15 sleep tips that actually work
- Keep a consistent schedule. Same bedtime and wake time every day, weekends included. Your body clock locks onto regularity faster than anything else.
- Get morning light. Bright light within an hour of waking anchors your circadian rhythm. Step outside — even on cloudy days it's far brighter than indoor light.
- Make it dark. Blackout curtains or an eye mask. Even small amounts of light can fragment sleep without fully waking you.
- Keep it cool. Around 65°F (18°C) is the sweet spot for most people — your core temperature needs to drop to fall asleep.
- Set a screen curfew. Put phones and laptops away 30–60 minutes before bed. It's the stimulating content, not just the light, that keeps you wired.
- Build a wind-down routine. 20–30 minutes of the same calming steps each night — shower, book, stretching — teaches your brain that sleep is coming.
- Cut caffeine early. Caffeine's half-life is 5–6 hours, so set a cutoff 8–10 hours before bed. Afternoon coffee is still in your system at midnight.
- Watch alcohol. A nightcap may make you drowsy, but it fragments the second half of the night and suppresses REM sleep.
- Exercise — but not too late. Regular daytime exercise deepens sleep. Finish vigorous workouts at least 2–3 hours before bed.
- Nap smart. Keep naps to 10–20 minutes and before mid-afternoon, or take a full 90-minute cycle. Long late naps steal from tonight.
- Don't clock-watch. Staring at the time fuels anxiety about not sleeping. Turn the clock face away and let your body do its job.
- Get up if you're stuck. If you're awake after ~20 minutes, get up, do something calm and dimly lit, and return when drowsy. Bed should mean sleep, not frustration.
- Keep the bed for sleep. Work, scrolling, and TV in bed train your brain to associate the bed with wakefulness.
- Eat lighter at night. Heavy, spicy, or very late meals can disrupt sleep. If you're hungry, a small snack beats going to bed starving.
- Time your wake-up to cycles. Waking between 90-minute sleep cycles feels far easier than waking mid–deep-sleep — use our bedtime calculator or wake-up time calculator to plan it.
For babies and young kids
The fundamentals above apply to the whole family, but little ones need a few extras:
- Respect wake windows. A baby who's been up too long gets overtired and sleeps worse, not better. Our newborn wake window calculator tells you when the next nap should land.
- Keep the routine short and consistent. Bath, book, song, bed — the same order every night signals what's coming.
- Put them down drowsy but awake. This teaches self-settling, so brief wake-ups between their short 50–60 minute cycles don't turn into full wake-ups.
- Use white noise and darkness. Both help babies bridge sleep cycles and nap longer during the day.
- Watch the last nap. A late or long final nap pushes bedtime back — the toddler bedtime calculator balances naps against bedtime for you.
These tips are general information, not medical advice. If you or your child snore heavily, gasp during sleep, or struggle with persistent insomnia or daytime sleepiness, consider speaking with a healthcare professional.