A couple of months ago, I had one of those restless nights.

I woke up again and again. Five or six times at least. Each time, I checked the time on my watch. 1:40. Then 2:25. Then 3:10. And on.  Every glance started the same quiet calculation. How much time was left before morning? How tired would I be tomorrow?

What surprised me most was not how often I woke up. I am of an age where waking up at night is fairly common.  What made me think was how hard it had been to fall back asleep. The more I checked the time, the more awake I felt.

I counted sheep.  I counted breaths. I tossed and turned.

By morning, I was not just tired. I was frustrated. It seemed I had spent as much energy worrying about sleep as I had actually sleeping.

That clock-watching thing had happened to me many times before, so it made me think.

Years ago, I had already made one change. I removed clocks from the bedroom after learning they could disrupt sleep. But I still wore a watch at night. First a Fitbit for many years, and now a Garmin. The time was always there, easy to see with a small movement.

The next night, I tried something different. I turned off the night light on my watch so I would have to make a conscious effort to see the time. Then I decided not to look at it at all. If I woke up, I would simply turn over and settle back in.

It felt like a small thing. Almost insignificant.

But it changed the night.

Without the clock, there was no calculation. No quiet countdown. The night no longer felt like something slipping away. It just was. And mostly, I just drifted back to sleep.

Over the past month, I have stayed with that simple practice. I still wake up some nights. They say it is an age thing.. That has not changed. But it is easier to rest again. The edge of frustration is gone.

After a bit of research, I learned there is actually a name for what I had been doing. Sleep experts call it “clock watching anxiety.” When we check the time, our minds engage. We start thinking, estimating, even worrying. That mental activity works against sleep rather than with it. In fact, one of the basic recommendations in treating insomnia is to avoid watching the clock.

It turns out a minor change I stumbled into by chance aligns with what science already knows.

There is something here that reaches beyond sleep. We often think improvement comes from adding more. More effort. More control. More awareness. But sometimes it comes from letting go. From removing a small habit that quietly works against us.

For me, it was not a clock on the wall, but a glance at my wrist.

I still wake up at night now and then. I just do not check the time. And more often than not, I fall back asleep easily.

A small change. A better result.  I’m grateful for adopting it into my daily routine.  Isn’t that part of what aging gratefully is all about?

As always, be well, and age gratefully,

Chris