Dodow Hackademy No. 2: I develop good habits

29 Sep 2025

Exciting substances

- No more Redbull, coffee, Coke, or even tea after 4 PM

Take a look here if you want the long explanation, but the short explanation is that Redbull, like coffee, Coke, and tea, contains caffeine at varying levels of concentration. We often forget, but caffeine is a psychoactive substance. In plants, caffeine acts as a natural insecticide by paralyzing or killing the insects that ingest it. In your body, it only kills your desire to nap...!

Screens

- Avoid any screen exposure (especially smartphone and tablet) at least 60 minutes before going to bed

The light emitted by screens prevents the secretion of melatonin (about 55% less for a person using an iPad before sleeping). This hormone is a natural sleep aid. Result: it takes you longer to fall asleep and your sleep quality will be poorer.

If you are weak and changing your habits seems as realistic as walking on the moon, you are not alone: here are two small apps to help you get back on track.

- Coach helps you form new habits by reaching your goals.

- Forest helps you stay focused (by threatening to destroy your imaginary digital forest. It's cute, you'll see. And guilt-inducing.)

Stimulating activities

Exception: sexual intercourse, which (if it went well) results in a sleep-inducing effect. So you have a free pass to get busy...!

So, what to do?

- Listen to soft music (aim more for Debussy than Black Sabbath)

- Hug your partner, your dog, your cat, your baby (not all at once)

- Read "In Search of Lost Time" swearing that you too will go to bed early for a long time, or pick any other hefty volume of French literature describing the existential troubles of the nobility under the Second Empire to fall asleep immediately.

Why slow down?

If you already want to fall asleep quickly, you're off on the wrong foot: this desire fuels insomnia and causes counterproductive stress, which ends up preventing you from falling asleep. The fear and anxiety generated by the possibility of not being efficient enough the next day, being too tired or not fast enough, greatly contribute to insomnia.

Cultivating slowness and stillness helps you develop a fundamental quality for falling asleep peacefully: patience. It also breaks away from a constant pursuit of productivity and performance embodied by speed.

By slowing down your movements, you unconsciously give up the race and the fear of failure disappears. You send the brain the signal "whatever happens, I don't care" and can thus free yourself from performance anxiety.

You can find a whole file on how to slow down in Psychologies, here [conf link]. Meanwhile, here are some practical tips!

Ideas to slow down

It is best to start slowing down 30 minutes before going to bed. A few examples:

Walk slowly
Slow down your movements, for example when washing or brushing your teeth
Write slowly if you are used to writing
Sit still without moving and without doing anything (cross-legged, lotus or half-lotus position, or even in a chair)
Feel free to cultivate slowness at other times of the day: in the street, walking slowly, or during meals.

Eye exercise

Among the exercises to cultivate slowness, we offer you this one to slow down eye movement.

Take a comfortable position (sitting, lying down, in a meditation pose if you can!)

Keep your eyes open

Become aware of your eye movement without changing your usual movements for a minute or two

Form the intention to fix your gaze
Fix your gaze (preferably downward but feel free to choose what suits you).
For a few minutes, remain still while staying aware of what is happening around you. This will allow you to quickly notice when your gaze has involuntarily shifted.

After 2-3 minutes of immobility, stay aware of your eye movement and slowly move your gaze to different places in the room.

It is important not to force immobility too much! You must find a balance between firmness and relaxation. Again, feel free to practice this exercise at other times of the day!

The feeling of security

Remembering that you are lucky to have a roof, a warm bed, and food can help reassure your subconscious and help you fall asleep faster – these are things that seem normal to you, but we often forget how lucky you are because that is not the case for everyone!

If you practice a religion, don't hesitate to pray; it strengthens the feeling of protection and security.

Feeling comfortable in your bed

Try to feel comfortable in your bed and not too hot (unless that is comfortable for you). Cultivate the sensation of comfort by snuggling into your sheets or visualizing a pleasant place.

A small pleasant ritual before going to bed

Establishing a small ritual helps reprogram the brain and sends it the signal that it is time to go to bed and fall asleep. Try to find a relaxing, pleasant ritual that will ease the transition to a resting state:

Read a book (the least thrilling possible and certainly not the news!)
A prayer if you are a practicing believer (if you are a non-practicing believer, we also recommend trying prayer, it is very effective)
Think of people you love or admire
Writing (slowly)
Coloring
Listen to relaxing music
Take a shower / a hot bath
Drink an herbal tea

Meditation on comfort and well-being

Little things to do to fully benefit during your meditation exercises.

Recall a pleasant moment: a holiday memory, the face of one of your children, an achievement, anything positive!
Savor the experience, make it last about ten seconds or more
Pay special attention to the emotions and sensations that arise within you, let them spread through your body, and don't hesitate to fully indulge in them.

This meditation is supposed to promote the secretion of oxytocin, also called the love hormone! It is taken from the book The Buddha's Brain, a scientific approach to different types of meditation.

If you have trouble falling asleep, it's probably because you ask yourself too many questions that fuel an internal dialogue: about your life, your relationships, your work, and even your sleep.

This physiologically results in the secretion of neurotransmitters that stimulate the wakefulness center and block falling asleep. Try to fall asleep in front of an exciting movie... not easy, right?

How to do it?

The first strategy is to eliminate all exciting activities. Before going to bed, avoid thinking about problems that could upset you: emotional issues, money problems, etc. We are not asking you not to think about them, thoughts arise on their own and you cannot control them - however, you can choose not to encourage them by ruminating.

The second strategy is to do a small mental exercise of about 10 minutes (before going to bed and using Dodow):

Form the intention to lose interest in everything: the intention is very important because our brain obeys the orders we give it only if the goal is clearly stated. To strengthen this intention, don't hesitate to imagine an embodiment of the 'I don't care' attitude: someone you know, or even someone fictional (like The Dude in the movie The Big Lebowski).
Focus your attention on your thoughts (usually it's a little voice you hear in your head)
Each time a thought arises, stay with it a little and observe it (being present, that is, being aware that you are thinking... you follow?)
Tell yourself internally: "I don't care" or "I'm not interested" or any equivalent that suits you. Simulate a genuine disinterest in your thoughts and their content.

Example: you think "I'm not going to sleep tonight, I'll be exhausted tomorrow." Say: "I don't care"! Or rather, become aware of your attempt to simulate disinterest in disinterest. Capisce?
By repeating the process, you will gradually lose interest in your thoughts and realize that, in the end, these thoughts are not very exciting.