What has really worked for me, and YMMV, as measured by a good 10-15 points a night as measured by my fitbit (admittedly a crude tool, but backed up by just feeling less fatigued during the day) is:
- Getting up consistently and early, and not snoozing the alarm. For me, that time is 5:30, which gives me time to work out.
- Going to bed 8 hours before that. Yes, 9:30.
- I take a 5mg melatonin and benadryl before bed.
- I start my bedtime routine around 9-9:30. This includes putting away the laptop and phone, and reading a book, magazine, or kindle.
- I stop drinking around 5pm. Fluids later in the evening were waking me up 3-5 times during the night to pee. Hydrating well earlier in the day reduces this to 1.
I started off doing that "Algorithmic Solution to Insomnia" [1] that was posted over the holidays, but I really didn't end up needing to do the adjusting bedtime thing. I had a rough week or week and a half when I was getting started, but the 3 weeks since then have been great, including:
- Waking up before my alarm. Twice last week I woke up 1 minute before my alarm.
- Feeling like I slept well.
- Not feeling tired during the day.
- My fitbit sleep analysis has gone from 63-77 points per night to consistently 79-89.
Honestly, there's a lot to that whole "have a bedtime routine" part of good sleep hygiene!
[1] https://ilya.sukhar.com/blog/an-algorithmic-solution-to-inso...