My secret life as a Perfetionist: How to Go to Bed Early

Are you tired of those restless nights? If so, read for a solution that fits you!

Steps

1
Acknowledge that it is late. For most of the people who go to bed late it is mostly a problem of mentality. You look at the clock and think "2:00 AM. Oh, no problem. I've still got plenty of time". No, you don't. When you make it a habit to go to bed way past midnight, your idea of late becomes an increasingly later hour. So, the next time you look at the clock and see it's past 11:30 PM (or any time you would consider 'early'), abandon everything you were doing at that time and start hurrying to go to bed. The first step in starting to go to bed early is redefining your idea of 'early' and 'late'.
2
Give yourself reasons for going to bed earlier. One good incentive is recalling a time (or several) when your lateness in getting to bed had disastrous results: you overslept, ended up being late, didn't function well at work or school, became sick, etc. Also, if you're a habitual night owl (e.g. college student), this will give you a chance to see that rarest of natural phenomena: a sunrise! Staying up through the night to see the sunrise does not count!
3
Determine what time you need to wake up. "Well, most of the time I wake-up at 7:00 AM, but sometimes I wake-up at 6:00 AM to do homework" isn't a good answer. If you planned on waking up at 6:00 then you would think that going to bed an hour earlier would make up for it, but you wouldn't be tired at said bedtime, so you would lie in bed for an hour and only get 7 hours of sleep. Your wake-up time needs to be the same every day except for rare occasions. Weekends are not rare.
4
Subtract 8 hours from the time you wake up. Determine how long it actually takes you to fall asleep. Don't glance at the alarm clock constantly to test this, just think whether you lie in bed for what seems for hours, or does your head barely hit the pillow? If the first one is the case you should subtract one hour from the time you have. If your head barely hits the pillow you only need about five minutes in bed before your -8 hour time. If you're somewhere in between 30 minutes should be a safe amount of time to be in bed before you need to fall asleep.
5
Do something calming and sleep inducing before bedtime. The computer may be calming but your brain naturally makes you sleepy when it is dark, so by staring at a screen you are keeping yourself alert and wide-awake for longer than you should. A shower is an excellent thing to do before bed. Reading is another good bedtime habit, particularly nonfiction. Make your activity a routine. This helps.
6
Go to bed right when you start feeling tired. The best time to go to bed is when you can't stop yawning and feel the need to just close your eyes and lay your head down. If you force yourself to stay awake, after this stage is over, you'll have a slight headache because of tiredness, but stop feeling that urge to go to sleep, which makes you stay awake even more.
7
Be strict about your bedtime. Force yourself to turn off the computer and TV before bed. By turning off the computer (not the monitor) you would have to wait for it to reboot and normally that is enough to persuade you to get off the computer. Throw the remote for your TV across the room or onto the floor (gently). Getting up to turn on the TV hardly seems worth it, huh?
8
After you have been following a bed time for a week or so, if you are still tired or very unwilling to get up in the morning you may still owe yourself a few hours. Let yourself sleep way in on the weekend. Do this a few times and you will probably no longer feel the need to sleep in on the weekends. That's good. That means that you get enough sleep every night. If you keep wanting to get up earlier than your wake-up time then go to bed a little later. Some people need less sleep than others and you may no longer have to go to bed an hour early anymore because of your routine.
9
Reward yourself for your discipline. Treat yourself to a movie for every two weeks you successfully get to bed early. Notice how much better you feel in your day-to-day life, in school, or at your job. If you're getting somewhere around 8 hours of sleep per night, and at the right time, you'll probably notice a dramatic increase in your physical and mental health!