Please only follow the below when you deem yourself insomnia free, the below are recommendations for a regular sleeper as they can become sleep efforts when you’re going through the struggle.

-Stop eating 4+ hours before Bed *****

Eating food close to bed can decrease sleep quality due to the body working and warming up when digesting food, I would advise you stop eating 4+ hours before bed to hugely increase sleep quality as it takes 2-4 hours for food in the stomach to digest.

-Wake up at the same time every day *****

Waking up at the same time every day will anchor the body clock and you will feel ready for bed roughly around the same time each day. This can increase sleep quality as you will have a consistent sleep drive so you’ll get that good quality deep sleep at the beginning of the night. If you were to regularly get up later and earlier, your sleep drive would be later and earlier, so and example could be; you wake up later on a Sunday, then you have to wake up early on the Monday, you’ll have less sleep pressure on the Sunday night so you sleep quality won’t be as good.

-Stop taking stimulants 8-10 hours before Bed ****

Caffeine, alcohol and other stimulants should be avoided close to bed time, this is to stop your energy levels being too high to allow sleep to happen and to no longer trick the brain into thinking it is not tired which caffeine does.

-Keep the bedroom cool ****

When you sleep, your body temperature drops so it is best to keep the bedroom cool to not disrupt your sleep. You also don’t want to be too cold. The ideal temperature is around 16c to get the best quality sleep.

-Keep the bedroom dark and quiet ****

Reducing light and noise in your sleeping environment is highly advised to get good quality sleep. Light can disrupt the sleep cycle as it notifies the brain that it is day time therefore it is time to be awake. Sound can also disrupt the sleep cycle as the brain may detect sound as a potential threat.

-Wind down ***

A wind down routine is a great way to get the body ready for sleep, it allows for relaxation and to tell the body there are no threats and you are ready to lie down your head. “Sleep efforts” are a regular for people to wind down, warm baths, meditation etc can be used to wind down, but keep the intention to relax not to “make sleep happen”.

-Dim the lights ***

Dimming the lights or turning them off altogether tells the brain it is night time, it is ready for the brain to get into sleep mode. Melatonin is the big one here, when you’re in a dim or dark environment, the brain produces melatonin which readies the brain for sleep. I’d recommend dimming the lights about an hour before your average bed time.