Evening bookend

The morning is built the night before. If you do not have a bedtime, you do not have a morning ritual — you have a wish. The single biggest cause of broken morning routines is staying up too late doing something that did not need to be done that night.

Pick a sleep window and protect it like an appointment. For most adults in recovery, somewhere between seven and nine hours, with a consistent bedtime within thirty minutes night to night. Pick yours and put it on the calendar.

Set a bedtime alarm, not a wake alarm. Most people set an alarm to wake up and let bedtime drift. The drift is the problem. A bedtime alarm — set for thirty minutes before you actually want to be asleep — is the single most useful tool for sleep hygiene.

The thirty minutes before bed should be dim, slow, and screen-light. Brush teeth, lower lights, three slow breaths, get in bed, lights out. No screens in bed for at least the first ninety days of recovery. If you cannot fall asleep without a screen, you have a different problem to solve — but not by adding a screen.

Write one sentence at the end of the day: 'Today I noticed ___ and I did not act on it.' This is the same sentence from Course 03. It belongs to both rituals. Recovery is full of practices that double as bookends.

If you live with other people who are not on this schedule, that is a negotiation, not a barrier. Tell them what you are doing and why. Most people will respect a bedtime in a way they will not respect a vague intention to 'sleep more.'