Sleep hygiene

What It Means

Sleep hygiene is the set of daily habits and bedroom conditions that make it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) uses the term for this group of healthy sleep habits. Common examples include getting up at the same time every day, keeping the bedroom quiet and cool, and cutting off screens, caffeine, alcohol and big meals well ahead of bedtime.

How People Say It

• "My sleep hygiene has been awful since the new job."
• "Phones charge in the kitchen now, it's a sleep hygiene thing."
• "I'm trying to get up at the same time every day."

The Breakdown

Signs your sleep habits need work

• You feel sleepy in the daytime or find it hard to concentrate. AASM lists both as common signs of too little sleep.
• Your wake-up time on days off runs hours later than on workdays.
• The phone comes to bed with you.
• Coffee or soda is part of your late afternoon.
• Your biggest meal lands right before bed.

Quick self-check. Go through the ten habits in the tool above and tick the ones that are true most nights. Each one comes from CDC or AASM advice:

1. Same wake-up time every day, days off included
2. A bedtime that leaves room for at least 7 hours, the adult minimum from CDC and AASM
3. A quiet, dark, comfortably cool bedroom
4. TVs, computers and phones kept out of the bedroom
5. Screens off at least 30 minutes before bed
6. Large meals finished well before bedtime
7. Caffeine kept to the morning
8. Alcohol kept away from the hours before bed
9. Some exercise during the day
10. A relaxing routine before bed

With fewer than five ticks, pick the easiest gap and start there.

A way to start the conversation. With the people you live with: "Can we pick a time the TV goes off and charge our phones outside the bedroom?" With a doctor, if the habits are in place and nights are still hard: "I'm in bed for eight hours and still nod off at my desk. What could be going on?"

Where It Comes From

Sleep specialists have long credited sleep researcher Peter Hauri with the term. In 1977 he set out a list of sleep-promoting rules meant to ease insomnia, among them a regular bedtime and wake time, avoiding caffeine and regular exercise. A later historical note in the journalJournalingWriting down your thoughts and feelings, in a notebook or an app, to understand them more clearly and to see what's behind your stress. See more Neurological Sciences argued the idea is older, pointing to an 1864 book on hygiene by Paolo Mantegazza, a professor at the University of Pavia in Italy.

Good to Know

CDC and AASM both put adults at 7 or more hours of sleep a night. AASM adds that healthy sleep also depends on good quality, regular timing and the absence of sleep disorders. If you keep these habits and still have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or staying awake in the daytime, talk to a doctor.

Related Terms and Categories

• Sleep schedule

  The set times a person goes to bed and gets up each day, planned so they get the hours of sleep recommended for their age.

• Wind-down routine

  A set of calm, screen-free activities in the last part of the evening that helps you shift from being awake to falling asleep.

• Caffeine cutoff

  The time of day after which you stop having caffeine so it doesn't disturb sleep; CDC's NIOSH advises 5 or more hours before you plan to sleep.

• Circadian rhythm

  The body's roughly 24-hour cycle of physical, mental and behavioral changes, such as sleepiness at night, kept in time by a clock in the brain that follows light.

• Evening routine

  The set of things you do each evening, in roughly the same order, between the end of the day's work and going to bed, for yourself or a whole household.

Wellbeing and habits