Superego

"You really do need a system"  —Leonard Shelby, Memento

My whole life I've stayed up too late for no good reason, like, really late. I tried many times to beat the bad habit, but nothing worked.  I was getting an average of six hours sleep a night, sometimes as little as four.

Then, two months ago, after yet another late night and hideously bad morning, I got desperate.  I made a new kind of self-control system directly aimed at breaking my late-night routine.

The system is called Superego, and it works like this:

A) Superego sets the day's Computer Curfew time based on how much sleep I've been getting lately.

B) At Computer Curfew time, Superego automatically shuts off web browsing and games until 6am the next morning.

C) I wear the nice-looking Jawbone UP band to track my sleep.

That's it!  Now I'm getting seven and a half hours of sleep a night.

Can't you just stay up late watching TV or reading instead?

TV and reading are not my poison of choice; for me, reading is a good way to fall asleep, and TV is torture.

This would never work for me, my sleep problems are different.

Everyone's situation and problems are different, no doubt.  Shoot me a note and maybe we can figure out a system that would work for you.  I love doing this kind of self-improvement stuff.

Why so much nonsense, why don't you just go to sleep?

Ha!  If you are one of those "willpower" people who can just decide to do something and then actually do it, good for you.  You're probably really attractive and well-read too, with a stylish wardrobe and lots of friends.  Why are you here, just to make fun of us?

Can't you just work around Superego by using your computer's administrator password?

Yep. That's why I've hidden my administrator password in places that are hard for me to get to at night.  I made up a new hard-to-remember password and printed out 5 copies of it.  I didn't put it anywhere online because that would make it too easy for me to get in a late-night moment of weakness.  I put one copy of the password in the cellar, another in Michele's nightstand, two others in the kids' piggy banks, and another at work.  So they're easy enough to get if I need it during the day, but at night, that's enough hassle that before I break a piggy bank, I'll give up and just go to sleep.

Most importantly, if the system somehow breaks and I get the password late at night, then I'll change it to something harder to remember, and hide it in an even further-away place.  My nighttime self has learned to respect the determination of my daytime self.

A few weeks ago, I realized that I have, in fact, memorized my administrator password — in the course of software development, you do have to type the admin password a lot — but rather than change it right away, my agreement with myself is that if I ever abuse the password to stay up late, then I'll change the password to something longer and harder to remember.

How is the Computer Curfew time set?

Superego knows I'm trying to get seven and a half hours sleep each night, and adjusts the curfew accordingly if recent sleep has been more or less than that target.  If, for example, lately I've been getting seven hours sleep, then it adjusts my Computer Curfew to be a half-hour earlier than the day before.  Usually the curfew adjustments are smaller than that, unless the kids kept me up all night, or I'm permitted to sleep in.

I have more questions!

Please ask away!  I'll add the common ones to this article.