Better sleep: understanding the everyday habits that matter

Why sleep matters

Sleep is when your body and mind recover from the day. After a poor night, many people feel tired, find it harder to concentrate or feel more irritable than usual.

Occasional bad nights are common and usually settle on their own. When sleep problems happen regularly, small changes to everyday habits often help.

How much sleep people need

Sleep needs vary between people and change through life. As a general guide, the NHS says most adults need 7 to 9 hours a night, children 9 to 13 hours, and toddlers and babies 12 to 17 hours.

How you feel during the day is a useful sign. If you regularly wake up unrefreshed and feel tired during the day, it may be worth looking at your sleep habits.

A regular routine

Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same times helps your body learn when it is time to sleep. Keeping to similar times on days off helps too.

It can help to go to bed only when you feel sleepy, and to get up at your usual time after a poor night rather than sleeping in. Daytime naps can make it harder to sleep at night, and NHS advice on insomnia suggests avoiding them.

An hour or so of winding down before bed can help your mind settle. Reading, calm music or breathing exercises are common choices.

Your bedroom

Many people sleep best in a room that is quiet, dark and comfortably cool. Curtains or blinds, an eye mask, earplugs and putting your phone on silent can all help, as can a comfortable mattress, pillows and covers.

Screens can make it harder to fall asleep. A common suggestion is to put phones, tablets and laptops away for about an hour before bed.

Caffeine, alcohol and food

Caffeine, found in tea, coffee and some soft drinks, can keep you awake. Alcohol and nicotine can also disturb sleep, and a large meal late in the evening can make it harder to drop off.

Caffeine can affect sleep for many hours. In one small study, 400 mg of caffeine taken 6 hours before bed still disturbed sleep, and NHS advice on insomnia is to avoid caffeine in the 6 hours before bed. Alcohol can help you fall asleep, but it tends to disturb sleep later in the night. The same NHS advice is to avoid alcohol and smoking in those 6 hours too.

Stress, worries and activity

Worries can feel bigger at night. Writing them down, or making a short list of tomorrow’s tasks before bed, can help clear your mind. Talking things through with someone you trust during the day can help too.

Regular physical activity can help you sleep, even in small amounts. Exercise late in the evening keeps some people awake: NHS advice on insomnia suggests avoiding it in the 4 hours before bed, and moving activity earlier in the day may help.

If you cannot sleep, try not to force it. If you are still awake after about 20 minutes, get up and do something calm, then go back to bed when you feel sleepy.

When to talk to a clinician

It is worth talking to a GP or another healthcare professional if:

• changing your sleep habits has not helped
• you have had trouble sleeping for months
• poor sleep is making it hard to cope with daily life

A clinician can look for things that may be affecting your sleep, such as stress, anxiety or low mood, pain, other health conditions or medicines. For long-term sleep problems, a common approach is a type of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) designed for sleep, which helps change the thoughts and habits that keep people awake.

Sleeping tablets are not usually the first answer. When they are prescribed, it is generally only for a short time, because of side effects and the risk of dependence. Speak to a pharmacist or doctor before trying any sleep remedy, including ones sold without a prescription.

Questions to ask your clinician

• Could anything in my health or medicines be affecting my sleep?
• Which changes to my routine are most worth trying first?
• How long should I try those changes before we review things?
• Would a talking therapy for sleep problems be suitable, and how could I access it?
• Are there any sleep remedies I should avoid with my current medicines?