How Simple Behavioral Changes Can Improve Your Rest

While people with chronic insomnia and other serious sleep disorders should seek help from a sleep specialist, there’s evidence small behavioral changes (beyond not drinking caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime) can make a meaningful difference.

“There are a lot of misconceptions around what sleep should look like,” says Amy Grinberg, PhD, a leading expert in behavioral sleep medicine and Director of Behavioral Medicine at the Atria Health Institute. Many people believe that if they don’t get eight or nine hours of sleep at night, they are “bad sleepers,” she explains, but that belief can be misleading and can even become a vicious cycle, where worrying about sleep makes it harder to sleep.

Rather than focusing on exactly how long you slept, she suggests paying attention to how rested you feel when you wake up. Do you feel refreshed in the morning? Was your sleep fragmented, or did you sleep through most of the night? 

These questions are central to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). This therapy—not sleep medication—is the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s first line recommendation for treating insomnia. CBT-I involves identifying the factors that exacerbate insomnia, and then changing the thoughts, behaviors, or environmental cues that interfere with sleep unfolding naturally.

Here are some of Grinberg’s go-to strategies for improving sleep:

Reserve your bed for sleep and sex. Our brains learn through association, so the goal is for being in bed to become a strong cue for sleep, not for doom scrolling, watching TV, or doing work.

If you can’t sleep, get out of bed. Lying awake in bed can teach the brain to associate the bed with frustration rather than rest. If you’re awake after about 20 minutes, Grinberg says it’s best to get up and do something calming until sleepiness returns. This can be reading in low light (as long as it’s not an intense story), gentle stretching, breathing exercises, or a quiet low-stakes task like folding laundry, knitting, or coloring. Watch for heavy eyes or other sleepy signals then head back to bed.

Try staying awake. It may sound counterintuitive, but research on a technique called paradoxical intention for insomnia suggests that actively trying to stay awake rather than forcing sleep can actually improve insomnia. The goal is to remove performance pressure around sleep, which often keeps people awake. You can read the summary of a recent meta analysis on it here.

Only go to bed when you’re sleepy. Many of us use external clues, like the clock, to decide when to go to bed. Instead, pay attention to the obvious signs of true sleepiness—yawning, head nods—which indicates you’re ready for rest.

Your sleep drive naturally builds the longer you’re awake, ideally reaching its peak when you are ready for sleep. Noticing when you feel sleepy can help you find a bedtime that aligns with your internal clock.

Create a buffer between day and night. It’s tough to expect your brain to go straight from working or socializing to sleep mode. A consistent wind-down routine can help signal that it’s time to slow down. Gentle stretching, meditation, self-massage, or a warm shower can all help ease that transition.

Avoid sleeping in if you can. Consistency is key for sleep, especially when it comes to wake-up time. While it’s tempting to catch up on sleep after a rough night, Grinberg says this can actually make sleep problems worse by throwing off your body’s internal clock. Wake-up time plays the biggest role in regulating your circadian rhythm, and large shifts can disrupt it in much the same way jet lag does. 

When to see a sleep specialist

Finding your ideal sleep routine can be “an art and a science,” says Grinberg. “Sleep hygiene is a necessary component of behavioral treatments, but it’s not sufficient for most people.” If you try some of these tips and they don’t stick, or if you have sleep conditions like narcolepsy, REM sleep behavior disorder, restless leg syndrome, or sleep apnea, talk to your doctor or find a trained sleep professional.

When it comes to wearables that track sleep, Grinberg says they can be helpful, but if the data starts to increase anxiety or you find yourself fixated on sleep metrics, it may be time to step away from the tracker or seek professional guidance.

The bottom line

When trying any sleep strategy, Grinberg says the focus should be on consistency over perfection. There’s no single solution for troubled sleep, and one bad night of sleep doesn’t doom the next day. The goal is to ease the pressure around sleep and find a routine that works best for your body.