How Buying an Alarm Clock Made Me a Good Sleeper

January 15, 2025

Who’s heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit? It’s an idea that’s been tossed around for years, popularized by books like The Power of Habit. It sounds simple, right? Stick with something for three weeks, and boom—you’re a whole new person.

As someone who lives a life with very little margin (three kids in two years + and an executive job is no joke – yes, my hair is greying), the big changes just were never truly realistic. Somewhere along the way, I came across the quote “If you can get 1% better every day for a year, you’ll end up 37x better by the time you’re done”, and it gave me SO MUCH PEACE. 1%. I can do that.

Yesterday, as I wandered up to bed at 9:15 PM with my phone plugged in downstairs and my sunset alarm on its daily set time of 5:30 AM, I had this moment of realization that “woah, I’m someone who actually prioritizes high-quality sleep”

To understand why this was a grand realization, you must first understand that I am a recovering “sleep is for the weak” believer. -- Before I go further, let me be clear, sleep is NOT for the weak. It is the most powerful human function that too few of us use to our benefit, much less appreciate. I’ll link resources to support this at the end – But throughout my twenties and most of my thirties, I pushed sleep off to squeeze more into the day, to be more productive. I averaged 4-5 hours per night, got into bed usually within only 10 minutes of shutting down my computer, scrolled my phone – gotta check those Garmin stats for the day, and used podcasts as a crutch to get to sleep and to fall back asleep when my brain inevitably spun up at 2 am. Sound familiar?

In Fall of 2023 (nearly 16 months ago), I listened to a podcast with Dr. Matt Walker about his new book – “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams” In this podcast, his claims of the impact of high-quality sleep on executive function, decision-making, creativity and athletic performance sent me down a rabbit hole on the topic, and at the end of it all, I did one thing..

I bought an alarm clock.

I didn’t even take the alarm clock out of the box for several weeks, but I bought it because it was my biggest excuse for keeping my phone in my room - a no no according to Dr. Sleep.

So how did I get from a boxed-up alarm clock on my nightstand to someone who consistently gets 7.5 – 8 hours of restful sleep and wakes up refreshed at 530 am each morning (yes, even on the weekends). Changes of 1% magnitude. Changes that didn’t feel overwhelming or impossible at the time I made them. Changes that almost seem laughable in hindsight but were, in the end, completely transformative.

16 Months of 1% Changes to Transform My Relationship with Sleep:

October 2023: Listened to Dr. Matt Walker’s podcast and went down a rabbit hole to understand how sleep might be holding me back from things I pride myself in, namely mental capacity, high output, and quick decision making. Still pretending that I don’t need sleep to function well.

December 2023: Bought a cheap sunrise alarm clock from Amazon. Set the unopened box on my nightstand

January 2024: Set up the alarm clock and quickly learned how to snooze it until my iPhone alarm went off as my “real” alarm.

April 2024: Started reading fiction (or something else enjoyable) instead of plugging in my air pods to fall asleep. Side note: while I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep without the “crutch” of a podcast, I kept thinking “so this is how my kids felt when we took their binkies away at night”. I, too, wanted to cry. IYKYK..

May 2024: Accepted that I was not a superhero and reworked my schedule. This was a part of a larger reorientation of my day that I’ve shared elsewhere, but it created consistent sleep and wake times that were sustainable during the week. At that time, working at night helped me feel prepared for the next day, and I knew that changing that routine would be near impossible for me, so I didn’t try to change that. Instead, I blocked my mornings from meetings and moved my workout from 5 am to 7 am.

For me, this change was the unlock. The point where the snowball started picking up momentum. I started to see benefits of consistent, quality sleep, and I started to identify as a person who prioritizes sleep. (Even over that last email.. gasp). I’ll remind you that I am SIX MONTHS in before this click happens.

July 2024: Made my weekends match my weekdays. 930 pm to 530 am. Everyday. Gone are the Saturday mornings of having little voices asking what’s for breakfast while I’m groggily giving myself a pep talk to crawl out of bed. My 25-year-old me (and let’s be honest, my 35-year-old me) would think I was crazy, but that time before the sun and after 8 hours of sleep is my favorite part of the day.

December 2024: Started plugging my phone in downstairs before going to bed.

January 2025 (now): Playing around with reading downstairs as well so that when I get into bed, I’m going straight to sleep. I can’t be the only one who has a hard time putting down the Colleen Hoover page turners …

The Small Habits Matter

If I think back to all the big changes I’ve made over the years, none of them happened in Big Bang fashion. They all happened with a moment of self-awareness, intention to evolve, and one-degree turns that felt sustainable at the time.

We are creating our future selves every day with the tiny habits we choose to keep or evolve. 1% better. That’s it. With patience, the small, almost laughable steps build momentum, and with time, you’ve become what you once thought impossible.

Go buy an alarm clock. Your future self will thank you.