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What’s your sleep hygiene like? Good? Bad? Do you think you get enough sleep each night? Or do you spend way too long scrolling on your phone before your head finally hits the pillow well after midnight?
If you read all those questions and cringed at any of them, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
While we might all know the importance of establishing a regular bedtime routine and snuggling up under the covers on time, there are plenty of us out there willing to burn the midnight oil late into the night for work, friends, and entertainment.
But knowing is not the same as doing, and the harsh truth is that good quality sleep is incredibly important for our overall health and well-being. After all, we spend an average of 26 years sleeping – over a quarter of our lives – so why would you not want to make sure you’re getting the best night’s sleep possible every time you turn in?
Now, obviously, going to bed early isn’t something you’re going to be able to do every night (and certain occasions absolutely call for staying up into the wee hours of the morning). However, practising good sleep hygiene will go a long way towards improving the overall quality of your sleep during the week and give you more energy on a daily basis!
So, with this in mind, we thought we’d share our top sleep hygiene tips that you can try today to improve the quality of your sleep, while also sharing insightful data around the sleep habits of one of the biggest countries in the world – America – to further highlight just how widespread poor sleep hygiene practices are!
What is sleep hygiene?
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term sleep hygiene, we thought it’d be helpful to provide a quick breakdown of its definition before touching in more detail on our sleep hygiene findings.
Essentially, sleep hygiene refers to the impact of your habits during the day and before bed, as well as the quality of your sleeping environment, and how they might influence how well you sleep each night – think of it as a checklist for healthy sleep practices rather than the art of sleeping itself.
For example, good sleep hygiene might look something like maintaining a consistent bedtime each night, getting exercise in the day, and staying hydrated, while poor sleep hygiene would see you drinking six cups of coffee in the afternoon, scrolling socials well into the morning, and then waking up early for work.
Of course, what qualifies as good sleep hygiene for one person will be different to another, so it’s important that you try a variety of tips and techniques to find what works for you, rather than forcing yourself to stick to a bedtime routine that stresses you out.
Why is good sleep hygiene important?
At the end of the day, how well you prepare your mind and body for sleep will directly correlate to how well you sleep. An inconsistent sleep schedule will make it hard for you to fall asleep at the same time each night, and drinking excessive levels of alcohol or caffeine means that even if you fall asleep quickly, you’ll likely wake up a lot.
In contrast, if you can nail down one or two clean sleep hygiene habits, you’ll almost certainly see improvements in your mood levels, cognitive functions, body immunity, and weight loss – in other words, your whole body will benefit from you getting to sleep on time every night!
How good is the average person’s sleep hygiene?
So, now that we’ve touched on what sleep hygiene is and why it’s important, just how good are the average person’s sleep hygiene habits? Well, to find out, we turned to America to see how well they handle maintaining a regular bedtime routine.
And as you’ll soon see, the results were not exactly promising:
How long does the average person sleep?
Even though the Sleep Foundation recommends getting at least seven hours of sleep every night, our data sadly shows that people of all demographics are struggling to reach even that minimal number.
According to our data, the average sleep time across all respondents in our survey was just 6.37 hours per night!
In general, people over 65 appeared to sleep the longest, averaging 6.63 hours overall. Sleepers aged 45-54 were getting as little as just 6.08 hours per night, with men tending to sleep slightly longer than women, even though we separately discovered that women need more sleep than men.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, respondents tended to sleep for a lot longer on weekends to catch up on this weekly sleep deprivation, with the average time spent resting rising to 6.72 hours on Saturdays and Sundays – which still isn’t great.
What time does the average person go to bed?
In the US, and most of the Western World, the most common bedtime for adults seems to be around 10pm, with 24% of respondents heading off to sleep at that time on their weeknights.
Meanwhile, 11pm seems to be the most popular time on Saturdays on Sundays, but nearly a quarter of people said they don’t have a regular bedtime on weekends, while 1 in 5 also don’t have a set time for sleep on weekdays!
Still, at least, 16% of people said they head to bed at 9pm during the work week, so it’s not all late nights across the board! But it’s also not like 9-11pm is a particularly late range for those waking up at 6-7am, so why is it that most people seem to be getting less than 7 hours of sleep?
What’s keeping people up at night?
Based on the findings from our study, the average person wakes up as many as 2.47 times a night, with women having their sleep interrupted more often than men. In fact, 1 in 3 people who reported interrupted sleep, say they woke up at least two times – often waking up at the same times consistently each night.
As for why people kept waking up (or couldn’t fall asleep in the first place), the most common reason was to use the toilet, as well as being dehydrated, being too hot, dealing with intense nightmares, or anxiety about the next day.
There’s also plenty of evidence to suggest that excess stimulation may be responsible for people staying up late, with one of the most popular pre-bedtime activities being watching TV. At least 50% of men and 47% of women claimed to watch TV shows before sleep, which is more than double that of all other responses!
However, our phones are playing a role here too. Our stats suggest that women were more likely to scroll social media before sleeping, while a higher percentage of men reported listening to music or podcasts – though as many as 36% of people were checking social media before bed.
How many people actually feel rested after sleeping?
Finally, as part of our survey, we asked respondents how well-rested they felt after waking up, and just 27% reported feeling like they got enough sleep to feel refreshed in the morning.
Worse than that, more than 1 in 5 people said they never felt rested when getting out of bed, with 28% of women reporting morning tiredness as well as 15% of men. The most common answer, though, suggests that the majority of people lie somewhere in-between with 40% of people saying they wake up feeling rested at least a couple of times per week.
How to improve your sleep hygiene this year
Based on our survey, it’s pretty clear that not enough people are getting high-quality sleep on a regular basis, and it suggests that most people have pretty lacklustre sleep hygiene habits in general.
Fortunately, if you’re set on getting better sleep going forward, then you’ll be thrilled to hear that the process of improving your sleep hygiene is actually quite easy – you just need to be willing to put in the time and effort required to make it an actual habit.
From eliminating screentime an hour before bed to setting a cut-off time for caffeine consumption and more, here are our top sleep hygiene tips you can use to improve your sleep going forward:
1. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule
Alright, you probably already saw it coming, but first and foremost, if you want to get good sleep, then the reality is that you need to make sure you stick to as consistent a sleep schedule throughout the week as possible – and this includes weekends too!
By going to bed and waking up at the same time each day, you’ll start to regulate your circadian rhythm - your body's internal clock - making it easier to fall asleep and wake up naturally at the same time.
And as an added bonus, a regular routine like this leads to more restful sleep in general, better regulating your body’s production of sleep and stress hormones to their normal levels and helping you to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead!
2. Limit screen time before bed
Another long-touted sleep hygiene habit, but one that is absolutely essential to follow, is reducing or eliminating screen time before bed to stop yourself from feeling wired well into the early hours.
Pretty much all sleep experts recommend avoiding any form of digital device use at least an hour before bed, and we absolutely degree. Minimising your exposure to blue light from screens will help your body settle for sleep and ensure sufficient levels of melatonin (the sleep hormone) are produced to send you off to dreamland.
On top of this, staying off your phone before bed, especially with regard to social media, emails, and the news, will help to calm your mind and stop your thoughts racing, reducing stress and anxiety levels that might otherwise keep you awake for several hours after lying down on your pillow.
3. Make your bedroom as comfy as possible
As we mentioned right at the start of our article, part of practising good sleep hygiene involves making your bedroom environment as comfortable as possible – and let’s face it, who doesn’t like climbing into fresh bed sheets and curling up in them?
But more importantly than staying on top of washing your bedding, you should also look for ways to make your bedroom as dark, quiet, and cool as possible. Blackout curtains and eye masks are fantastic for this, while earplugs or a white noise machine can drown out noisy neighbours and city sirens.
As for sleeping in hot weather, if you can’t afford air conditioning, then we recommend investing in different duvet thicknesses, keeping a thinner one for use in summer to stop yourself from waking up sweaty in the night.
4. Create a calming bedtime routine
Finding ways to relax your body and mind before bed is one of the best ways to ensure you get better sleep overall. For many people, this might include meditation and breathwork, reading a book, or jotting down tomorrow’s to-do list to get it out of your head.
Whatever it is, find the time to fit such wellbeing techniques into your bedtime routine, giving yourself at least 30 minutes in the run-up to bed to do them properly while dimming your lights to help simulate the sun setting.
5. Get outside, exercise, and stay hydrated
While not something that you might think is directly related to sleep quality and consistency, plenty of studies show that exercising during the day is directly related to better sleep in the evening.
So, if you haven’t already, get into the habit of doing at least a 30-minute workout every other day to encourage your body to tire in the evening. Whether it’s simply an easy walk or a full weights workout, anything you can do to get the blood pumping will be helpful.
On top of this, if you can, do your workout outside to expose yourself to natural light. Doing so will help to inform your body of what time it is and regulate melatonin production, making sleep easier in the evening.
Finally, staying hydrated throughout the day is an absolute must for good sleep. Experts recommend drinking at least 2 litres of water a day, which should be more than enough to stop you from waking up dehydrated at night.
6. Cut back on caffeine and alcohol
You’ve heard it a thousand times before but we’re going to say it again here – if you want to sleep properly in the week, then you need to cut back on the amount of caffeine and alcohol you consume daily.
Despite its benefits to alertness and concentration, caffeine is one of the worst offenders for keeping us awake at night. This is because it takes an average of 5 hours for our bodies to process just half the caffeine found in a cup of coffee, so you can imagine how much caffeine will be in your system if you have more than two cups a day.
As for alcohol, while you might find it easier to sleep after a nightcap or two, countless research shows that alcohol directly impacts sleep quality – and not for the better. Those who drink before bed almost always experience more nighttime disturbances while also getting less REM sleep, resulting in them waking up feeling less rested overall.
So, to avoid being wide awake or waking tired, avoid drinking more than two cups of normal coffee a day, and cut the caffeine off after 1pm, while also making sure that any alcohol you do drink is at most 3 hours before going to bed.
7. Invest in a better mattress
Simply put, if you want a good night’s sleep, then you need to invest in the right mattress, bed frame, and bedding for a comfortable night of rest.
A mattress that provides the right support for your body will significantly improve your sleep quality, be that one made of memory foam, pocket springs, or even an orthopaedic model if you suffer from persistent backache, while the right bed frame will give your mattress the support it needs to last for years to come.
If you haven’t already, find the time and space in your budget to invest in this essential part of your bedroom – your body and mind will certainly thank you for it!
Improve your sleep hygiene with MattressNextDay
So, how does your sleep routine match up with the rest of the population? Is there room for improvement or do you have your sleep routine nailed down?
Well, if you think your sleep routine is pretty solid, but you’re still waking up feeling distinctly unrefreshed, then you should definitely start browsing the MattressNextDay range today to see what offers we have in our collection.
From memory foam mattresses to hybrid models, as well as extra firm mattresses that will provide you with all the support you need, it’s fair to say we’ve got everyone’s needs covered!
Methodology
We surveyed 1,500 US consumers aged 18+ from 3Gem survey provider.
