In this guide
It's half past eleven and your head is full of tomorrow. Or it's 3am and you're counting the hours to the alarm. Or it's been three weeks of short nights, and the plan is a long lie-in on Saturday.
Two things run your sleep. Sleep pressure builds the longer you're awake and drains while you sleep. Your body clock, set mainly by morning light, decides when in the day you feel sleepy. Evidence: solid Most sleep advice that works protects one or the other, and one of the simplest parts of it is in the morning: one wake-up time, kept. Evidence: decent
Some of what you've heard is oversold. "Eight hours for everyone": the expert consensus is at least seven for adults, most nights. That's a floor, and need varies from man to man. Evidence: solid Don't chase a number. "Catch up at the weekend": one lab study found it didn't undo the cost of a short week. Evidence: decent "Blue light is the problem": it plays a part, a smaller one than the headlines say. Evidence: decent What's on the screen may matter more. Evidence: worth trying "An hour before midnight is worth two" is a folk saying; I found no good evidence for it. Evidence: worth trying Mouth taping: a 2025 review found ten small studies, in people who breathe through the mouth or have sleep apnoea, where breathing stops and starts during sleep. Two showed a benefit. There's no good evidence for ordinary sleepers. Evidence: decent If your nose is often blocked, or you snore and nobody has checked why, don't tape your mouth shut. The review warns it could be unsafe there.
The rhythm
Get this part right and the rest matters less. One wake-up time, daylight early, and the sleep done on ordinary nights, not saved for the weekend.
Sleep
Same wake-up time, every day
Pick a wake-up time and keep it, weekends within an hour. Bad night or not.
no timeEvidence: decent
Energy
Daylight in the first hour
Get outside for ten minutes within an hour of waking. Overcast is fine. A window is a weak substitute.
10 minEvidence: decent
Sleep
The lie-in doesn't pay the debt back
Set this weekend's alarm no more than an hour after your weekday one. Get the missing sleep on ordinary nights, not on Saturday morning.
no timeEvidence: decent
Energy
Nap short or not at all
If you nap, ten to twenty minutes, early afternoon, alarm set. Longer or later costs you tonight.
20 minEvidence: decent
Sleep
The tracker isn't the doctor
For one week, don't open the sleep score in the morning. Judge the night by how you feel mid-morning.
no timeEvidence: worth trying
Before bed
The afternoon and evening. Mostly things to stop doing, plus a cooler room and a notebook.
Sleep
No caffeine after lunch
Last coffee before 2pm. Earlier if you're a bad sleeper.
no timeEvidence: decent
Sleep
Alcohol is not a sleep aid
If you drink, stop three hours before bed. On a bad-sleep week, none.
no timeEvidence: solid
Sleep
Phone out of the bedroom
Charge it somewhere else. Buy an alarm clock if that's the excuse.
no timeEvidence: decent
Sleep
No news first or last
No news or feeds in the first thirty minutes of the day or the last thirty before bed.
no timeEvidence: worth trying
Sleep
Write three lines before bed
Three things on your mind, one line each, plus one sentence on what you'll do tomorrow. Then close the notebook.
5 minEvidence: decent
Sleep
Cool the bedroom
Tonight, turn the bedroom heating down or open the window before bed. Cool room, warm covers.
no timeEvidence: decent
Sleep
Melatonin is modest, not magic
Before you try melatonin, keep one wake-up time and get morning daylight for a week. If you still want it, ask a pharmacist or doctor first.
no timeEvidence: decent
In the night
When you wake and can't get back: get up rather than fight it, and don't do the maths on the clock.
When it's happening right now: Awake at 3am, mind won't stop. After a run of bad nights: Sleep reset, six rules for a week.
See a doctor if you snore loudly with gasping or pauses, or you're sleepy in the day despite enough time in bed. That can be sleep apnoea, and it's worth a check.
The habits on this page help. On their own, they don't reliably fix long-running insomnia. Evidence: decent If you've slept badly three or more nights a week for three months or more, ask a doctor for CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia), not only pills. It's the recommended first treatment for long-running insomnia. Evidence: solid Part of it changes how long you spend in bed. Do that part with someone trained, not on your own.
Sleep
Awake in bed? Get up
Lying awake for what feels like twenty minutes: get up, sit somewhere dim, do something dull, go back when sleepy.
20 minEvidence: solid
Sleep
Sleep on your side
If you wake in the night on your back, turn onto your side. Pillow between the knees if the hips complain.
no timeEvidence: worth trying