at that moment whether to get up, to go back to sleep, to snuggle with the dog, to scroll through TikTok, etc., we can get overwhelmed and thrown into a shame spiral.
Yet once we have clarity on what we want and why, we can make a final decision and commit to that decision. We can make the decision beforehand so that we can take action at the right time. When I ask clients, “What was the key to your success?,” they often respond with, “I just decided to do it.” or “This time, it was real. In my mind, I had no other option.”
What is your final decision? How can you make it non-negotiable to ensure the feeling you want?