8 Habits that Support Great Sleep: Sleep hygiene basics
Sleep is an active brain process, heavily influenced by behavior, timing, and environment. Everyone sleeps, but deep, high-quality, refreshing, great sleep takes some effort.
“Sleep hygiene” refers to the habits that support consistently great sleep. Sleep hygiene does not cure sleep disorders, but it does set the foundation for good sleep.
Whether you’re a decent sleeper already or you’ve been struggling with mediocre nights for years, a few habits done consistently have enormous payoffs for your sleep. Try them. You won’t regret a great night of sleep!
Timing is everything
Sleep and circadian (internal clock) circuits are separate in the brain, but they interact closely. The circadian clock sets the time span when you are capable of getting the best quality sleep.
Think of a swing on a playground, and how high you go on the swing is how well you sleep. The inputs into your circadian clock are equivalent to when you “pump” your legs on a swing. Get the timing right, and you’ll be flying!
So the number one rule of sleep hygiene is:
Get up at the same time every day.
If you sleep in on non-work days, sleep in an hour, max.
Less critical but still very important: Go to bed at the same time each day. This should be about 7-9 hours before you wake up.
2. Use light strategically
Light is the strongest input to the circadian clock. In fact, there is a whole separate pathway from the eyes to the master clock, the retinohypothalamic tract. Use it!
Remove light from your sleeping environment: Get light blocking shades or wear an eye mask. Block sources of light (on clocks, devices, etc).
Stop looking at screens and dim the lights after sunset, or at least an hour before bedtime.
Get light, ideally sunlight, first thing when you wake up. Open the shades, go outside, turn on bright lights, eat breakfast next to a big window. Getting morning light “sets” the clock.
3. Set the stage
The best sleep happens in dark, cool, calm, and quiet environments.
Set the thermostat to mid-60’s Fahrenheit
Remove light from the bedroom (see above)
Get rid of the TV, phone, computer, tablet, and other distractors
Create a calming atmosphere. If your bedroom is cluttered and messy, clean it. Start with your nightstand.
For people with congestion: remove allergens!
If it’s noisy, wear earplugs or use a fan or white noise machine
If pets or people are disturbing the peace: move them, or move yourself to another place to sleep.
4. Manage sleep pressure
Sleep pressure is the drive that puts you to sleep. It starts building up the moment you wake up, and dissipates rapidly as soon as you fall asleep. While short naps can be great, if you doze later in the day, it can keep you from falling asleep when you go to bed at night.
[Read: How to take the perfect power nap]
Make sure you are building up enough sleep pressure by bedtime. If you have trouble falling asleep at night, don’t take naps at all.
If you tend to doze in the afternoons and evenings, don’t do the thing that lets you doze: TV, reading, scrolling. If you absolutely must do those things, incorporate them into your bedtime routine.
5. Wind down properly
It takes time to wind down from the day and transition to a relaxed state and eventually fall asleep. In fact, if you can abruptly go from rushing around to passing out asleep, like a light switch… that is not normal and usually means you are sleep deprived.
Create a routine to transition to bedtime. Just like children benefit from a bedtime routine, so do adults! A typical routine involves dimming the lights, closing out the day, doing something relaxing, and intentionally calming your mind.
Check out my Bedtime Blueprint to create a personalized routine for yourself!
6. Sleep in bed
“Stimulus control” is a fancy behavioral sleep medicine term to mean controlling the stimuli that we are exposed to in the bedroom.
Basically, use the bedroom for sleep and sex only.
If you are awake in bed, that just trains you to be better at being awake in bed! Especially for people who have trouble sleeping, spending time lounging, reading, eating, scrolling, or doing other things in bed just makes them… really great at being awake in bed.
If you do find yourself awake for long periods in bed, go be awake somewhere else. If this is a frequent occurrence, set out something calm and quiet to do (reading, puzzles, crafts… not a phone/tablet) in another room before you go to bed.
[Read: What not to do when you wake up at 3AM]
7. Don’t sabotage your sleep
Alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine are the most common sleep wreckers.
Alcohol ruins your sleep. Really, alcohol is terrible for your sleep, especially in the second half of the night.
Did you used to be able to drink alcohol and still sleep fine, but now you can’t? That is called aging and happens to everyone.
If you drink, try not drinking for a month or two. You will probably be pleasantly surprised by how much it improves your sleep, especially the dreaded 3AM wakeups!
Caffeine earlier in the day is usually metabolized by the time people go to sleep. But some people have caffeine late into the evening (espresso martinis being an extremely terrible cocktail of both caffeine and alcohol!), or may metabolize it slower, or just be more sensitive to it.
If you’re one of those people who claim that “caffeine doesn’t affect me” or “I can fall asleep after a pot of coffee”… this generally indicates you are chronically deprived of good sleep! Also, even if people fall asleep with caffeine in their system, the quality and depth of their sleep suffer.
Stop caffeine by early afternoon, or even by noon if you are sensitive.
Nicotine and other stimulants also wreck your sleep. Quit! Seriously, no excuses.
8. Bonus: Exercise
Exercise helps with sleep quality: read the series on why and how exercise is great for sleep
Part 1: How exercise improves sleep
Part 2: Why exercise improves sleep
Part 3: The best type, timing, and amount of sleep
Regular, moderate exercise of any kind helps with sleep quality.
Takeaway: 8 Sleep hygiene rules
Get up at the same time every day— sleep in an hour max. Also, go to bed at the same time every day.
Get bright light first thing in the morning, and avoid light (and screens) in the evening, at night, and especially in the bedroom.
Make your bedroom calm, quiet, cool, and dark
No napping or dozing later in the day
Keep a wind-down routine at bedtime
Bed should be used for sleep (and sex) only, not being awake
No alcohol, late caffeine, nicotine, or other sleep-wreckers
Bonus: exercise regularly
Individually, these may seem small. Collectively, they shape whether your brain can generate deep, restorative sleep.
Note that sleep hygiene is necessary, but not always sufficient, for great sleep. Sleep hygiene is not a cure-all for sleep disorders.
Symptoms like
Chronic insomnia
Loud snoring or stopping breathing (apnea)
Restless legs symptoms
Excessive daytime sleepiness
may indicate other sleep disorders — if you have any of them, please see a sleep doctor for individualized assessment and treatment.
Great sleep doesn’t require perfection. Small, steady habits can meaningfully improve how you sleep. You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Start with one or two anchors from the list above, and let the benefits build momentum before you add more.
