Good Sleep Guidelines

1. Practice stimulus control.

Stimulus control means that bed is for sleeping and sex. If you eat, go online, or work from bed, then you
start to associate bed with activity rather than relaxation. For people with sleep difficulties, bed can
become associated with the anxiety of not sleeping. You want to try and create an association of bed with
relaxation and sleep.

2. Have regular bedtimes, both for going to sleep and for waking up.
Regular bedtimes trains your body’s biological clock to be on a schedule and help you fall asleep.

3. Restrict napping to twenty minutes a day and only in the early afternoon.
Long afternoon naps or naps late in the day can interfere with your body’s developing an urge to sleep at
night.

4. Do exercise during the day, but don’t do strenuous exercise within two hours of bedtime.
Exercise during the day can help you feel tired at night. However, exercising just before bed can increase
your arousal and make it harder to fall asleep.

5. Avoid exposure to bright lights and make sure the bedroom is dark; some people find screen use before bed disrup-
tive to sleep.
Bright lights signal your brain that it is daytime and time to get up. Generally make sure the bed is com-
fortable and that your bedroom is not too hot or cold. It is a good idea to stop all screen time an hour
before bed. Screens tend to stimulate the brain, and many screens emit a blue light that interferes with
the brain’s ability to shut down for the night.

6. Avoid caffeine or alcohol before bedtime as well as heavy meals or drinking any liquid.
Tea, coffee, chocolate, and soft drinks with caffeine are all stimulants, as are cigarettes. Depending on
how sensitive you are, you may have to limit your consumption significantly. Drinking alcohol before bed
can help with falling asleep, but it can also cause you to wake during the night or sleep less deeply.

7. Develop a relaxing bedtime routine.

Most people need about half an hour to wind down. If you have the same routine every day, your body
will start to associate the routine with sleep.

8. Don’t lie in bed tossing and turning.

If after about twenty minutes you can’t sleep, get up and do something relaxing until you feel tired again.
Lying in bed tossing and turning just teaches your body to associate anxiety with bed and sleeping.