Can’t sleep? Start here with a proven, natural method to restore healthy sleep.
Step 1: Stop Doing Things That Keep You Awake
Small habits can quietly wreck your sleep. Here’s what to cut:
- Use your bed for sleep (and intimacy) only. Don’t watch TV, scroll your phone, or work in bed. Your brain needs to connect “bed” with “sleep” — not with being awake.
- Darkness. Screens, energy-efficient lights, and electronic devices give off blue light, which tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime. Wear blue-light-blocking glasses in the evening, 1 to 2 hours before bed, and keep your room as dark as possible. Even a quick flash of light can disrupt melatonin, the hormone that helps you sleep.
- Morning light. Get more morning light. Use a lamp on a timer to wake you up naturally. You can also use a dawn simulator that creates a virtual sunrise in your room. Morning light improves wakefulness in the morning and shuts down melatonin, setting the biological clock so you’ll sleep better at night.
- Exercise. Aerobic activity deepens sleep. You can do it at anytime of day, ideally around 30 minutes a day.
- No caffeine after 2:00 pm. Caffeine blocks one of your natural sleep medicines: adenosine. That means coffee, tea, sodas, and chocolate (dark chocolate is high in caffeine).
- Reduce alcohol. It might help you fall asleep, but alcohol wrecks the quality of your rest — and over time, causes insomnia. If you’ve been drinking for a long time, you’re sleep won’t improve right away — and may even worsen — when you stop, but you’ll enjoy deeper sleep and better mornings down the road.
- Wind-down routine. In the 30 to 60 minutes before bed, do something relaxing. Reading, stretching, soothing music, or a quiet hobby works great. Avoid problem-solving or anything stimulating.
- Cool down your room. A cooler bedroom deepens sleep, ideally 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 2: Reset Your Sleep Clock
Wake up at the same time every morning — no matter what. This is the single most important habit you can build. Getting up at the same time every day resets your internal clock. Going to bed at the same time matters less.
Skip the naps. I know it’s tempting, but daytime naps reset the biological clock, which means it will take longer for your natural sleep signals to kick in (melatonin and adenosine).
Step 3: Train Your Body to Sleep in Bed
Insomnia creates a frustrating loop. When you lie in bed worrying about sleep, your body learns to associate the bed with staying awake. These steps break that cycle.
Only go to bed when you’re truly tired — not just because it’s a certain time.
Can’t fall asleep after 20 to 30 minutes? Get up. Sit in a dark, quiet room and do nothing until you feel bored and drowsy. Stay in the dark or wear blue-light blocking glasses. Try relaxation exercises.
When you feel sleepy again, go back to bed.
Repeat as needed, and wake up at your set time no matter how little you slept. If you only slept one hour? That’s okay. Skipping naps the next day will build up more sleepiness, causing sleep-inducing neuromodulators like adenosine to rise. You’ll fall asleep faster the following night.
Sleep Anxiety: The Vicious Cycle
You have to try hard to fall asleep, but not at night. Pour that effort into the morning — getting and staying out of bed. At night, don’t try to fall asleep. When you try to do anything, your brain shifts into alert mode, and it’s hard to fall asleep in that state.
Anxiety has the same effect — raising alert and keeping you up. If you’re worried or afraid, your brain will do anything it can to stay awake and protect you, even if the thing you’re worried about is whether you can fall asleep. If anxiety is keeping you up, talk to your doctor, NP, or therapist about solutions.
Need More Help?
These steps take a few weeks to work. If they don’t work, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia offers a more intensive approach that directly harnesses your body’s natural sleep medicines — adenosine and melatonin. It includes most of the steps here, but takes them further, creating a personalized bedtime schedule engineered to restore your sleep. It’s also available through an app.
— Adapted from the Depression and Bipolar Workbook by Chris Aiken, MD
