Our bodies have a built-in clock that helps us go to sleep every night and wake up in the morning. Sometimes, our sleeping patterns get all messed up with staying up late and shifting our mornings and nights. You know it’s never a fun time when you are short on sleep. Here’s how you can fix that

Don’t nap

Napping during the day is the most energizing thing for some people, but for some, it makes them super groggy and disoriented. Naps are risky in the sense of the length of the nap, you can either nap for half an hour or fall into deep sleep. It doesn’t help with sleeping early because half of the day is already gone while you’re napping.

Set a sleep time

If you’re bound to wake up at 6 am every day, put an 8 to 9 hour sleep time for yourself and get into bed everyday at 9 pm. If you make your body get used to sleeping at a certain time, you’ll feel sleepy every day around that time.

Don’t sleep in

I know it’s super tempting to sleep in, especially on weekends. You don’t have to wake up at a certain time for school/college or work so you sleep in till 11 am. This is terrible because your body will get used to waking up late and it will ruin your sleep schedule. If you set fixed times for sleeping and waking up, your body will follow it.

Disconnect

It has been scientifically proven that disconnecting from your laptop or mobile helps you sleep a hundred times better. The electric lights that illuminate from smartphones, blue light, are believed to be disrupting the nightly release of the hormone melatonin — a sleep aid — while activating neurons that boost alertness. Blue wavelengths, boost attention, but they are the most disruptive at night, according to the Harvard Medical School. The artificial light throws the body’s biological clock out of sync, resulting in the deterioration of sleep quality. Read a book instead to help calm down your mind and relax.

Be strict

Be strict with your sleep times. Wake up and sleep at certain times and don’t ever change them. Stick to the sleep schedule that fits you best and be hard on yourself. Don’t divert from the path that you set for yourself so your circadian clock doesn’t get thrown off its rhythm.