It is 11:40 p.m. You close the laptop on one last email, set the alarm for 6:15 and lie in the dark replaying tomorrow’s meetings. Six hours will do, you tell yourself. You usually get through the day fine, and you have read the sleep tips before.

Sleep hygiene, the familiar list of lifestyle and bedroom tips, should not be used on its own to treat chronic insomnia in adults, a 2021 US guideline suggests. A 2021 American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) guideline gives its only strong recommendation for adults with chronic insomnia to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), based on moderate-quality evidence from 49 trials. Some tips may still help within treatment, and CBT-I often includes them.¹

Learning how to sleep better starts with a regular schedule that allows at least 7 hours of sleep, with caffeine, alcohol and work kept away from bedtime. The seven habits, roughly best-tested first:

1. Move your last coffee to early afternoon
2. Don’t count on alcohol to help you sleep
3. Wake at the same time every day, weekends included
4. Close work an hour before bed
5. Keep the bedroom quiet, cool and dark
6. Get daylight and move during the day
7. Cap naps at 20 minutes

Aim for 7 hours of sleep, which takes more than 7 hours in bed

Adults up to age 60 should sleep 7 or more hours a night on a regular basis, according to a 2015 consensus statement from the AASM and the Sleep Research Society.² Because falling asleep takes time, that much sleep needs a longer stretch in bed.

7+recommended hours of sleep a night for adults aged 18 to 60Source: AASM and Sleep Research Society, 2015

The panel linked regularly sleeping less than that with problems from weight gain and diabetes to depression and accidents, associations rather than proof that short sleep causes each one.² The UK’s NHS gives a range instead: 7 to 9 hours for an average adult.³

Feeling fine may be a poor test. In a small 2003 lab study of healthy adults, people held to 6 hours in bed for two weeks got steadily worse on cognitive tests while their sleepiness ratings rose only a little after the first days; the authors suggest they were largely unaware of their deficits. Because the sleep loss was imposed for two weeks, the study cannot show how people who have slept that little for years are affected.⁴

How to sleep better, with the best-tested habits first

The seven habits below are general advice for the public, mainly from the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), ordered roughly by how directly research has tested them. Some habits may not fit shift work, caregiving or a disability; shift workers get separate NHLBI advice, such as limiting caffeine to the first part of a shift.⁵

1. Move your last coffee to early afternoon

A 2023 Australian meta-analysis of controlled studies in healthy adults found that caffeine cut measured sleep by about 45 minutes on average, with bigger losses from larger doses taken closer to bedtime. In the review’s model, a typical cup of coffee had to come almost 9 hours before bed to avoid a statistically significant cut in total sleep: by about 1 p.m. for a 10 p.m. bedtime. The authors caution that their results, mostly from caffeine given on the day of testing to light and moderate caffeine users, may not apply to teenagers, adults over 65 or heavy users.⁶

A 2025 meta-analysis by researchers in Taiwan pooled crossover trials in healthy adults, all recording sleep overnight after caffeine or a placebo. It found that caffeine cut total sleep by about 35 minutes on average, inside the 2023 estimate’s confidence interval. On dose, it did not confirm the 2023 result: in subgroup analyses, lower and higher doses both cut sleep, with no clear difference between them.⁷

A small 2025 trial by the same Australian team, in young men, found no clear effect on sleep from a modest dose of caffeine (100 mg) even 4 hours before bed, while a dose four times larger disrupted sleep when taken within 12 hours.⁸ The US NHLBI’s sleep advice (last updated in 2022) says the effects of caffeine can last up to 8 hours.⁵ The UK NHS’s insomnia advice (reviewed in 2024) is no tea or coffee in the 6 hours before bed.³ If you are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or breastfeeding, take other medicines or have a health condition, ask a doctor or pharmacist whether you need to limit caffeine.

2. Don’t count on alcohol to help you sleep

The NHLBI advises avoiding alcoholic drinks before bed.⁵ A 2025 meta-analysis of studies in healthy adults by the same Australian group found that a low dose, up to about two standard drinks by the authors’ measure, already reduced REM sleep, and the disruption grew with the dose.⁹ Only high doses, about five drinks or more, may help people fall asleep faster, but the authors say this likely makes the REM disruption worse; effects on total sleep time were too uncertain to call.⁹ Official drink sizes differ by country: a 2016 study of government definitions in dozens of countries found that the largest official standard drink held more than twice the alcohol of the smallest.¹⁰

3. Wake at the same time every day, weekends included

The NHLBI advises going to bed and waking at the same time every day, with weekday and weekend schedules no more than about an hour apart.⁵ Work usually fixes the wake time, so count back from it: 7 hours of sleep plus the time you usually take to drift off. With a 6:15 alarm and about 20 minutes to fall asleep, lights go out around 10:55 p.m., and the weekend alarm stays at or before about 7:15.

4. Close work an hour before bed

The NHLBI suggests using the hour before bed as quiet time, without bright artificial light such as a TV or computer screen, because the light may signal the brain that it is time to be awake.⁵ In practice, the quiet hour starts when email and chat close: a work-life boundary as much as a sleep habit.

If unfinished tasks keep you awake, write them down. In a 2018 study by Baylor University researchers, healthy young adults spent five minutes before bed writing either a to-do list or a list of tasks already done; the to-do group fell asleep about 9 minutes faster on average than the done-list group. It was one night in a sleep lab and compared two kinds of writing, not writing with none.¹¹

5. Keep the bedroom quiet, cool and dark

The NHLBI recommends a quiet, cool, dark bedroom, with a dim night light if needed, and suggests a hot bath or relaxation techniques before bed and no heavy meals within a few hours of bedtime.⁵

1. Cool: a cool room
2. Dark: curtains closed; a dim night light is fine if you need one
3. Quiet: door closed
4. Screens off: no bright screens, such as a TV or computer, in the hour before bed

6. Get daylight and move during the day

The US NHLBI advises spending time outside every day when possible and being physically active, but avoiding intense exercise in the hour before bed.⁵ The UK NHS’s insomnia advice leaves a wider gap: no exercise in the 4 hours before bed.³

7. Cap naps at 20 minutes

Naps may boost alertness and performance, according to the US NHLBI, but adults should keep them to 20 minutes or less, and people who struggle to fall asleep at night should limit naps or take them earlier in the afternoon.⁵ The UK NHS’s insomnia advice is stricter: no daytime naps.³

WiserHours

Your sleep habits

• Last coffee by early afternoon
• No alcohol as a sleep aid
• Same wake-up time every day, weekends within about an hour
• Work closed and bright screens off an hour before bed
• Five minutes on a to-do list if tasks keep you awake
• Bedroom quiet, cool and dark
• Daylight and physical activity during the day
• Naps of 20 minutes or less; fewer, earlier or none if you struggle to fall asleep

Find this checklist online:
https://wiserhours.com/sleep/how-to-sleep-better/#checklist-how-to-sleep-better-habits

When bad nights keep coming back, habits are not the treatment

Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or waking too early at least three nights a week for at least three months, despite enough time in bed and with daytime effects, meets the AASM’s definition of chronic insomnia disorder.¹² For this disorder, US and European guidelines both put CBT-I first, ahead of sleep hygiene advice.¹¹³

The study

Strong evidencesystematic review, 25 randomized trials pooled for remission (low- to moderate-quality evidence for this outcome, moderate overall); adults diagnosed with chronic insomnia

CBT-I for chronic insomnia: the AASM's 2021 US review

• 66 trials identified
• 25 pooled for remission
• Adults with chronic insomnia
• GRADE: moderate overall

An AASM task force (first author: Jack Edinger of National Jewish Health) identified 66 randomized trials comparing CBT-I with waiting lists, minimal help or placebo treatments in adults with chronic insomnia. Pooling 25 of them, the share of people whose insomnia remitted was 33 percentage points higher with CBT-I than with control conditions.¹²

The trials behind the 2021 AASM guideline’s strong recommendation are the ones, of these, that gave data the task force could pool for at least one outcome it rated critical, such as remission or sleep quality. The caveats: most trials used a trained professional, who can be hard to find, and gains come gradually.¹

The 2023 European Insomnia Guideline gives CBT-I its top grade, A, for chronic insomnia in adults of any age, in person or digitally.¹³

CBT-I is delivered one to one or in groups by a trained clinician, or through internet-based programs, and is guided by a sleep diary. It combines education about sleep with stimulus control (going to bed only when sleepy, getting up when unable to sleep, keeping the bed for sleep and sex), sleep restriction (limiting time in bed to roughly the time spent asleep, then adjusting it) and work on unhelpful beliefs about sleep.¹

Sleep restriction can raise daytime sleepiness at first, and the guideline says it may be unsuitable for people who drive or operate heavy machinery for work, are prone to mania or hypomania, or have poorly controlled seizures or excessive daytime sleepiness; a clinician monitors it. Stimulus control may need adapting for people at risk of falls or taking sleeping pills.¹

Pills and supplements come second

Sleep medicines and supplements rank behind CBT-I in US and European insomnia guidelines, and the evidence for popular over-the-counter options is weak.¹³¹⁴¹⁵ A 2017 AASM guideline suggested that clinicians not use diphenhydramine, melatonin, valerian or tryptophan to treat chronic insomnia, because trials showed no clinically meaningful benefit.¹⁵ These were weak recommendations; the one on melatonin rested on three industry-sponsored trials of prolonged-release melatonin in adults over 55, with very low-quality evidence.¹⁵ Ask a doctor or pharmacist before taking any sleep aid, especially if you take other medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have a health condition.

Myth

Melatonin is a proven treatment for insomnia.

Fact

No. A 2017 US guideline (AASM) suggested clinicians not use it for chronic insomnia, and the 2023 European guideline rates melatonin in general as not effective for insomnia without a body-clock cause, allowing only prolonged-release melatonin for up to 3 months from age 55.

In the US, melatonin is sold as a dietary supplement, and the FDA does not approve supplements for safety or effectiveness before sale.¹⁶¹⁷ In the UK it is prescription-only, mainly for short-term use in people aged 55 and over.¹⁸ Across most of Europe it is freely available, notes the European guideline, which advises against fast-release melatonin, antihistamines and herbal remedies for insomnia.¹³

The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says long-term safety is unknown, people with epilepsy or taking blood thinners need medical supervision, and a 2017 test of products found most did not match their labeled melatonin content.¹⁷ It also notes that melatonin may stay active longer in older people than in younger ones and cause daytime drowsiness.¹⁷ The NHS adds that over-the-counter sleep aids cannot cure insomnia, should be used for no more than 1 to 2 weeks and can cause drowsiness that affects driving.³

Prescription medicines are a decision for a doctor; the AASM’s 2026 guideline on combined treatment suggests CBT-I alone over CBT-I plus medication, and the combination over medication alone, both conditionally and on low-certainty evidence.¹⁴

How strong is the evidence behind each option?

CBT-I for chronic insomnia has the strongest evidence of any option here; the caffeine and alcohol findings rest on meta-analyses of studies in healthy adults, and most habits on public-health advice.

When to get help: now, soon or at your next appointment

Drowsiness at the wheel needs action now; loud snoring, gasping in sleep or months of poor sleep warrant a doctor’s visit soon; and daytime sleepiness or unrefreshing sleep is worth raising at your next appointment. The tiers are our own ordering of US NHLBI and UK NHS advice.

• Now: do not drive when you feel sleepy, the NHS advises.³ If poor sleep comes with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call or text the free, round-the-clock 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US, or your local emergency number elsewhere.¹⁹
• Soon: see a doctor if you snore loudly and often, your breathing stops and starts, or you gasp for air in your sleep, which the NHLBI lists as symptoms of sleep apnea.²⁰ The NHS also advises seeing a GP if changing your habits has not helped, you have had trouble sleeping for months, or it makes daily life hard to cope with.³
• At your next appointment: the NHLBI suggests telling a doctor if you often feel sleepy in the day, wake unrefreshed or struggle to adapt to shift work. It also suggests keeping a sleep diary for a few weeks.²¹

The bottom line

Protect three habits first: coffee finished by early afternoon, no alcohol as a sleep aid, and a fixed wake time with more than 7 hours in bed before it. If bad nights have lasted three months despite them, US and European guidelines put CBT-I first, ahead of more tips or a pill, so ask a doctor about it.¹¹³¹⁴