In my case, I was consistently going to bed late, such as 3:00 AM and often even later, because of all the things I was trying to get done before bedtime. After a while, my body got used to going to bed later, and 3:00 AM did not seem "late" to me anymore....
So, the first thing I worked on was to re-adjust my priorities so that an earlier bedtime and getting a good night's sleep was a high priority. I was using a different Paraliminal for every day of the week, but I usually found a way to set an intention for better sleep as my intention for the different Paraliminals. At some point, I felt ready to make sleep a high priority in my life. When I wanted to get more things done before bedtime, I told myself that I could do those things tomorrow AFTER getting a good night's sleep. Studies have shown that our productivity starts going down after 10 PM, and by Midnight our productivity is at about 50%. So by getting to bed earlier and getting a goodnight's sleep, I am actually more productive.
Once sleep was a high priority, the next step was to get my body used to going to sleep at an earlier time. In my case, I prefer something that eases me gradually into sleep, so my preferred Paraliminals right before going to bed are Deep Relaxation (30+ minutes) or 10-Minute Supercharger (10 minutes). Both of these Paraliminals help to get me into a sleepy state, so that it feels like my regular bedtime. If I am still feeling wide awake as my bedtime approaches, then I use Deep Relaxation, but if I am starting to feel more relaxed then I use 10-Minute Supercharger. If I feel sleepy enough, then I go to bed right away without using the Paraliminals.
I have successfully moved my bedtime back to 1:30 AM so far, and I still want to move it back to 11:00 - 11:30 PM, and maybe even earlier when I get to that point.
By the way, before I made sleep a high priority, I was getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night. I figured that going from 4-5 hours to 8 hours might be too big of a change, so I started setting my alarm for 6 hours of sleep a night. After I felt I was used to getting 6 hours, then I moved up my bedtime and set my alarm for 8 hours after my bedtime.... Now that I am getting 8 hours rest every night, I have noticed that my body has been going through all sorts of healing crises. I think that when I was not getting enough sleep, my body did not have the energy to do any deep, long-term healing, it was just trying to get through the day. Now that I am getting more sleep, my body has enough energy for long-term healing. If I had tried to get by on 4-5 hours sleep a night for too long, I probably would have crashed and gotten really sick. So, be prepared that things may feel worse for a while before they get better.
