How do I build an evening routine that helps me sleep?
An hour of winding down, and the specific things that undo it.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 20 min
- Read
- 2 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Start winding down an hour before bed, dim the lights, and move the phone out of the bedroom. Light and stimulation are what keep the body in daytime mode, and both are easier to change than sleep itself.
You cannot decide to fall asleep, but you can create the conditions. An evening routine works because the body responds to consistent signals — light, temperature, activity — rather than to intention.
Safety
Step by step
- Set a consistent bedtime and stick to it at weekends.Consistency does more than duration. A regular time, including at weekends, is what the body clock responds to.
- Begin winding down an hour before.Not a routine that starts at bedtime. The hour before is when the transition happens, and using it fully is most of the effect.
- Dim the lights.Bright light late tells your body it is still daytime. Lamps rather than overhead lights, and warm bulbs. This does more than screen filters.
- Get the phone out of the bedroom.Charge it in another room and use a separate alarm clock. It removes both the light and the scrolling, and it is the single most effective change most people can make.
- Cool the room.Body temperature needs to fall for sleep. A cool bedroom — around 16-18°C — helps considerably, and a warm bath an hour before works by the same mechanism.
- Stop caffeine early.It has a long half-life and an afternoon coffee is still working at bedtime for many people. Moving the cut-off to lunchtime is worth trying for a fortnight.
- Deal with the mental load before bed.A short list of tomorrow's tasks, written down. Much lying awake is the mind holding things it is afraid of forgetting, and putting them on paper releases them.
- Keep the routine simple enough to repeat.Three or four things you will actually do every night. An elaborate routine is abandoned within a fortnight and then feels like a failure.
Tips
- If you cannot sleep after about twenty minutes, get up and do something quiet in dim light. Lying awake trains the brain to associate bed with being awake.
- The wind-down hour matters more than what you do in it. Reading, a bath, tidying, music — anything unstimulating and consistent.
- Give it a fortnight. Sleep habits respond slowly and judging after three nights tells you nothing.
Questions people ask
How long before bed should I stop looking at screens?
Around an hour helps, and the content matters as much as the light — something stimulating keeps you awake regardless of a night filter. Getting the phone out of the bedroom is the bigger change.
What temperature should a bedroom be?
Around 16-18°C for most people. Body temperature needs to fall for sleep, which is also why a warm bath an hour before helps.