This is Happier. This week we talk about how to get yourself to go to sleep

earlier and whether you're an abstainer or a moderator when it comes to

resisting a strong temptation.

I'm Gretchen Rubin, a writer whose studies happiness, good habits and human

nature who lives in New York City and with me is my sister the sage Elizabeth

Kraft who's my happiness guinea pig and questioner. That's me. I'm Elizabeth Kraft,

a TV writer and producer living in LA and Gretchen makes me happier even if

it's against my will. We're going to start with the suggestion you can try at

home a small manageable habit that will actually make a big difference about how

you feel each day and our suggestion this week is to set an alarm to signal your

bedtime. I'm guessing this would require actually setting a bedtime.

Yes, this is a sneaky try this at home because it's actually two things. The

first is to use an alarm to go to sleep just like we use an alarm to get up.

For a lot of people who have trouble going to bed on time it's very helpful to

just hear an alarm go off. There's just something about it triggers a behavior.

You're like oh the alarm went off. I guess I have to do something. But as you

point out if you're going to have an alarm go off you have to have it set for a

specific time and for a lot of adults they don't really have a specific time.

They just kind of go to bed whenever they're sleepy. We're adamant about little

kids having specific bedtime. But we don't give them to ourselves and here's the

thing. Research shows that most adults need at least seven hours of sleep.

Do the math. When you have to get up do the math count back seven hours and

...