According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about ⅓ of US adults reported not getting enough rest or sleep every day. There are many reasons that sleep schedules get disrupted but a single incident might throw your sleep routine off for weeks or more at a time. So how can you get back on track? Let’s take a look at 11 tips along with why a sleep routine is important for our health and functioning. 

Why Is a Sleep Routine Important?

As humans, we’re all creatures of habit. Creating and maintaining a routine or schedule will make it much easier to get the sleep you need to feel rested and alert every day. Developing habits to help wind down every night can help your body ease into restful sleep more easily and naturally. 

How Can a Sleep Schedule Get Disrupted?

Sleep schedules can be disrupted in a number of ways. Here are some of the primary ways:

Overdoing Caffeine

Coffee can help you feel more awake and alert but having a cup too late in the day can make it hard to fall asleep. Then you might try to overcompensate for the drowsiness the next day by drinking more coffee and fall into a vicious cycle of caffeine dependence and restlessness. 

Odd Work Hours

Overnight and shift work presents an extremely tough challenge for your sleep schedule and overall health. In fact, shift work is strongly associated with poorer cardiovascular health. 

Stressful or Emotional Events

Stress, anxiety, depression, or traumatic life events can all keep our minds racing at night making it difficult to fall asleep. 

Jet Lag from Long-Distance Travel

Traveling across time zones and landing in a place that’s hours or more different from home can make it difficult to sleep at the right time. The effect is pronounced enough that it’s reflected in home vs away game performance in the NFL. 

How to Fix Your Sleep Schedule

1. Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

Getting used to doing things like eating, exercising, and putting away devices at the same time every day will help you to adjust to a better sleep schedule and stay on it. 

2. Limit Your Caffeine Intake

Since caffeine, as mentioned above, can disrupt your sleep schedule, it’s best to limit your intake and avoid it entirely after around 12:00 pm. When it comes to a hard limit, it’ll be different for everyone as caffeine response varies from person to person. 

3.Hold off on Napping

Have you ever felt groggy in the afternoon and thought “I can’t wait to get home and take a nap. ” ? As with caffeine, this can make it harder to fall asleep for the night at the right time. If you absolutely need a nap, try to keep it to no more than 20 minutes. Or do some exercise to fight off the sleepiness and then you’ll have a much easier time getting to sleep at the end of the day helping you get back on track. 

4. Eat an Early Dinner

The circadian rhythm also responds to your eating habits. It’s best to eat your dinner at least two to three hours before bed to give your body time to digest. Also try to eat at the same time every day so your body can get into a schedule of eating, digesting, winding down, and sleeping consistently. 

5. Get Sun Exposure Early in the Day

Being exposed to the sun early in the morning can help to positively reinforce your circadian rhythm telling your body that this is the right time to be awake so that you can feel great all day and fall asleep more easily at the right time. 

6. Then, Avoid Screen Time Late in the Day

A screen time strategy can be helpful to minimize your light exposure late in the day. Consider a curfew after which you get away from your computers, tablets, smartphones, and the like. 

Then, sleep with your phone in another room if possible. This time away from screens can be a great time to catch up on or books. 

7. Adjust Your Bedtime, Gradually

Many find it easier to push off sleep rather than sleep earlier. It can still be done though. If you’re not falling asleep until midnight and aiming for 9:00 pm, it won’t be an overnight transition. 

Instead, try a more gradual approach like aiming to fall asleep by 11:45 and transitioning to 11:30 and so on until you’re falling asleep at an optimal time. 

8. Don’t Sleep In

Sleeping in on the weekend seems like the perfect cure for a long week or a lack of sleep. Additionally, many try to “catch up on sleep” during their days off. But, like other entries on this list, sleeping in can just prolong a bad sleep schedule.

To fix your sleep schedule, you should still wake up early on the weekends to stay on track. 

9. Exercise Daily and Early

Exercise can help you to reset your sleep schedule in two key ways. 

First, all of the tissues in the human body are tied to the body’s biological clock. Exercising at the right times, then, can help to align the circadian rhythm. 

Additionally, exercise can stimulate the production of melatonin, an important hormone for healthy sleep. However, exercise increases alertness immediately, so aim to exercise at least two hours before bedtime. 

10. Wind Down Mentally

Since stress, anxiety, and depression can keep you up, try to practice activities that relieve them such as yoga, journaling, deep breathing, meditation, or listening to relaxing music. 

11. Create the Conditions for Great Sleep

There are many things that can contribute to a great sleep routine. Try using them to tip the scales in your favor. 

• Mattresses and pillows: Get rid of old, worn-out mattresses or pillows. Mattresses should be replaced every ten years and pillows should be replaced every two years. 
• Maintain a cool sleep environment: your body temperature drops as you fall asleep. A cool environment (60-67 degrees Fahrenheit)  may help ease the transition to sleep. 
• Insulate your sleeping area from noise and light: thicker curtains or a sleep mask may help for blocking out bright light sources at night. A fan, air conditioner or white noise machine may help block out the types of noise that make it difficult to sleep at night. 

Further Interventions for Repairing Your Sleep Schedule

If your inability to sleep goes far beyond the previous solutions, you can consult your doctor to see if further interventions are appropriate. 

Supplements: Melatonin and other herbal remedies may provide a helping hand for short-term sleep disruptions. Melatonin is a hormone that is naturally produced in the body when darkness falls. Supplementing could aid in correcting your body’s sleep schedule. In addition to melatonin, several supplements have a history of being used as sleep remedies like valerian or ashwagandha. 

Light therapy: also known as light exposure therapy, circadian light therapy, bright light therapy, or phototherapy, involves sitting in front of a bright light that more or less simulates sunlight for a short period of time early in the day. 

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I): This therapy works to identify and reorient negative thoughts and behaviors about sleep while structuring a plan for a healthier sleep routine.

Other Frequently Asked Questions about Sleep

Will Pulling an All-Nighter Help Reset Your Sleep Routine?

No. It won't. Pulling an all-nighter doesn’t seem to change the strength of your internal sleep signals, like melatonin level or body temperature. In fact, sleep deprivation may weaken your circadian rhythm response to light.

If you pull an all-nighter, you may crash at a good time the next evening, just like you hoped. But when morning comes, you’ll be less rested than if you’d gotten a full night’s sleep on your old schedule. And your body might treat it as a fluke rather than adapting to this new schedule the way it would have if you had made gradual adjustments. 

How does the sleep-wake cycle work?

The sleep cycle is basically controlled by two factors. 

• Sleep drive, or the urge to go to sleep. It generally gets stronger the longer you’re awake. Illness or strenuous activity can also boost your sleep drive.
• Circadian clock. This is your body’s internal schedule, which repeats on loop every 24 hours. It controls the internal rhythms of your biological functions, like hormone levels, digestion, and body temperature.

With a healthy sleep schedule, the sleep drive and circadian clock line up, causing you to wake in the morning and go to bed at night. 

What Is the Ideal Time to Go to Bed and Wake Up?

The most natural and healthy times to go to bed and wake up basically mirror the sunrise and sunset. However, because of geographic and lifestyle considerations, this is not practical or possible for many people. 

Aim to get on a sleep schedule that allows you to wake and sleep at the same time every day, provides for 7-9 hours of sleep, and aligns as close as possible to light and dark cycles. 

Bottom Line

There are a number of reasons your sleep schedule can become disrupted. While some are out of our control, there are concrete steps we can take to optimize our sleep and help get our sleep schedule back to a healthier place. If you feel that your condition is way beyond any of these, consider talking to your doctor. 

This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to be used as medical advice. If you have immediate concerns about your health, please seek the help of your physician. 

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.