How to fall asleep faster

Why it usually falls apart

Most advice for falling asleep is a list of tips tried once on a bad night. Sleep responds to repetition instead. Your body learns when and where it sleeps from what happens every night, so a different bedtime each evening, scrolling in bed and lying awake for an hour all teach it that bed is a place for being awake. The habits below work over a week or two, which is why most people give up on them too soon.

How to fall asleep faster

1. Get up at the same time every day

   A fixed wake time, weekends included, is the single most useful sleep habit. It sets your body clock, so you start getting sleepy at a consistent time in the evening. Pick a time you can keep seven days a week.

2. Get out of bed if you cannot sleep

   If you have been awake for what feels like twenty minutes, get up, go to another room and do something calm in dim light until you feel sleepy. This comes from CBT for insomnia, and it retrains bed as a place for sleeping.

3. Keep the bedroom cool and dark

   Most people sleep best somewhere around 16 to 19°C (60 to 67°F). Blackout curtains or an eye mask help with light. Your body temperature needs to drop for sleep, and a warm room fights that.

4. Stop caffeine by early afternoon

   Caffeine stays in your system for hours after your last cup. A coffee at 4pm is still partly active at bedtime. Move your last one to before 2pm and see whether falling asleep gets easier within a week.

5. Wind down for thirty minutes

   Dim the lights, put the phone on charge outside the bedroom, and do something quiet: read, stretch, take a shower. The same routine every night becomes a signal your body learns to follow.

6. Write tomorrow down before bed

   A racing mind keeps people awake. Spend two minutes writing tomorrow's tasks and anything on your mind. It gives your brain permission to stop rehearsing.

What to track

Track the smallest version you would still count on your worst day. A row you can clear when tired is a row you keep:

• Same wake-up time
• No caffeine after 2pm
• Phone outside the bedroom
• 30-minute wind-down
• Tomorrow written down

Print a tracker with these 5 habits or open them in a spreadsheet.

Your first week

1. Day 1. Choose a wake-up time you can keep every day, and set the alarm.
2. Day 2. Have your last coffee before 2pm.
3. Day 3. Move the phone charger out of the bedroom.
4. Day 4. Check the bedroom temperature and darkness. Fix one thing.
5. Day 5. Start a thirty-minute wind-down at the same time each night.
6. Day 6. If you are awake in bed for a long time, get up until you feel sleepy.
7. Day 7. Keep the same wake time on the weekend.