A great night’s sleep is the foundation on which everything else rests – your diet, your mood, your ability to focus, your desire to exercise and ultimately, your health.
Getting a good night’s sleep isn’t rocket science – after all, what could be more natural than allowing your body to follow its natural rhythm? But sleep advice is often overcomplicated and, as a result, can feel overwhelming.
To cut through the noise, our resident sleep expert, Christabel Majendie, shares five simple steps you can start following today to improve your sleep.
Find a sleep schedule that works for you and stick to it
Sleep needs vary from person to person. While most adults thrive on 7–9 hours per night, some may need more—or less. Equally, not everyone is ready for sleep at the same time and not everyone is ready to wake up at the same time.
To identify your natural sleep pattern, go to bed when sleepy and wake naturally without an alarm for two days in a row. It’s best to do this when you have no social engagements in the evening and nothing to get up for in the morning.
Observe the time you feel sleepy in the evening. Note that sleepiness is different to tiredness, and occurs when you start feeling like you will nod off and have increased yawning. This will reveal your optimal bedtime. Similarly, track the time you consistently wake without an alarm to pinpoint your natural wake time.
Once you’ve established your unique bedtime and wakeup time, establish a regular sleep schedule based on these findings and stick to it—even on weekends. Consistency is key!
Wind down
Pinpointing your unique sleep schedule is just the first step to better rest. Once you've found your ideal bedtime, set a recurring alarm on your phone about an hour (or less, depending on your preferred routine) beforehand. This alarm will remind you to begin your nightly wind-down routine—a consistent series of steps you follow at the same time every evening.
Make turning off this alarm the last time you interact with a screen before bed. Screens emit stimulating blue light that can interfere with your circadian rhythm, making it harder to fall asleep. If you find you need something to focus on when you get into bed, try reading a book instead, and only use your phone to set a wake up alarm.
Another important factor in improving sleep quality is managing your evening eating habits. Try to avoid eating within two hours of bedtime, as this can lead to indigestion, increase the risk of acid reflux, and disrupt the body's natural overnight fasting process, which supports metabolic health. If you do need a snack close to bedtime, choose lighter, nutrient-rich options to minimize these effects and help you wind down more smoothly.
Maximise daytime light exposure
We need bright light exposure during the day for melatonin production later in the evening, a hormone involved in sleep regulation. The best source of bright light is natural daylight, even on a cloudy day. Unfortunately, many of us spend the majority of our time indoors, depriving our bodies of this essential stimulus.
This can make us feel tired during the day and struggle to sleep at night. Aim to get as much natural daylight as possible by spending more time outside. Since exercise improves the quality of your sleep, combining light exposure with exercise is ideal.
Try taking a walk or going for a run in the morning or at lunchtime. Walking or cycling to and from work is also a good option to factor daylight exposure into your daily routine.
Cut down on alcohol & caffeine
There is no denying that alcohol is disruptive to sleep. Although it can help send you into a deep sleep initially, alcohol tends to fragment your sleep so you wake several times in the night or early in the morning and find you cannot return to sleep. In addition, alcohol suppresses REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep), which is critical for memory, learning, and emotional regulation, so alcohol can leave you feeling groggy and irritable the next day.
So to improve your sleep quality, aim to cut down on alcohol consumption, and ideally stop drinking in the last couple of hours before bed so your body has a chance to metabolise it before sleep.
Similarly, too much caffeine can affect your sleep. Around five hours after drinking your last cup of coffee of the day, about half the caffeine is still in your system. This is why people often stop drinking coffee after lunchtime so that by the time they go to bed, the stimulating effects have worn off. So as with alcohol, think about the timing and quantity of your coffee consumption and stop earlier in the day for the best chance of a good night’s sleep.
Create a sleep-conducive environment
With the exception of sex, your bedroom should be used almost exclusively for sleeping. Ditch the TV and any other daytime activities that you do in bed such as eating, drinking tea, working or playing games on laptops, iPads and phones. If you do these things in bed, you will weaken the associations your brain makes between the bedroom and sleep. Instead, the bedroom may become associated with wakefulness.
In addition, aim to make your bedroom as comfortable as possible. Use pillows that suit your sleeping position to prevent putting a strain on your neck or back. Consider investing in a new mattress if yours is old, lumpy or too hard/soft for your personal preference. Use the right bedding for the time of year and use materials made from natural fibres as these are far better at regulating body temperature.
