How to use the online timer
Half an hour is enough to move through several calming steps rather than a single token one, and the sequence is what does the work. Screens away, lights down, tomorrow's bag packed, teeth done, a few pages of a book: the individual items are unremarkable, and their value is in arriving in the same order every night until the body starts reading the first step as a signal that the rest is coming.
Screens are the item most worth being firm about. Bright light at close range in the last half hour works directly against everything else in the routine, and the content is often the bigger problem: email and news are stimulating in a way that a paperback is not. Charging the phone in another room removes the decision entirely, which is easier than making it correctly every night at eleven.
The order matters more than the contents. A routine that changes every evening never becomes a cue, however calming each individual part might be, whereas a fixed sequence becomes automatic within a couple of weeks. Getting the practical jobs out of the way early in the half hour, so the last ten minutes are genuinely quiet, works better than finishing on something that requires thinking about.
Common questions
Does the order of the routine matter?
More than the contents do. A fixed sequence becomes a cue the body reads within a couple of weeks, whereas a routine that changes every night never quite becomes one.
How strict do I need to be about screens?
Strict enough to make it easy. Charging the phone in another room removes the decision entirely, which works better than trying to make the right call every night at eleven.
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