Sleep Strategies

Quick tips

Jump straight to a specific problem.

Sleep strategies checklist

Your wake-up time is fixed, so work backwards from it to set your bedtime — and keep that wake time consistent on workdays, even after a bad night. A lie-in feels like the fix, but it shifts your body clock and tends to make the next night worse. Build in a buffer of around 15–30 minutes between getting into bed and actually trying to sleep, and add more on top of that if you like to read or wind down in bed first — that's separate settling-in time, on top of the buffer, not instead of it.

What's already in place?

Light & timing
Substances
Environment
Behaviour

Priority changes for you

Quick tips

Can't fall asleep?

Common when your brain is still running through the working day. These help you switch off, in evidence order.

Woke in the night?

A few techniques to help you settle back down without fully waking up.

Woke up early, before your alarm?

Going back to sleep isn't always the right call — it depends how long you've got left. That one glance at the clock to check is the exception to the "don't clock-watch" rule — it's the repeated checking afterwards that causes problems, not this single check. Tell us how early you woke and we'll suggest what to do.

Ways to occupy a busy mind

The idea behind all of these is the same: give your brain something neutral and mildly effortful to chew on, so it can't keep circling back to work or worry. If the general version doesn't click for you, try one of the alternatives below.
1
The general technique

Picture a random, neutral word, then let your mind drift to another completely unconnected one, then another — e.g. "kettle... orange... bicycle..." — without linking them into a story. This is sometimes called the "cognitive shuffle" in sleep research; it's an established technique, not something we invented for this guide.

2
Alphabet categories

Pick a category — animals, foods, cities — and go through the alphabet naming one for each letter you can. It's concrete enough to hold your attention without being emotionally engaging.

3
Times table of an odd number

Pick an unfamiliar number — 13, 17, 19 — and work through its times table. The unfamiliarity is what makes it effective: familiar ones (2s, 5s, 10s) are too automatic to hold your attention.

4
Walk through a familiar route

Mentally walk through somewhere you know well but don't feel strongly about — your regular supermarket, a route you often walk, or a hotel you've stayed in more than once — picturing the layout and small details as you go. It's absorbing enough to occupy your attention, but has no emotional stakes to keep you alert.

Based on established sleep-hygiene and CBT-I evidence (e.g. circadian regulation, stimulus control, caffeine pharmacokinetics). Not a substitute for medical advice — persistent sleep problems are worth raising with a GP.