Establish a good sleep routine by setting a bedtime reminder and heading to bed and waking up around the same time each day.
Set the stage for sleep. Sleep only in your bedroom. Make sure your bed and pillows are comfortable and your bedroom is well ventilated, quiet and dark. Establish presleep rituals such as a warm bath or a few minutes of reading (but not on a screen!).
Use your room only for sleep, illness and intimacy. Keep your television out of your bedroom and don’t fall asleep on the couch with it on. If you get tired, go to bed!
Avoid stress, especially at bedtime, by examining your day (during the day), to see where you are overscheduled and what you can change. Address underlying causes of worry, anxiety and depression, which may result in insomnia, hypersomnia and early-morning awakening.
Clear your head before you go to sleep. Keep a notebook next to your bed, write down thoughts that keep you awake and then “let them go” or designate a specific time to worry. Get out of bed for a short while if you can’t sleep.
Pay attention to your tech time. Doom-scrolling for hours at night will not lead to peaceful sleep. Studies strongly advise dumbing down all technology at least an hour before bedtime. Keep your devices, and especially your phone, out of the bedroom. Texting and tweeting result in hyperarousal, and intermittent light and noise are thought to have a detrimental impact on your nervous system, preventing the onset and continuation of sleep. Turn off all bells and whistles. Both your body and brain need time to wind down and completely relax.
Buy yourself an inexpensive alarm clock. If you are a clock-watcher, turn your clock around during the night. Checking it just increases anxiety and will bring you to a higher state of arousal, hindering your return to sleep.
Learn mindfulness meditation and allow yourself to find a “place” for your worries. Remind yourself that thinking at 3 a.m. solves nothing. Everything can wait until the sun comes up, when life will generally seem more manageable.
It is important for both adults and children to ensure that the conditions under which they fall asleep are the same as when they awaken during the night. Everyone wakes during the night. If your sleep quality is good, you probably won’t remember (or if you are a child, you won’t signal to your parents). If you fall asleep with the light on, a bottle in your mouth, or in someone’s arms, you are more likely to move into a less deep sleep or wake completely when you awaken in the middle of the night if conditions are different.
If you do wake at night to go to the bathroom, remind yourself as often as needed with a simple mantra “don’t think.” This helps keep your thoughts in sleep mode as you do your relaxation breathing and simply notice your body from head to toe.
Have a daily plan with routine times for meals, chores and exercise. If you nap, do so early in the afternoon and keep it short, under an hour.
Maintain a healthy diet. Don’t eat heavy or spicy meals before bed and avoid caffeine and alcohol when tired or when on sleep medication. Reduce evening liquid consumption if it interferes with your sleep and don’t snack during the night.
Exercise regularly, but not close to bedtime, and get outdoors during the day and enjoy plenty of sunlight.

SLEEP IS not just a time-out from our busy lives. Reducing our sleep deficit must be seen as a priority, if we care about ourselves, our families and each other. We must examine how to enhance our quality of life through the provision of more leisure time, something many grew to appreciate in the past few years.

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