Just Go to Bed
If you’re reading this, congratulations to you on keeping your eyes focused! Congrats on keeping them open. And if you’re one of the lucky few Americans who has managed to sleep amid the electoral chaos of this week, well, congrats to you, too.
Assuming most of us haven’t, though, I’ll do everyone’s exhausted brain a favor and cut right to the advice: Go to bed as soon as you can tonight. At the end of the day, once you’ve already taken care of all your responsibilities, just… call it.
Even if there’s still political drama unfolding. Even if it’s earlier than your usual bedtime. Even if it’s 8 pm. Go to bed.
But 8 pm is an absurd hour for an adult to go to bed, you may be thinking. According to… who, exactly? Adult bedtimes are a societally imposed construct. In quarantine, and especially after a week like this one, you have every right to make your own schedule. Stress-eat your lunch at 10:30 in the morning. Shower in the middle of the day. Go to bed at 8.
This advice applies even when we’re not in the midst of a national crisis. In such times of blessed normalcy, an occasional super-early night can be transformative.
Because no matter what happened today, tomorrow is a chance to feel better. Even if you don’t fall sleep immediately, and use the time to read a book or watch a movie, going to bed earlier than usual gives you the best possible shot at a full night’s sleep.
Give your next-day self the gift of well-restedness. It’s a boon that my colleague Kelli María Korducki has rightly called “some performance-enhancing shit.”
