| One year ago, I vowed to go from being someone who slept until the last possible second to becoming a person who got up before work to exercise. The few times I'd done it, I found I was more productive and in a better mood all day. The only problem was, I never formed a habit of doing that. The only times I'd do it consistently were when I was traveling and the jet lag made it easy to wake up early. To keep this resolution, I followed all of the advice Kaitlin Woolley, an associate professor at Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business, shared with me last year: Create a reward system, but make it immediate. For me that meant pairing early workouts with a show I would normally watch at night. That gave me more than one reason to get out of bed early. Woolley also said people are more likely to stick with things they enjoy doing, so I tried to pick workouts with that in mind. I also found a few accountability partners and we had frequent check-ins, at least at the beginning, which was key to making the change stick. And I laid everything I'd need out before bed so there wasn't anything to think about in the morning. I'm amazed to say that a year later, I'm among the 9% of people who feel they were successful (for the most part) in keeping their New Year's resolutions. This year, I'm resolving to do something that requires an entirely different reward structure to commit to: I want to go to bed earlier. Arguably, this is something I should've done before vowing to wake up earlier in the morning, but here we are. I reached out to Cathy Goldstein, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center, who gives a lot of compelling reasons for prioritizing sleep. She says sleep deprivation can not only affect people's moods but also their "leadership skills, ethical behavior and increase the likelihood of 'cyberloafing.'" On the physical side, a lack of sleep is associated with heart disease, obesity and even some cancers. It's convincing evidence for sure, but it's still so hard to make yourself go to bed early. She recommends that if people are nodding off watching Netflix in the evening, they'd be better off going straight to bed. The "dozing" effect can actually make it harder to fall asleep when you do relocate from the couch to bed. It's also best to maintain a consistent bedtime (and waking time) all week and not do other things like work or watch shows in bed, which I'm definitely guilty of. One other piece of advice that was helpful when thinking about bedtime: "Your body can't go from 60 mph to 0. It's a gradual process." I often find myself running around doing chores until the minute I want to fall asleep, which can't be helping. So here's hoping I can make it into the 9% of people who keep their resolutions again this year. All together, Goldstein said most people need seven to nine hours of sleep for optimal functioning, so that will mean falling asleep by 10:30 p.m. at the latest. As for all those people who pride themselves on needing less sleep than that? She said it's "exceedingly rare to fall outside of that range." — Cynthia Koons | 
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