Creating an Adult Bedtime

I have been on a podcast kick lately. I've never listened to podcasts with any regularity until a few weeks ago, and I think it is something I definitely plan to continue. It's a great way to pass the time in the car, on a walk, waiting in a doctor's office, etc.

One of the podcasts I have been listening to is "Happier with Gretchen Ruben". Gretchen is the author of the book The Happiness Project which I blogged about back in 2012 (post here). In Episode  2: All-or Nothing, Gretchen recommended setting a bedtime alarm.

Gretchen and her fellow podcast host, her sister Elizabeth

I find that I often stay up beyond my initial onset of "tired" to work, blog, watch TV, etc, and by the time I am ready to go to bed I am too "wired and tired" to actually fall asleep. Gretchen recommends setting your alarm for bedtime just like you do for when you wake up in the morning.

We set "bedtimes" for our children yet we don't set them for ourselves. So, I've decided to implement the bedtime alarm but in a slightly different way. I am going to implement a 9:00 shutdown time. That means at 9:00 p.m. I will close down my phone and my computer for the night. This will leave me time to read, stretch, use the foam roller or go to sleep all by my 10:00 bedtime.

Given that we are currently traveling in Europe, I will most likely try to implement this when we get home.

Has anyone ever tried something like this? Do you have a bedtime?