✅ Sleep Hygiene
Sleep Hygiene
Tips & Checklist
A practical checklist for your bedroom, your evening routine and your daytime habits, based on sleep research, with a printable version at the end.
What Is Sleep Hygiene?
Sleep hygiene is the set of everyday habits and bedroom conditions that make good sleep more likely.
The term covers simple, practical things: when you go to bed and get up, how bright and warm your bedroom is, what you eat and drink in the evening, and how active you are during the day. None of these habits forces sleep. Together, they remove the obstacles that keep your body and brain from settling down at night.
A review of the research found reasonable evidence behind several common recommendations, including regular exercise, managing stress, reducing noise, keeping a regular sleep schedule and limiting caffeine, alcohol and nicotine. The same review also found that sleep hygiene on its own is usually not enough to treat insomnia — it works best as a foundation.[1]
This page is organised as a checklist. Work through the three zones — bedroom, evening routine and daytime — and tick off what you already do. If your main problem is lying awake at bedtime tonight, start with our guide on how to fall asleep fast, then come back here to build habits for the long term.
The Sleep Hygiene Checklist
Three zones, the habits that matter most, and what the research shows
🛏️ BEDROOM
Heat and humidity increase wakefulness and reduce deep and REM sleep.
Blackout curtains, an eye mask or earplugs block common sleep disruptors.
🌙 EVENING ROUTINE
Room light before bed delayed melatonin onset in 99% of people.
Caffeine 6 hours before bed still cut sleep by more than 1 hour.
Alcohol disrupts sleep in the second half of the night.
☀️ DAYTIME
Irregular sleepers had a later body clock than regular sleepers.
Exercise has small-to-moderate benefits for sleep quality and length.
Bedroom Checklist: Set Up Your Space for Sleep
Your bedroom should signal one thing to your brain: this is where I sleep.
- 1
Keep it cool
A warm, humid room increases wakefulness and reduces deep sleep and REM sleep.[2] Many people sleep best in a cool room with breathable bedding. Adjust layers rather than turning the heating up.
- 2
Make it dark
Use blackout curtains or an eye mask, and cover or remove standby lights. Even ordinary room light around bedtime suppresses melatonin, the hormone that signals night to your body.[6]
- 3
Make it quiet
Noise is one of the sleep hygiene factors with research support.[1] Earplugs, a fan or steady background sound can mask traffic and household noise.
- 4
Use the bed for sleep
Avoid working, gaming or scrolling in bed. Over time this keeps the bed linked with sleep rather than alertness.
- 5
Choose comfortable bedding
A mattress and pillow that support you without pain are worth the investment. Replace them when they sag or cause aches.
- 6
Move the clock
Turn the clock away from you so you cannot check the time during the night, a habit that adds stress.
Evening Routine Checklist: The Last 3 Hours
What you do in the hours before bed shapes how ready your body is for sleep.
Dim the lights 2–3 hours before bed. In a controlled study, ordinary room light before bed delayed melatonin onset in 99% of people and shortened the melatonin night by about 90 minutes.[6] Switch to lamps and warm, low light, and turn screens down or use night mode.
Set a caffeine cut-off. Caffeine taken 6 hours before bed still reduced total sleep by more than 1 hour.[3] For most people that means no coffee, energy drinks or strong tea after early afternoon. Work out your personal cut-off with the Caffeine Half-Life Calculator.
Skip the nightcap. Alcohol can make you drowsy, but it disrupts sleep in the second half of the night.[7] Keep it moderate and well before bedtime.
Finish heavy meals earlier. A large or spicy meal right before bed can cause discomfort. Aim to finish dinner a few hours before lights out; a light snack is fine if you are hungry.
Build a wind-down routine. A short, repeatable routine — tidying up, a warm shower, reading a printed book, writing tomorrow’s to-do list — tells your brain the day is over. For specific techniques to use once you are in bed, see how to fall asleep fast.
Daytime Habits Checklist
Good sleep starts in the morning. Daytime habits set your body clock and build healthy sleep pressure.
Keep a regular sleep and wake time. In a study of university students, those with irregular sleep schedules had later body clocks and poorer academic performance than regular sleepers, even when total sleep was similar.[5] Try to wake at the same time every day, weekends included. If your schedule has already drifted, use our plan to reset your circadian rhythm.
Get morning daylight. Light soon after waking helps anchor your body clock, making you sleepy at a sensible time at night. Learn why in Circadian Rhythm Explained.
Exercise regularly. A meta-analysis found that regular exercise has small-to-moderate benefits for total sleep time, sleep efficiency and sleep quality.[4] Any time of day that fits your schedule is better than none.
Nap wisely. Short, early naps can help, but long late-afternoon naps reduce sleep pressure at night. See our guide to the best time to take a nap.
Get enough sleep overall. Habits only help if you give yourself enough time in bed. Check your target in How Much Sleep Do I Need?
Your Sleep Hygiene Checklist
Print this page or save it, then tick off each habit for a week. Focus on two or three changes at a time.
| ✔ | Habit | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| ☐ | Bedroom is cool, dark and quiet | Bedroom |
| ☐ | Bed used only for sleep (no work or scrolling) | Bedroom |
| ☐ | Clock turned away from the bed | Bedroom |
| ☐ | Lights dimmed 2–3 hours before bed | Evening |
| ☐ | No caffeine within 6 hours of bedtime | Evening |
| ☐ | No alcohol as a sleep aid | Evening |
| ☐ | Dinner finished a few hours before bed | Evening |
| ☐ | Same 30–60 minute wind-down routine every night | Evening |
| ☐ | Same wake-up time every day, including weekends | Daytime |
| ☐ | Daylight within an hour of waking | Daytime |
| ☐ | Some exercise most days | Daytime |
| ☐ | Naps short and before mid-afternoon | Daytime |
When Sleep Hygiene Is Not Enough
Good habits help most people, but they are not a treatment for sleep disorders.
If you have followed a consistent routine for several weeks and still have trouble sleeping three or more nights a week, feel very sleepy during the day, snore loudly or stop breathing during sleep, talk to a doctor. Insomnia, sleep apnoea, restless legs and circadian rhythm disorders need proper assessment. Sleep hygiene alone is generally not enough to treat chronic insomnia.[1]
Track how much sleep you are missing with the Sleep Debt Calculator and how well you sleep with the Sleep Efficiency Calculator.
This guide is for general education about healthy sleep. It is not a diagnosis or a treatment plan, and it does not replace advice from a qualified healthcare professional.
🛏️ Put Your Checklist Into Practice
Choose a bedtime that fits your wake-up time and sleep cycles.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sleep Hygiene
Keep a regular wake-up time, keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet, dim the lights in the evening, avoid caffeine within about 6 hours of bed, avoid alcohol as a sleep aid and get regular exercise and daylight.
Most people notice changes after one to three weeks of consistent habits. Sleep hygiene is about long-term patterns rather than a quick fix for one night.
Usually not on its own. Sleep hygiene is a useful foundation, but chronic insomnia is best treated with approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Speak to a doctor if problems last.
There is no single perfect number, but a cool room generally works best. Heat and humidity increase wakefulness and reduce deep and REM sleep.
Bright screens in the evening can delay your body clock, and using the bed for scrolling links it with alertness. Dim the screen, use night mode or leave the phone outside the bedroom.
Not for most people. Regular exercise improves sleep overall. If a very intense late workout keeps you wired, move it a little earlier.
Related Sleep Resources
Put this guide into practice with our free calculators and in-depth guides.
References & Further Reading
- Irish LA, et al. (2015). The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: a review of empirical evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 22, 23–36. PubMed 25454674 · doi:10.1016/j.smrv.2014.10.001
- Okamoto-Mizuno K, Mizuno K. (2012). Effects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm. Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 31, 14. PubMed 22738673 · doi:10.1186/1880-6805-31-14
- Drake C, et al. (2013). Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 9(11), 1195–1200. PubMed 24235903 · doi:10.5664/jcsm.3170
- Kredlow MA, et al. (2015). The effects of physical activity on sleep: a meta-analytic review. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 38(3), 427–449. PubMed 25596964 · doi:10.1007/s10865-015-9617-6
- Phillips AJK, et al. (2017). Irregular sleep/wake patterns are associated with poorer academic performance and delayed circadian and sleep/wake timing. Scientific Reports, 7, 3216. PubMed 28607474 · doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03171-4
- Gooley JJ, et al. (2011). Exposure to room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin onset and shortens melatonin duration in humans. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 96(3), E463–E472. PubMed 21193540 · doi:10.1210/jc.2010-2098
- Ebrahim IO, et al. (2013). Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 37(4), 539–549. PubMed 23347102 · doi:10.1111/acer.12006