Make Your Bed: How Tiny Habits Can Create Big Life Changes
We all know how it feels to commit to a goal that you’ve been wanting to achieve for years. Amazing. You’re inspired, you’re enthusiastic, you begin working towards it in earnest and things are going well. Yet, somehow despite our best intentions, life happens, we lose momentum, and that goal we felt so optimistic about seems to slip away from us. So how does anyone achieve their goals in this busy modern world?
Creating good habits may hold the key. In his bestselling book Atomic Habits, James Clear presents a compelling framework for building good habits and breaking bad ones. The core idea is simple yet profound: small, incremental changes can lead to remarkable results over time. While the book covers a wide range of applications, we used its principles to look at how we could improve the quality of our sleep. We explore how the strategies outlined in Atomic Habits can help you achieve better sleep and how you might apply these principles to other goals.
Start small: the power of tiny change
James Clear emphasises the importance of starting with small, manageable habits. When it comes to sleep, this could mean making minor adjustments to your bedtime routine. For example:
- Instead of trying to go to bed an hour earlier, start with just 10 minutes.
- Replace one late-night scroll on your phone with a few minutes of reading or meditation.
These small changes are easier to stick to and create a foundation for more significant improvements over time.
Make it obvious: design your environment for sleep
Clear’s first law of behaviour change is to ‘make it obvious’. Your surroundings play a crucial role in shaping your habits, and this applies to sleep too. Here’s how you can design your environment to promote better sleep:
- Create a bedtime ritual by setting a specific time to go to bed and make it obvious by setting a reminder 15 minutes beforehand.
- Commit to making your bed each morning to ensure your bedroom looks inviting when it comes time for bed.
- Set up your bedroom for sleep by keeping your room dark, cool, and quiet. Remove distractions like TVs or work-related items to signal to your brain that your bedroom is for rest.
By making sleep-friendly choices obvious, you’re more likely to follow through with your intentions.
Make it attractive: pair sleep with something enjoyable
The second law of behaviour change according to Clear is to ‘make it attractive’. If you associate sleep with something enjoyable, you’ll be more motivated to prioritise it. You might choose to:
- Use a luxurious pillow or bedding that makes your bed feel inviting.
- Incorporate a relaxing activity into your bedtime routine, like spending a few minutes massaging a nourishing hand cream into your hands or listening to calming music.
By linking sleep with positive experiences, you’ll start to look forward to it.
Make it easy: simplify your path to better sleep
The third law is to ‘make it easy’. The easier it is to perform a habit, the more likely you are to stick with it. Apply this to sleep by:
- Preparing for bed in advance by laying out your pyjamas, turning down your bed and dimming the lights in your bedroom ahead of time.
- Limit your screen time by using apps or settings that reduce blue light exposure on your devices, making it easier to wind down.
By removing obstacles, you’ll find it easier to consistently follow through with your sleep goals.
Make it satisfying: track your progress and celebrate your win
The fourth law of creating an ‘Atomic Habit’ is to ‘make it satisfying’. Clear suggests that immediate rewards reinforce habits. To apply this to sleep:
- Celebrate small wins. For instance, If you consistently go to bed 10 minutes earlier for a week, reward yourself with something you enjoy, like a relaxing bath or a favourite treat.
- Track your sleep habits by using a journal or an app to monitor your bedtime and wake-up times. Seeing progress can be incredibly satisfying.
These small rewards help reinforce the habit and keep you motivated.
Breaking bad sleep habits
Just as important as building good habits is breaking bad ones. Clear’s framework can also help you eliminate habits that disrupt your sleep:
- Make it invisible by keeping your phone out of reach or in another room to avoid late-night scrolling.
- Make it unattractive by reminding yourself how groggy and unproductive you feel after a poor night’s sleep.
- Make it difficult to be distracted by devices setting app limits on your usage or using a traditional alarm clock instead of your phone.
Improving your sleep and achieving your goals doesn’t necessarily require a complete overhaul of your life. By applying some of these principles you can make small, consistent changes that compound over time inching you closer to whatever you’re trying to achieve. What tiny changes will you make today?
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