Hi Fabulous Traveler ,

This letter will be short and to the point. It contains just one concept that we will strive to apply over this next week.

If you aren’t getting a full night’s sleep every night, you’re draining your reservoir of willpower before you even start the day. Each time you call upon your self-discipline you will find yourself too tired to think, to care, or to motivate yourself.

So, in order to refill our willpower tanks every night, let’s agree upon this rule:

Your bed is a Sanctuary. It is not to be sullied by any unwelcome objects such as laptops, mobile phones, or TV’s.

You must be strict about this device-free zone.

For inspiration look at a Japanese Tea room. They are designed so that you can only do relaxing things in them such as drink tea, look outside, or read a book.

When you can’t access the internet, a feeling of peace and calm recharges you. Knowing that you can’t check your e-mails or monitor social media will make you forget about them and allow you to focus on what’s important: winding down and relaxing before bed.

Electronic devices constantly remind us of all the things going on in our life, they act as a trigger. Social media apps are now designed so to make it so you can’t resist checking them every few minutes.

Putting an electronic device next to your bed opens up a world temptations that can creep into your mind at any time while you're trying to rest.

Imagine this, you wake up in the middle of the night and see your phone next to you. What’s the first thing that pops into your head? That important message you should be getting soon! You reach for your phone to check, and there’s nothing.

But now, you can’t resist checking Twitter and Facebook to see if someone has posted anything about you. This is our nature. 15 minutes later...

You close your eyes to try to go back to sleep, but it’s too late. You’ve already disturbed your sleep. In one study, it was shown that 4 of these short interruption can wreak havoc on an otherwise peaceful night of sleep.

Let’s replace these interruptions with rules for sleeping.

We want to establish a few strict rules with no loopholes. Numerous studies have shown that the most successful approach for people who want to stop smoking is to go “cold turkey”: no days off, no nicotine replacements, and no excuses allowed. The decision to stop a bad habit shouldn’t allow for any form of compromise. If you fail, simply start over with the “no compromise” mentality and learn from your mistake. Starting over is fine, but quitting isn’t.

Rules for Sleeping

Please don’t compromise on these rules. Remember, you are doing this for yourself. Now without further ado:

• You are not allowed to check your laptop or phone in your bedroom. If there’s an emergency, get out of bed and check your phone in a different room.

• Kindles are allowed, iPads are not. iPods are allowed, iPhones are not. Anything that has access to the internet is off limits.

If you share your bed with a partner, teach them the benefits of these rules and ask them to commit to them with you. You can ease into these rules by first enforcing them only 3 days a week; for example on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then you’ll be able to see how much better you sleep on these days!

If you live in a studio/one room apartment, adapt the rules in this way: No Electronic Devices near your bed.

If you’re in the habit of checking your phone before bed, designate a couch for phone checking, before going to your sacred bed to sleep. And remember, if you find yourself saying “I just need to check this one email”, stop yourself! Otherwise, you may fall into the trap of making excuses and you’ll begin to unravel the habit.

Back to Performance Statements

Now, let’s build a little upon the lesson from last week: Your Performance Statement.

During this challenge, use a performance statement that will help you remember the rules for sleeping. Here's an example to guide you:

“I will keep my bed free from any electronic devices. I’ll use my bed only for reading and sleeping. I will be asleep no later than midnight.”

This will help you build a solid sleep routine at the same time every night.

Self-discipline is a muscle, and it can only be developed when we are fully rested and healthy. If you haven’t been getting enough sleep, you’ll be more easily tempted and less prone to resist.

Remember the last time you didn’t get enough sleep? Not enough sleep, and you’ll quickly find yourself in that “Whatever” mode, where you just stop caring about things. This is what we call apathy: lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern for the important things in your life.

Now, Fabulous Traveler, here's this week's plan: Your bed will become a sanctuary that cannot be approached by any electronic devices.

This Week’s Plan

This Week we have a One-Time Action and a Goal for You.

Your One-Time Action

You’re going to get a great night sleep in the upcoming weeks, and for this, we need to apply rules concerning sleep.

Think of a performance statement that you can repeat to yourself every morning and that will help you apply these rules:

• You are not allowed to check your laptop or phone in bed. If there’s an emergency, get out of bed and check your phone in a different room.

• Kindles are allowed. iPads are not. iPods are allowed, iPhones are not. Anything that can tempt you to check the internet is not allowed.

Here’s an example : “I will keep my bed free from any electronic devices. I’ll go to my bed only to read a book and sleep. I will be asleep no later than midnight”.

Your Goal

For this next week, we will apply the rules for sleeping. If you miss a day, you shouldn’t count the habit as completed.

At a fixed hour each night, you will start winding down. As soon as you complete your evening ritual with Fabulous, put your phone away. Either put it in a different room, or if you only have one room put it very far away so that you can’t reach it from your bed.

You can also make a special “Electronics Drawer” where you place your phone, laptop, etc. before bed and you aren’t allowed to open it until morning. If it has a lock that’s even better, as you will start building a ritual of Disconnecting associated to the physical act of locking away your devices.

Now we’re going to add the habit “Disconnect and Unplug” to your Evening Ritual. Try to set it up at a realistic time so that it acts as a reminder to get ready for bed.

Tap on the “I accept” button:

Here’s a tip: you can set up 2 alarms for your Evening Routine, the first to let you know it’s almost time for bed, and the second to tell you it’s time to get ready for bed.

What are we doing?

Fabulous Traveler, last week you learned about the Performance Statement, and this week, we’re using a Performance Statement to help you sleep better.

According to a research paper published by Paul Pimsleur from Ohio University, learning new things has been proven to be most effective with spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is a learning technique that incorporates increasing intervals of time between subsequent review of previously learned material. This is why we’re going over some habits that you may have already built in other journeys, but with a new approach.

Once we have made sure you are sleeping well every night, we will move on to the habits that will help you confront the most common hurdles of self-discipline.