How to sleep better: the 5 habits that matter, and what to skip

To sleep better, get daylight early and dim the lights in the evening, sleep in a cool, dark room, give yourself time to wind down, keep your bed for sleep, and keep caffeine and alcohol away from bedtime. Those five habits do most of the work. A steady wake time holds them together, and our guide to the best time to sleep and wake up covers that side: when to sleep, rather than how.

Most of the list comes from Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley (Huberman Lab). He offers his basics "as tools and not necessarily rules," for a reason worth keeping in mind as you read:

"People respond to reasons and not rules." (Matthew Walker, Huberman Lab)

Add another once the first two feel automatic. The 1h Protocol for Better Sleep works the same way: your protocol starts with a couple of changes chosen from your own answers and adds the rest over the following weeks.

How to sleep better: start with these five habits

1. Make your days bright and your evenings dim

Your body clock sets itself mostly by light, and indoor light is weak: measured with a light meter, the light two or three meters into a room is a small fraction of a clear morning outdoors (Feel Better, Live More). So the morning habit is to get outside. Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman's rule of thumb is to go out within an hour of waking, for about 5 minutes on a clear day and up to half an hour under heavy cloud, and not to look through a window (Huberman Lab).

The evening habit runs the other way. In the last hour before bed, Walker dims half or more of the lights in his home, and Huberman swaps overhead lights for lamps set low in the room. If you want to use light to move your sleep earlier or later, that's a question of timing, and our guide to the best time to sleep goes through it.

2. Keep the bedroom cool and dark

To fall asleep and stay asleep, your core temperature has to drop a little, Walker explains, so he suggests a bedroom of around 18.5 °C, or about 65 °F. A Harvard sleep scientist gives a similar range, 65 to 68 °F (about 18 to 20 °C), and suggests starting at the cool end.

Not everyone sleeps best that cool. A home study followed 50 adults aged 65 and over in the Boston area with wearable rings and bedroom sensors. Their sleep was most efficient and restful at 20 to 25 °C, and the best temperature varied widely between people. So aim cool and adjust by feel. Socks are fine if your feet run cold, and a warm shower or bath one to two hours before bed can help you fall asleep sooner, because you cool down afterwards. For darkness, the NHS suggests curtains or an eye mask.

3. Give yourself a wind-down

Walker thinks most people underrate a wind-down routine. Sleep takes time to arrive, so pick whatever relaxes you, whether a podcast, a book, meditation or light stretching, and build it into the end of every evening (Huberman Lab). The NHS suggests an hour without screens before bed. If scrolling is part of your evening anyway, sleep scientist Sophie Bostock suggests setting a timer. Our guide to falling asleep fast maps out that last hour step by step.

4. Keep your bed for sleep

Walker calls this one "walk it out". If you've been lying awake a while, get up, go to another room if you can, and read or listen to something relaxing in dim light until you feel sleepy. Stay in bed awake night after night, he explains, and your brain learns that bed is a place for being awake. The NHS puts the point to get up at around 20 minutes, which works as a rough guide. If it happens in the small hours, our guide to waking up at 3am has a plan for the night.

5. Keep caffeine and alcohol away from bedtime

Walker suggests stopping caffeine about 10 hours before bed; the NHLBI notes its effects can last up to 8 hours. Our caffeine cut-off guide helps you set yours.

Alcohol, Walker says, is "one of the most misunderstood sleep aids". It sedates you, which isn't the same as sleep, then breaks up the night with brief wakings you may not remember and blocks dream (REM) sleep. The NHS suggests avoiding it for 1 to 2 hours before bed; our guide to alcohol and sleep has the detail.

Which sleep tips matter less than you've heard?

Blue light on its own

Asked whether blue light from screens matters, Bostock answered: "Often overestimated." Sleep psychologist Jade Wu writes that even a couple of hours of intense screen light in the evening does very little to melatonin, and that daytime light matters far more: in one study she cites, people who spent the afternoon in bright light slept no differently after reading a paper book or a glowing tablet. At night, Huberman notes, bright light of any color wakes the brain, so blue-blocking glasses are optional. The NHS still advises a screen-free hour before bed, so keep that as part of your wind-down.

Strict exercise curfews

The advice on exercise before bed varies. One NHS page says no exercise in the 4 hours before bed, while its sleep tips page says some people find late exercise affects their sleep and should move it earlier. Wu calls the strict version debunked: in a real-world study of over 12,000 people, evening exercisers slept a little more and fell asleep a little more easily. Bostock adds that very intense sessions close to bedtime can still interfere. If hard late workouts leave you wired, move them earlier or keep the last hour gentle.

White noise

A systematic review of 38 studies rated the evidence that continuous white noise improves sleep as very low quality, and noted it may also disturb sleep. The NHS still lists white noise among things to try. Keep it if it helps you, as your own experiment.

Chasing a number

Rather than chasing a sleep score, use the NHS's three-part test: you're probably getting enough sleep if you wake up feeling refreshed, have enough energy for the day and can focus on everyday tasks. Bostock finds trackers useful as an "accountability buddy" for a regular schedule, as long as how you feel stays the main measure.

Why do I still wake up tired?

Falling asleep the moment your head hits the pillow is generally a sign you're short of sleep, a Harvard sleep scientist notes (The Mel Robbins Podcast). Alcohol is another common culprit: its brief wakings often go unremembered, Walker points out, so you wake feeling rough without connecting the two. If someone tells you that you snore loudly, gasp or stop breathing in your sleep, or you're sleepy by day despite enough time in bed, mention it to a doctor; the NHLBI lists these as symptoms to discuss with your healthcare provider.

What good habits can't fix

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine's 2021 guideline advises clinicians not to rely on sleep hygiene alone for long-term sleep problems in adults; its lead author said the recommendations don't work as a stand-alone approach. Wu goes further: for long-term trouble, hygiene helps so little that researchers use it as the placebo in trials, and some people make their sleep worse by following the rules too rigidly. Bostock calls her own advice "guidelines… not strict rules."

Habits have limits. When poor sleep has lasted three months or more, a GP or doctor is the next step, since long-term sleep problems have effective treatments. The NHS also suggests seeing a GP if changing your sleeping habits hasn't helped, or if poor sleep makes daily life hard to cope with.

Choose your two tonight

Pick the two habits you could start tonight and write them where you'll see them at bedtime, give them a couple of weeks before adding a third, and judge them by your days: whether you wake refreshed, have energy and can focus.

This article draws on Matthew Walker's guest series with Andrew Huberman, interviews with other sleep scientists, NHS and NHLBI guidance and the AASM's 2021 guideline. Full list below.

To see which habits to begin with, try the free first chapter of the 1h Protocol for Better Sleep: it names the pattern behind your nights and gives you one first step. Start free and let your own answers pick the first two.

Frequently asked questions

What is good sleep hygiene?

Sleep hygiene is the set of everyday habits and bedroom conditions that support sleep. The ones that carry most weight are daylight by day and dim evenings, a cool, dark, quiet bedroom, a wind-down before bed, and keeping caffeine and alcohol away from bedtime. On their own they aren't enough for long-term sleep trouble.

What temperature is best for sleep?

Cool. Sleep scientist Matthew Walker suggests around 18.5 °C (65 °F), and a Harvard sleep scientist 65 to 68 °F (about 18 to 20 °C). A home study of adults over 65 found sleep most efficient at 20 to 25 °C, with big differences between people, so start cool and adjust by feel.

Does blue light really affect sleep?

Less than often claimed. Bright light of any color late in the evening can wake the brain, and plenty of daylight earlier in the day makes evening screen light matter less. Dimming screens and lights in the last hour before bed is still sensible.

Is it bad to exercise before bed?

Not for most people. One NHS page says to avoid exercise in the 4 hours before bed, but in a real-world study of over 12,000 people, evening exercisers slept slightly more. If hard late workouts leave you wired, move them earlier.

How can I sleep better at night naturally?

Start with habits before products: outdoor light in the morning, low lamps in the evening, a cool, dark bedroom, a wind-down and a caffeine cut-off. Pick two to begin and add more once they stick. A steady wake time helps all of them work.

Sources

• Huberman Lab Guest Series with Matthew Walker, Ep. 2: Protocols to improve your sleep (podcast episode)
• Huberman Lab Guest Series with Matthew Walker, Ep. 1: The biology of sleep and your unique sleep needs (podcast episode, 2024)
• Huberman Lab: Sleep Toolkit, tools for optimizing sleep and sleep-wake timing (podcast episode, 2022)
• ZOE Science & Nutrition: Fix your sleep with the Royal Marines' sleep consultant, Sophie Bostock (podcast episode, 2025)
• The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to stop waking up feeling tired, with Rebecca Robbins (podcast episode, 2024)
• Feel Better, Live More #424: The new science of the body clock, with Russell Foster (podcast episode, 2024)
• Baniassadi et al., Nighttime ambient temperature and sleep in community-dwelling older adults (observational home study, Science of the Total Environment, 2023)
• Haghayegh et al., Before-bedtime passive body heating by warm shower or bath to improve sleep (systematic review and meta-analysis, Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2019)
• Jade Wu, FAQs about sleep and insomnia (clinician's resources page, undated)
• Riedy et al., Noise as a sleep aid: a systematic review (systematic review, Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2021)
• NHLBI: Sleep apnea symptoms (public health guidance, 2025)
• NHLBI: Healthy sleep habits (public health guidance, 2022)
• NHS Every Mind Matters: How to fall asleep faster and sleep better (public health guidance)
• NHS Every Mind Matters: Sleep problems (public health guidance)
• NHS: Insomnia (public health guidance, reviewed 2024)
• Edinger et al., Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an AASM clinical practice guideline (clinical practice guideline, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2021)
• AASM: New guideline supports behavioral, psychological treatments for insomnia (press release, 2020)

This article is education, not medical advice.