Most people go to sleep and wake up around the same time every day, which allows our bodies to establish a consistent routine. Sometimes, however, we’re forced to reset our sleep schedule and adjust our waking and sleeping hours. Even if you don’t necessarily have to fix your sleep schedule for work or life reasons, you may still want to learn how to because you’ve heard about the benefits of keeping a regular bedtime routine.
But how do you fix your sleep schedule without having to feel groggy for the next few days? From making gradual adjustments to reducing blue light exposure and exercising during the day, these are a few tips that might be the trick to adjusting your sleep. Keep reading for more in-depth advice and tips on how to fix your sleep schedule.
- Key Takeaways
- Why Are Sleep Schedules Important?
- What Causes Sleep Schedules to Get Disrupted?
- How Can You Fix Your Sleep Schedule?
- What Is the Best Time to Go to Sleep and Wake Up?
- Adjusting Your Sleep Routine for Better Sleep
Key Takeaways
- Building a consistent sleep schedule improves both physical and mental performance.
- Making gradual adjustments to your bedtime, such as going to bed 15 minutes earlier each night, are more effective than dramatic changes.
- Light exposure management for both natural and artificial light can help regulate your sleep cycle.
- Leveraging natural sleep aids, such as melatonin and red light therapy, along with creating a soothing sleep environment, can support healthy sleep patterns.
- Consistent bedtime routines signal your body it’s time to rest, making it easier for your body to go to sleep when you need to.
Why Are Sleep Schedules Important?
Your body operates on an internal clock known as your circadian rhythm, which helps regulate your sleep cycles. This biological timekeeper influences everything from hormone production to body temperature, directly impacting when you feel alert or sleepy. Maintaining consistent sleep patterns can help optimize your deep sleep, which is crucial for:
- Physical restoration and muscle repair: During deep sleep, your body repairs damaged tissues and builds new muscle fibers. This restorative process is essential for athletic recovery and maintaining overall physical health.
- Memory consolidation and cognitive function: While you sleep, your brain processes and stores information, converting short-term memories into long-term ones.
- Immune system maintenance: Your immune system produces protective proteins called cytokines during sleep, which help fight off infections and inflammation. Consistent sleep deprivation can lower your body’s defense mechanisms, making you more susceptible to illness.
- Emotional regulation and stress management: Quality sleep helps regulate emotion-controlling hormones like cortisol and serotonin. Maintaining a regular sleep schedule can improve mood stability and lower anxiety and depression.
- Metabolic health: Regular sleep patterns help regulate hormones that control appetite and blood sugar levels. Research indicates that disrupted sleep schedules can increase the risk of weight gain and possible metabolic disorders, as irregular sleep patterns interfere with the hormones that regulate hunger and fullness signals.
What Causes Sleep Schedules to Get Disrupted?
Several factors can throw off your natural sleep rhythm, making it necessary to learn how to adjust sleep schedule patterns:
- Shift work: Rotating schedules or night shifts force your body to operate against its natural circadian rhythm, often leading to significant sleep disruption.
- Jet lag: Traveling across time zones temporarily misaligns your internal clock with local time, requiring your body to adjust to new light-dark cycles. Using a jet lag recovery calculator can help you estimate when to sleep to adjust to a new time zone.
- Caffeine: Drinking caffeinated beverages too late in the day can impact your ability to feel tired and fall asleep at your desired bedtime.
- Lifestyle: Irregular meal times, inconsistent exercise patterns, and varying bedtimes can all contribute to disrupted sleep schedules.
- Stress: Elevated stress levels can make fixing sleep schedule issues particularly challenging, as anxiety often interferes with both falling and staying asleep.
How Can You Fix Your Sleep Schedule?
There are all sorts of sleepers: early birds and night owls, those who can’t get enough shuteye, and those who will stubbornly fight their body until it forcefully dozes off. Some people can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, while others chase the pillow, tossing and turning all night. No matter what your unique profile is, learning how to fix a sleep schedule usually proves to be pretty challenging.
When learning how to fix sleep schedule patterns, it’s important to understand that sustainable change requires you to develop a system. Here are a few evidence-based strategies to help you establish a healthier sleep routine:
1. Make Gradual Adjustments
Rather than attempting dramatic changes, adjust your bedtime in 15-minute increments every few days. This gradual approach can make it easier for your body to adapt without excessive fatigue or resistance. If you’re trying to start waking up earlier, begin by going to bed just 15 minutes earlier than usual, then gradually move this earlier over time.
For example, if you normally wind down around 11:00 PM, but a new job demands that you start waking up at 6:00 AM, you should make 10:00 PM your target bedtime in order to achieve the prescribed eight hours. Slowly start laying down 15 minutes earlier every night until you get closer to your golden goodnight time. Keep in mind that this also means you should start your nighttime routine a little earlier every evening as well.
2. Reduce Blue Light Exposure
Digital devices emit blue light that suppresses melatonin production, making it harder to fall asleep. As you establish a nighttime routine, it’s wise to avoid blue light for at least two hours before bed. To break the habit of scrolling on your phone or binge-watching your favorite show, consider:
- Using blue light-blocking glasses after sunset
- Installing screen-dimming apps on your devices
- Switching to warm, amber lighting in the evening
3. Exercise During the Day
Regular activity can support better sleep and help you fall asleep earlier. Although exercising before bed isn’t always recommended, morning or afternoon workouts can be beneficial.
Physical activity increases your daytime alertness, keeping you more energized and focused throughout the day. It also builds sleep pressure naturally, making you feel more tired when bedtime approaches.
Being more active can reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, helping you drift off more quickly once you’re in bed. Additionally, regular physical activity improves overall sleep quality, leading to more restorative rest and fewer nighttime disruptions.
4. Follow a Consistent Bedtime Routine
Creating a reliable evening routine helps signal to your body that it’s time to wind down, acting as a consistent cue that sleep is approaching.
A study found that children who maintain consistent pre-sleep rituals typically fall asleep faster and experience better-quality rest throughout the night. Whether your routine takes 15 minutes or an hour, the key is to perform the same calming activities in the same order each evening. This can help your brain recognize that it’s time to transition from waking to sleep mode.
5. Nap Carefully
While naps can help you catch up on lost sleep, timing them incorrectly can make fixing your sleep schedule more difficult, leading to fragmented sleep in the night. When incorporating naps into your routine, limiting them to 20-30 minutes is important to prevent entering deep sleep. Napping too deeply can leave you feeling groggy and disoriented upon waking.
Avoid naps after 3 PM, as late-day napping can affect your ability to fall asleep at night. Instead, use naps strategically during schedule adjustments, such as taking a short early afternoon nap if you’re particularly tired while adapting to a new sleep routine.
6. Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol
Caffeine and sleep have a complex relationship. This stimulant can significantly impact your sleep architecture and make it harder to fix your sleep schedule. Even if you don’t feel energized from that afternoon coffee, caffeine affects your system and can prevent you from achieving deep, restorative rest.
Similarly, alcohol and sleep don’t mix as well as many people think. While a late-night cocktail might help you drift off initially, alcohol disrupts your sleep cycles and leads to fragmented, poor-quality sleep throughout the night.
As you work on adjusting your sleep schedule, it’s best to avoid both substances, especially in the hours before bedtime. Limiting caffeine to morning hours and skipping that evening glass of wine can dramatically improve your ability to fall asleep naturally and maintain consistent sleep patterns. If you’re struggling to cut back, try replacing these drinks with caffeine-free herbal teas or sparkling water, particularly as part of your wind-down routine.
7. Embrace Morning Light
Natural light exposure in the morning supports your circadian rhythm, which is crucial in fixing sleep schedule issues. Making a habit of opening your curtains immediately upon waking floods your room with natural sunlight, which helps suppress melatonin production and signals to your body that it’s time to be alert.
Spending time outdoors in the morning, even for just 15-20 minutes, can further reinforce this wake signal through direct exposure to sunlight. During darker winter months or in locations with limited morning light, consider using a light therapy lamp to simulate natural sunlight and maintain your body’s circadian rhythm.
8. Create a Soothing Sleep Environment
Your sleep environment shapes how well you maintain a healthy sleep schedule. The foundation of good sleep starts with your bed — investing in a quality memory foam mattress or hybrid mattress can provide the support and comfort you need for optimal relaxation. When trying to fix your sleep schedule, consider these elements to create your ideal sleep sanctuary:
- Find your perfect sleep temperature: Set your thermostat to a temperature that makes you feel comfortable while you’re under the covers. Maintain cool comfort using moisture-wicking bamboo sheets or a copper mattress that regulates body temperature all night.
- Eliminate clutter: Reduce visual distractions and stress by keeping your bedroom organized and minimal.
- Add natural elements: Place air-purifying plants like snake plants or lavender around your room to improve air quality.
- Choose calming colors: Choose bedroom paint colors that promote sleep, such as soft blues and greens, or neutral tones, like beige, to encourage relaxation and peace.
- Manage light exposure: Install blackout curtains and use warm, dim lighting for any nighttime needs.
- Block disruptive noise: Set up a white noise machine or fan to create consistent, soothing background sound.
9. Try Natural Sleep Aids
When adjusting your sleep schedule, natural sleep aids can provide gentle support without creating dependency. Options include:
- Meditation: Regular meditation practice can help calm your mind and prepare your body for sleep. Even 10 minutes of mindfulness before bed can make a difference.
- Melatonin: This hormone naturally signals your body it’s time to sleep, and melatonin supplements can help reset your internal clock. So, how long does melatonin last? Melatonin typically lasts for a few hours, which can help you to gently drift off to sleep.
- Red light therapy: Unlike blue light, red light doesn’t interfere with melatonin production and may actually promote better sleep.
What Is the Best Time to Go to Sleep and Wake Up?
The best time to go to sleep and wake up is ultimately a matter of personal preference and biology. Everyone has their own chronotype — a natural biological preference for sleeping and waking at certain times. While some people naturally function as “dolphins,” feeling most alert midday and struggling with light sleep, others operate as “bears,” following the sun’s natural rhythm. Some thrive as early-rising “lions,” while natural “wolves” hit their stride in the evening hours.
Instead of forcing yourself into someone else’s ideal schedule, consider your chronotype and how it affects your natural energy patterns throughout the day. The key isn’t picking a specific bedtime that works for everyone but rather finding and sticking to a consistent schedule that aligns with your body’s natural rhythms while ensuring you get 7-9 hours of quality sleep.
When life changes require adjusting your schedule, work with your chronotype rather than against it, making gradual shifts that respect your natural patterns while meeting your new responsibilities.
Adjusting Your Sleep Routine for Better Sleep
Establishing a consistent sleep schedule requires dedication, but the benefits make the effort worthwhile. Your circadian rhythm responds well to routine, and when you maintain a regular sleep schedule, you’ll likely find yourself naturally feeling drowsy at bedtime and waking refreshed without an alarm. While the adjustment period may take a week or two, staying committed to your new schedule can help ensure long-term success in achieving quality, restorative sleep.
Creating optimal sleep conditions can significantly ease this transition. A supportive copper mattress from Layla Sleep provides the comfort and temperature regulation needed for uninterrupted rest. At the same time, our collection of sleep accessories — from cooling bamboo sheets to weighted blankets — can help create the perfect sleep environment. Browse our collection today.
