Hello! Have you deleted your Twitter yet? Are you even considering deleting it? The New York Times cautions not just yet (gift link, no paywall). But whatever you do, there are no judgments here; do whatever works for you.
The events at Twitter get crazier by the day.
of has written about it in detail. I’m inclined to delete my Twitter account as I cannot continue to be on a platform whose owner continues to publicly troll and gaslight not only his employees but the public. However, there are presently no alternatives that function the same way Twitter does. (I took a look at how to get started on Mastodon and I couldn’t make it half past the article.) It remains a news source, specifically in getting a pulse for whatever the trending topics are. Granted one has to separate the wheat from the chaff, it’s important to have a general awareness of what’s happening in politics and pop culture. (Is it? This is a good journal prompt.) In the meantime, I continue to lurk but at such infrequent intervals, maybe once or twice daily, and only for about 5 minutes.Aside from Twitter, I now only have Instagram. I’m inactive on Facebook and Messenger at an immense social cost as I miss out on personal news from family and friends. (Our last two national elections were too polarizing.) For the past month, I’ve hardly used Instagram but I’m slowly coming back to it to practice my photography.
I was guilty of complaining about not having enough time in a day but I only had to look at my screen time to realize that this was not quite true. The benefit of spending less time online is you get more time to spend it elsewhere. I have practices that are specific to me: meditating, journaling, newsletter-ing, reading books, and working out, but one that is extremely important and which we all share in common is…
… sleep. Blissful, uninterrupted, deep, deep, sleep. Eight hours is the standard (or myth), but I aim for 7 hours. If I get 8 hours of sleep for two consecutive days then I become too well-rested (this is actually a problem) and I end up staying wide awake in the wee hours of the morning; seven is my sweet spot.
Finding enough time for sleep is one problem, but willing yourself to sleep at the exact time you need to is another. I used to take melatonin, which is safe for short-term use, but it can mess up your natural rhythm in the long term. Reading books and meditating before bedtime have also stopped working for me, although I think it has more to do with how I need to quiet my mind. (Social media has blunted my focus and concentration.) But I’ve learned that getting a good night’s rest starts way earlier than the hour or few minutes we spend trying to wind down. It starts with our morning habits.
One of the podcasts I listen to is Huberman Lab and he excerpted one of his episodes to produce this animation about it.
Try to get over the productivity-self-help-sounding title The Optimal Morning Routine because it’s broader and more humane than that: it includes an overview of how your morning and evening habits create a cascading effect throughout the day and helps you sleep at night. If you’ve read up on the subject of sleep, you may already have preconceived notions of what works, such as regulating caffeine intake or consistently waking up at the same time each day, but the way he explains the science behind this set of rituals makes it more convincing and motivating.
Watching it is worth the 16 minutes so to give way, I’ll wrap up this post. In gist, he suggests the following:
Get natural light in your eyes within one hour of waking up
Incorporate exercise as early as possible.
Get in cold water after
Wait 90 minutes before drinking any caffeine
What I love most about the routine is that it gives you room to be kind to yourself; you don’t have to “optimize” your mornings every single day: he hopes “you’re not getting good sleep for good reasons that you enjoy.” That’s such a refreshing take and a needed gentle pat on the back.
May you sleep well tonight.