Nothing is more frustrating than looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep only to find yourself tossing and turning once it’s finally time to go to bed. How can sleep’s grasp elude you when you’ve been so tired all day? Sleep hygiene is a good place to start. What’s that? Although sleep hygiene may conjure images of fresh-smelling sheets and clean pajamas, it’s about much more than aesthetics. It focuses on the habits affecting your ability to fall and stay asleep. 

Overall, the sleep hygiene definition involves the practices and habits that contribute to a good night’s sleep. It’s not just what you do before bed – sleep hygiene habits encompass everything you do throughout the day that can affect your sleep. For example, that “pick me up” cup of coffee at 3 p.m. is likely contributing to your tossing and turning, not to mention a poor sleep hygiene habit.

So what’s the difference between good sleep hygiene and poor sleep hygiene? Not to worry, we’re addressing this and other sleep hygiene tips and facts that can help you get more restful zzzs at night. So, let’s start with the positive, shall we?

What is Good Sleep Hygiene?

Forming sleep-friendly habits and routines are the first step to improving your sleep hygiene and overall rest at night. Good sleep hygiene involves being mindful of habits that encourage better rest to help you stay refreshed and aware during the day. It’s about creating routines around healthy habits and avoiding the things that can potentially interfere with sleep, such as caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol, at least 3 to 4 hours before bedtime. Your path to establishing good sleep hygiene begins when you wake and – hopefully – rewards you when you’re asleep.

How to Improve My Sleep Hygiene?

Although every person is different, there are everyday sleep hygiene habits that are beneficial to all. Let’s begin with the sleep environment, a.k.a., your bed (or wherever you usually sleep at night). The most important rule here is this – your bed is for two things, sex and sleeping. Trying not to use your bed for other activities is critical to establishing good sleep hygiene because your body comes to associate bed with sleep. You likely jeopardize good sleep hygiene if you watch TV, eat, read, work on your laptop, or pay bills in bed.

Bedrooms that align with good sleep hygiene are quiet and comfortable. A cooler room with enough blankets to stay warm is optimal, as well as curtains or an eye mask to block out early morning light and earplugs if there is disruptive noise outside your room.

There are also daily habits and routines you can try to improve your sleep hygiene. For starters, try to go to bed and wake at the same time every day – even on the weekends. Also, eating healthy and nutritional foods and regular exercise are great habits for improving your sleep hygiene. However, try to avoid strenuous exercise in the four hours leading up to bedtime.

Here are some other tips for establishing good sleep hygiene:

• Establish a soothing pre-sleep routine (ex: reading, baths, or stretching).
• Avoid caffeine after lunch.
• Lighten up on evening meals and avoid pre-bed snacks.
• Don’t drink too much right before bed – especially not alcohol.
• Turn off electronic devices before you go to sleep.
• Go to bed only when you are tired.

Why is it Important?

Creating good sleep hygiene habits can be very beneficial to your health by improving your sleep quality. Our bodies are surprisingly busy while we sleep. For example, your body cognitively and physically restores itself while snoozing as cells synthesize protein, tissues repair themselves, growth hormones are released, and more. Poor sleep hygiene can lead to disruptive sleep that interferes with these critical restorative functions.

What is Poor Sleep Hygiene?

Do you think you are suffering from poor sleep hygiene? If you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep or continually feel tired throughout the day, your sleep hygiene likely needs a tune-up. Also, if you revisit the sleep hygiene checklist we covered earlier and discover that any of the tips mentioned are missing from your routine, your sleep hygiene probably needs some work.  

Better Sleep Hygiene for Better Health

The bottom line is that forming and sticking to healthy sleep hygiene habits will take a little work and vigilance to become routine. The earlier you incorporate good sleep hygiene habits in life, the better. In fact, sleep hygiene for teens and children is critical to healthy growth and cognitive development. 

For adults, getting quality, restful sleep every night for 7-8 hours strengthens your immune system, can help you maintain a healthy weight, and can lower your risk for serious health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

At the Better Sleep Council, we’re devotees of healthy sleep. We continually provide research, insights, and educational resources to empower consumers to make smarter sleep decisions. Visit our resources page for the latest news and research about sleep, including more articles like this to help you on your path to better sleep.

Ah, sleep. The cherished time when everything is truly shut down, and our bodies and minds get some real “alone” time. There’s a lot of talk about sleep lately. Celebrities have contributed youthful looks to their healthy sleep habits (hey, JLo!), and we are bombarded with studies about the benefits of sleep.  From articles on healthy sleep hygiene to an explosion of sleep-related products and more – all eyes are on the bedroom these days.

So why the fuss? Perhaps the global pandemic’s epic disruption of “regular” routines – including sleep – has given folks more time to ponder their sleep habits. Or, perhaps there is just more research available. Whatever the case, we’ve heard whispers and shouts about the dangers of too little sleep for years. Well, apparently, there’s also a concern and chatter about too much sleep.

Standard Sleep Recommendations

Now sleep is joining the ranks of coffee, red wine, and protein as experts and scientists debate the elusive question of “how much is too much.” In debates like this, it’s sometimes best to cling to the facts first. So what do we know?

The CDC recommends the following amounts of sleep per day, per age group for optimal health benefits:

0–3 months: 14–17 hours

4–12 months: 12–16 hours 

1–2 years: 11–14 hours 

3–5 years: 10–13 hours 

6–12 years: 9–12 hours 

13-18 years: 8–10 hours 

18–60 years: 7+ hours 

61–64 years: 7–9 hours

65 years+: 7–8 hours

Many biological processes happen as we sleep, which are critical to our overall health. We’ll start with the big brain, which reportedly stores new information and eliminates toxic waste during sleep. Additionally, nerve cells communicate and reorganize, which supports healthy brain function. As for the rest – well, the body gets busy repairing cells, restoring energy, and releasing molecules like proteins and hormones, such as human growth hormones (HGH). HGH helps with growth and development in children and contributes to muscle, bone, and tissue repair in people of all ages.

Yes! Sleep is vital to our body’s biological function. Although scientists cannot agree on exactly why1 we need to sleep, they can all agree on the fact that it’s necessary for survival. For example, when deprived of sleep for three or four nights2, you can start to hallucinate, and the immune system becomes compromised3. Prolonged sleep deprivation can lead to cognitive impairments, irritability, delusions, paranoia, and psychosis.

So when we see a headline4 claiming, “Too Much Sleep Can Kill You, Scientists Say, “ our curiosity – and anxiety – was piqued. Fortunately, a review of the article revealed a lack of scientific certainty around the claim. However, we still had questions and a slide down the rabbit hole revealed too much sleep can apparently contribute to some problems, like headaches.

What happens when we sleep too much?

An average adult is expected to sleep from 7-9 hours per night for optimal benefits. However, note the word “average” here – that means that every “body” is a little different. So how do you know if you’re sleeping too much? 

To try and answer this question, we’re once again turning to the facts – beginning with what the body does during sleep. Let’s start with serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that helps maintain circadian rhythm – which is the natural pattern of sleep that your body follows to fall asleep and wake up in a way that rests and refreshes the body.

As we sleep, neurons move serotonin to a series of receptors programmed by our genes to use serotonin for certain goals, like falling asleep and waking up, in a process called a neural pathway. When you oversleep, you’re interrupting this neural pathway. If you keep sleeping even after serotonin has signaled your receptors to wake up, your body is no longer truly resting.

So, now your body thinks it’s awake and wants nourishment like food and water to restore blood flow and brain activity that slowed down during sleep. If you oversleep past this point, your body may feel dehydrated and nutrient-deprived, which can cause headaches or listlessness until your system is replenished with food and water.

We also came across this study5 of 24,671 subjects from 15 to 85 years that concluded “long sleepers” may be associated with psychiatric diseases and higher BMI, but not with other chronic medical diseases often associated with too little sleep.

But can I still sleep in on Sundays?

So, the scientific jury is still out on if and how damaging too much sleep can be to our health. However, there’s very little doubt that too little sleep is hazardous to long-term health. So, we recommend shooting for the CDC-recommended hours of sleep per age group and listening to your body. Sleeping in here and there or napping is normal if it’s what our body needs. However, if your prolonged sleeping habits are causing anxiety, it’s time to seek medical attention to get to the bottom of the cause.

Overall, we’ve come to learn that sleep must not be taken for granted. Our bodies need rest and quality ZZZs to function properly. If your sleep routine is not making you happy, give it more focus. Take a look at your bedtime habits – are you sleep procrastinating? Is your bedroom an oasis for sleep? Sleep deserves priority, so make it one. If you need some help getting there or establishing healthy sleep habits, we have plenty of helpful resources available at https://bettersleep.org.

1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482512/

2 https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/how-long-can-you-go-without-sleep

3 https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/sleep-deprivation-stages#timeline

4 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324475

5 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4165901/