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Nights 4 to 7 · Lesson 8 of 11

What to Do When You Can't Sleep: The 20-Minute Rule

Learn what to do on nights when sleep won't come, how to use the 20-minute rule, and how to handle naps so they do not hurt your night.

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THE WRITTEN LESSONFollow along at your pace

Everyone has nights when sleep will not come. In this lesson you learn what to do instead of lying there, and how to handle naps. It is general advice for anyone, based on public-health guidance, not medical advice.

Do not fight it

Trying hard to sleep usually does not help. Lying in bed awake, worrying about sleep, can make the bed feel like a place for being awake. The more you watch the clock and tell yourself “I must sleep”, the more awake you feel.

A person lying in bed with wide eyes and a thought bubble that says I must sleep. A clock and a moon are on the right, with a red label: Lying awake teaches the bed: awake.(opens the full-size picture)
Lying awake teaches the bed to mean awake.

The 20-minute rule

So use the twenty-minute rule. If you are still awake after about twenty minutes, get up. You do not need to time it exactly: a rough guess is fine. Go somewhere else, do something relaxing in dim light, and go back to bed when you feel sleepy.

Three numbered steps: a clock labelled About 20 minutes awake, an armchair with a lamp labelled Get up, do something calm, and a bed labelled Back when sleepy.(opens the full-size picture)
Awake for about 20 minutes? Get up, stay calm, and return when sleepy.

Keep it calm

Keep it calm and low-key, in dim light. A book or quiet music is fine. Avoid bright screens, and do not start on work. The point is to let your body settle, not to use the time to get things done.

Two cards. The card marked Fine shows a book, a music note and a dim lamp with a check. The card marked Avoid shows a bright phone and a laptop labelled Work, with a red cross.(opens the full-size picture)
Fine: a book, quiet music, a dim lamp. Avoid: bright screens and work.

Do not chase lost sleep

Do not try to make up for a bad night by going to bed much earlier, or lying in. Extra time in bed after a rough week usually brings more waiting, not more sleep. Keep your usual times instead.

A card titled After a bad night with the crossed-out idea Bed at 9 and lie in until 9, and the advice Keep your usual times. Below, a bar of usual time in bed in navy is followed by a red part labelled Extra: waiting, not sleeping.(opens the full-size picture)
Extra time in bed after a bad night is mostly waiting.

Naps

Naps can help you stay alert. Keep them to twenty minutes or less, and earlier in the afternoon. If you struggle to sleep at night, nap less or not at all. The NHS suggests no naps for people with insomnia.

A person napping on a sofa next to a timer showing 20 min or less. A day bar runs from Morning to Evening: Early afternoon is ticked and labelled Nap here, Evening is crossed and labelled No nap. A yellow label says Trouble sleeping at night? Nap less or not at all.(opens the full-size picture)
A short nap in early afternoon, or none if nights are hard.

If it keeps happening

Most people have bad nights now and then. If you cannot sleep on most nights for weeks or months, that may be insomnia. The last lesson explains when to get help.

A row of seven day cards, Monday to Sunday, six of them marked with a dot, and a calendar card labelled Weeks later. A yellow label says Most nights, for weeks? See lesson 11.(opens the full-size picture)
Most nights, for weeks? That is the time to get help.

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Read the full lesson script

Everyone has nights when sleep won't come. In this lesson, you'll learn what to do instead of lying there, and how to handle naps.

Trying hard to sleep usually doesn't help. Lying in bed awake, worrying about sleep, can make the bed feel like a place for being awake.

So use the twenty-minute rule. If you're still awake after about twenty minutes, get up. Go somewhere else, do something relaxing in dim light, and go back to bed when you feel sleepy.

Keep it calm and low-key, in dim light. A book or quiet music is fine. Avoid bright screens, and don't start on work.

Don't try to make up for a bad night by going to bed much earlier, or lying in. Extra time in bed after a rough week usually brings more waiting, not more sleep.

Naps can help you stay alert. Keep them to twenty minutes or less, and earlier in the afternoon. If you struggle to sleep at night, nap less or not at all. The NHS suggests no naps for people with insomnia.

This is general advice for anyone. If you can't sleep on most nights for weeks or months, that may be insomnia, and you'll learn when to get help later in this course.

So remember: if you can't sleep after about twenty minutes, get up and do something calm. Don't chase lost sleep with lie-ins. And keep naps short and early. Before the next lesson, decide where you'll go, and what calm thing you'll do, if you can't sleep. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to catch up after short nights.