Quote Originally Posted by Almost Done View Post
Go to bed. Ditch the electronics, ditch the paper, the flashlight and the notepad.
I agree that sleep is a high priority. However, do people actually sleep better if they don't have a pad of paper next to their bed? I can see it working either way. People might sleep better if they write something down rather than lying there trying to memorize it or not being able to stop worrying about what would happen if they just forget about it. Or, people might sleep better if they get in the habit of not expecting a pad of paper to be handy. I'm assuming for now that it's better for me to have a pad of paper handy. This may be something that each individual needs to work out for themselves.

I'm not convinced that it's worthwhile to use bed for only 2 things. (Why those specific 2 things?) I don't remember seeing evidence or good arguments for this. Any reason not to use bed for meditation? Stretching exercises?
Listening to relaxing music? Any actual evidence that reading in bed disturbs sleep more than reading somewhere else before going to bed?

I heard that it's not a good idea to check one's email in the last few hours before going to sleep. This makes sense to me. Part of it may be the brightness of the computer screen, which tends to signal the body that it's daytime. That can be modulated by adjusting the colours. But part of it is that you lie there thinking about what you're going to say in response to some of those emails. It's stimulating, in a way that reading a book isn't.