A year or two ago I experimented with quitting caffeine later in the afternoon to improve the quality of my sleep. This experiment was largely successful and now I rarely drink soda and I stop my coffee intake by early afternoon. Usually when I drink coffee I limit myself to two regular cups, if I have a third then it is decaf. This has greatly cut into my podcast consumption as I now typically fall asleep within 15 minutes of hitting the bed.

The next phase of this experiment is to inch my way from seven to eight hours of sleep. This was largely triggered by reading an article I found that suggested that seven hours might not be sufficient, but also it increases the margin of error for hitting my seven hour goal. The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours for adults. If I aim for eight but hit seven or seven and a half then I am in a much better place than if I aim for seven and hit six. So far it is day two of this experiment and I feel better than usual.