Read Fiction: Sleep Better

Reflections on habit #22 in my journey

Photo by Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash

I love to read fiction. I love sleeping. What’s not to like about the combo. My goal was to drift off to dreamland after reading a chapter or two from a good book prior to bedtime rather than scrolling through Twitter.

In some of my new habits like the 5 minute tidy or brushing my teeth early to prevent snacking, the theory was sound but it didn’t fit me personally. Others fit so well it was hard to see why I hadn’t been doing it all along like using the upstairs bathroom to get some extra exercise in.

I set up my challenge with a 30 day trial period for each habit because I thought I needed that long to give each one a fair shot. To my surprise with most habits I either liked them or hated them immediately.

Fiction before bed was one of the few habits where it took me a couple of weeks to establish the habit. I was surprised how ingrained my tendency to check Twitter was.

In retrospect, this habit was really breaking a bad habit more than establishing a good habit which is why it took more effort. But it was well worth doing. Reading a good book is a much better way to spend my last hour before bed than doomscrolling Twitter.

17 out of 22 habits are keepers.

Fiction not Doom Scrolling Leads to Sweet Dreams