New Year's resolutions you should make based on science — and how to keep them by Kevin Loria on Dec 29, 2017, 12:35 PM Advertisement
 The most common New Year's resolutions tend to be vague goals intended to "get your life together" by losing weight, eating healthier food, or exercising more. But most people don't successfully follow through on their resolutions — largely because they're so general and non-specific. That's where science can help. Using specific, science-backed resolutions, you can boost your chances of successfully transforming your life in the New Year. These are some of our favorite resolution ideas, all backed by recent science. Some have to do with fitness, others diet or health, others productivity, and some are simply designed to help you maximize happiness. You don't need to attempt all at once, but pick one or two that'll get you closest to your goals. SEE ALSO: How to make this the winter you finally stay in shape To help you lose weight, eat healthier, and feel better, resolve to fix your sleeping habits.  Recent research shows that getting enough sleep makes it easier to avoid cravings for unhealthy foods, keep off excess weight, and that it's key for psychological health. In the long run, sleep could be even more important: in several studies published in the summer of 2017, researchers demonstrated that after disrupted sleep, individuals had higher levels of proteins associated with Alzheimer's and dementia in the brain. And as sleep expert Matthew Walker, author of the new book, "Why We Sleep," recently told Business Insider, you really can't get by on six or seven hours of sleep — the vast majority of people need an average of eight hours a night. To improve your sleep, experts recommend going to bed and getting up at the same time every night, improving your sleep environment, and avoiding screens for at least a half hour before bed, if not longer. If you're struggling with insomnia, there are science-backed tips for that too.
Resolve to get moving  Yes, exercise resolutions are common, but there's a good reason for them. Along with fixing your sleep, there's little that will have such a transformative effect on your life. Exercise provides such a laundry list of physical and mental health benefits that it's basically the closest thing we have to a wonder drug. Not only will exercise do everything from improve your heart health to boost your sex drive, all while improving your sleep and mood, recent research has shown that working out may help keep the brain young, improve memory, and fight cognitive impairment. The trick is figuring out the exercise resolution that's going to work for you — saying you'll "go to the gym (more)" probably won't cut it.
If it fits your schedule, make an early morning cardio workout a new habit  Morning workouts aren't for everyone, but experts say that if you can get some morning exercise in that'll get your heart going and get you some morning sunlight, that'll kickstart your circadian rhythm, which will both wake you up for the day and make it easier for you to sleep at night. Getting a good amount of cardio exercise seems to be strongly linked to many of the biggest benefits of exercise, and if you can do this in the morning, there's recent research suggesting that morning is best time of day to work out to lose weight. To provide motivation to follow-through with your morning run, swim, or ride, experts suggest working towards a goal (like a race) so you have a concrete objective, training with a friend, and making it competitive.
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