The Sleep Hygiene Checklist
Good sleep is fundamental for maintaining good physical and mental health. The better your sleep, the better your mental health (e.g., less anxiety, less stress) and overall quality of life (Scott et al., 2021). It allows the brain to process and consolidate memories, regulate emotions, and restore the body's energy levels. Like a cell phone, a brain needs to be "recharged." Insufficient or poor-quality sleep can lead to, or exacerbate, a range of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, irritability, and mood swings. Without sufficient sleep, the brain becomes "drained" and it becomes harder to respond effectively to difficult thoughts, feelings, and situations.
What Is Good Sleep Hygiene?
Sleep hygiene is a set of general practices, habits, or strategies that promote good quality sleep and help prevent sleep problems. These practices can be behavioral and related to environmental factors. Some common examples of good sleep hygiene tips and practices include:
Establishing a regular sleep schedule: going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
Creating a comfortable sleep environment: making sure the bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet, and using comfortable bedding and pillows; we spend about a third of our life sleeping, so it is wise to invest in comfortable bedding and pillows.
Limiting substances: caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine intake can disrupt sleep and reduce its quality.
Managing stress: practicing relaxation techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, or progressive muscle relaxation can help reduce stress levels and promote better sleep.
🏋️ Engage in regular exercise: regular and/or short, but intense, workouts can improve sleep hygiene. Current evidence does not support the claim that late-night exercise interferes with sleep (Irish et al., 2015).
Among many others (e.g., avoiding bright lights and excessive liquids at night)
Having good sleep hygiene means that you have established a number of helpful habits and practices that make it easier for you to receive a full night of restful sleep.
Why Does Sleep Hygiene Matter?
Sleep hygiene isn't really just about sleep. Of what we have control over, getting good sleep is one the most important things we can do to promote mental health. I emphasize the importance of good sleep hygiene to virtually every client I work with. People can practice many different mental health strategies and skills (e.g., mindfulness, going to therapy)—but at the end of the day—if you are getting insufficient sleep, not exercising, or are in a toxic environment, then sometimes there won't be progress or improvement (until those things change).
Good sleep and exercise is fundamental to health and mental health.
How Can Good Sleep Hygiene Impact Sleep?
Good sleep hygiene can make it much easier to fall asleep when we want to and increase the likelihood that we’ll wake up feeling well-rested.
For instance, good sleep hygiene can help our brain and body associate bed with sleep. Really, we should be using our beds only for Sleep, when we're Sick, and for Sex (the three S's). Restricting the time in bed to more closely line up with how much you are sleeping is an essential component of Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I; Mitchell et al., 2012). The idea behind this technique is to help individuals spend more time in bed actually sleeping, rather than lying in bed awake and worrying about sleep. Essentially, you want to train your body to want to fall asleep when you get in bed (Markwald et al., 2018). The more you do other things in bed (e.g., eating, being on your phone, and watching TV), the harder it is for your body to associate bed with sleep. The opposite is true: the more we associate our bed with sleep, the easier it'll be to fall asleep. In fact, most psychologists and other mental health I know do not keep a TV in their bedrooms.
How Can You Develop Good Sleep Hygiene?
You can develop good sleep hygiene like any other habit or skill! Trying to make drastic changes to one's sleep routine all at once can be challenging and overwhelming, leading to frustration or giving up on the goal. A slow and steady approach to improving sleep hygiene, such as gradually establishing a regular sleep schedule, avoiding stimulating activities before bedtime, and creating a comfortable sleep environment, can help build sustainable habits and increase the chances of success. Choose one or two new sleep hygiene practices and try to establish them as new habits.
Once established, introduce a new sleep habit. Breaking down the goal of improving sleep hygiene into smaller, achievable steps can also make the process more manageable and easier to maintain over the long term. By focusing on steady progress and consistent improvement, individuals can achieve better quality sleep and improve their overall health and well-being. One key to success is monitoring and logging our progress daily. So, use a habit tracker app (e.g., Way of Life or Habitica)*, an excel sheet, or the notes on your phone to log if you were successful in meeting your goal each day. You can also use the sleep tools on your smartphone to help keep you on track.
What’s the Best Habit For Good Sleep?
One of the most effective habits for establishing good sleep hygiene may be waking up at the same time, every day of the week. Waking up at different times can disrupt our natural sleep cycle (i.e., circadian rhythm; Vetter et al., 2020). It also makes it harder to go to bed at the same time every night. If there are days you go to bed late or get little sleep, continuing to wake up at the same time every day will help maintain your sleep schedule as your sleep drive will naturally build throughout the day and you'll want to go to bed at a reasonable time the next night.
TL;DR And Just Want The Essential Tips?
View the Sleep Hygiene Checklist (PDF)!
Trying To Find a Las Vegas or Online Therapist?
Looking for a Las Vegas therapist or online psychologist that can help you improve sleep hygiene and build general wellness habits? I serve Las Vegas, NV, and Nevada statewide as well as Portland, OR, and all of Oregon statewide (in addition to 33+ PsyPACT states). You may call me at (702) 530-6134, schedule an initial consultation, or use the contact form to take the first step.
You can learn more about my background and credentials on my About Me page.
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Irish, L. A., Kline, C. E., Gunn, H. E., Buysse, D. J., & Hall, M. H. (2015). The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: A review of empirical evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 22, 23-36.
Scott, A. J., Webb, T. L., Martyn-St James, M., Rowse, G., & Weich, S. (2021). Improving sleep quality leads to better mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Sleep Medicine Reviews.
Markwald, R. R., Iftikhar, I., & Youngstedt, S. D. (2018). Behavioral strategies, including exercise, for addressing insomnia. ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, 22, 23-29.
Mitchell, M. D., Gehrman, P., Perlis, M., & Umscheid, C. A. (2012). Comparative effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: a systematic review. BMC Family Practice, 13, 1-11.
Vetter, C. (2020). Circadian disruption: what do we actually mean? European Journal of Neuroscience, 51, 531-550.
* It is important to note that downloading phone applications may lead to the use of your private data.
