Five numbers, one evening: 10 hours before bed — no caffeine. 3 — no food or alcohol. 2 — no work. 1 — no screens. 0 — times you hit snooze.
Why each number works
Caffeine's half-life is 5–6 hours, so a 3 p.m. coffee is still half-active at 9 p.m. Late meals and alcohol fragment the second half of the night. Work keeps cortisol up; screens keep melatonin down. And snoozing trades your clearest morning minutes for junk sleep.
Making it stick
Don't adopt all five at once. Pick the number you break most — for most people it's the screens hour — and hold it for two weeks before adding the next.
The zero is the secret
Zero snoozes means a consistent wake time, and wake time is the anchor of your whole circadian rhythm. A sunrise lamp makes that first alarm dramatically easier to obey.
This article is for information only and is not medical advice. If insomnia lasts longer than three weeks, see a doctor.
