A 60-minute wind-down routine for better sleep

The routine at a glance

The rest of this guide explains each decision, and the two that happen earlier in the day.

Light: dim early, bright in the morning

Light is the strongest signal your body clock has. Bright light in the evening delays the natural rise in melatonin and pushes your sleep later; bright light in the morning anchors the clock and makes the following evening feel sleepy at the right time. So the routine starts with the lights, an hour out: lamps rather than overheads, warm rather than cool, and as dim as is comfortable. In the morning, get outside light within an hour of waking if you can, even on an overcast day. That morning light is doing as much for tonight as anything you do this evening.

Screens: the content matters more than the glow

Screens get blamed for their light, and that is part of it, but the bigger problem is usually what is on them. Work email, news and an endless feed keep the mind alert and slightly stressed in a way that a dim reading lamp never does. The practical rule is to have a last deliberate look at the phone about forty-five minutes out, deal with anything that genuinely needs dealing with, and then put it somewhere you would have to get up to reach. Night modes and dimming help at the margins; distance helps a lot. If you use your phone for sleep sounds or a breathing guide, set it up and then turn the screen face down — audio keeps playing with the screen off.

Caffeine and alcohol: decisions made in the afternoon

Caffeine lingers. A significant fraction of a mid-afternoon coffee is still active at bedtime, and it fragments sleep even in people who fall asleep fine. The common guidance is to stop caffeine around eight hours before bed — roughly early afternoon for a 10 or 11 p.m. bedtime — and to remember that tea, cola, energy drinks and dark chocolate count.

Alcohol is the more misunderstood one. It does make many people fall asleep faster, which is why it feels like it helps. It then suppresses REM sleep in the first half of the night and fragments the second half as it wears off, so the night is shorter and shallower than it feels. If you drink, earlier in the evening and less is the honest advice; a drink within a couple of hours of bed is a drink you will pay for at 4 a.m.

Temperature: warm skin, cool room

Falling asleep is accompanied by a drop in core body temperature, and a bedroom that is too warm gets in the way. The widely quoted target is on the cool side, around 18 degrees Celsius, with bedding you can adjust rather than a single heavy duvet. A warm shower or bath half an hour before bed helps rather than hinders: it draws blood to the skin, and the cooling that follows when you step out into a cool room amplifies the natural drop.

Why is a fixed wake time the anchor?

Two supporting habits: keep naps short and before mid-afternoon if you need them, and finish vigorous exercise a few hours before bed. Exercise is good for sleep; its timing is the only thing to watch.

When you cannot sleep: get up

The most counterintuitive piece of mainstream advice is also the best supported. If you have been lying awake for what feels like twenty minutes or more — do not check the clock — get up, go to another room or a chair, keep the lights low and do something quietly dull until you feel sleepy, then go back to bed. The same applies to waking in the middle of the night.

The reason is that lying awake and frustrated teaches your brain that bed is a place for being awake and frustrated. Breaking that association is more valuable than the few minutes of rest you lose. While you are up, a few minutes of slow breathing or a quiet soundscape helps; the news, work and bright lights do not.

How to make it stick

• Attach it to something you already do. The routine starts when the dishwasher goes on, or when the dog has been out. A cue beats an intention.
• Make it the same every night. The sequence itself becomes a signal; variety is the enemy here.
• Set a bedtime reminder for the sixty-minute mark. The point is to catch you before you start one more episode, not to nag you at lights-out.
• Judge it over two weeks, not two nights. Your body clock moves slowly. A routine that has not obviously worked by Wednesday is still working.
• Keep the pieces small. Five short routines you actually do beat one perfect hour you abandon by the weekend. TritonSleep bundles a few of these steps — a breathing pattern with a matching soundscape — into five short routines for exactly this reason, and its fourteen narrated wind-downs do the same job if you would rather be talked down than follow a screen. The narrations are recorded in English.

If you do all of this consistently for a few weeks and still regularly struggle to fall or stay asleep, wake unrefreshed most days, or snore heavily or stop breathing in your sleep, that is a conversation for a doctor rather than a routine problem.

The guides that sit next to this one are All night or with a timer? and White vs pink vs brown noise.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good wind-down routine for adults?

An hour with a consistent shape: dim the lights and finish work at sixty minutes out, have a last deliberate look at the phone and write tomorrow’s list at forty-five, wash and cool the bedroom at thirty, do something calm such as slow breathing or a paper book at ten, and turn the lights out at the same time most nights.

How long before bed should I stop looking at screens?

Around forty-five minutes to an hour is a reasonable target, but what you look at matters more than the glow. Work, news and feeds keep you alert; a dim screen playing a soundscape with the display off does not. Put the phone out of arm’s reach once you have set it up.

When should I stop drinking caffeine before bed?

Common guidance is about eight hours before bed, which means early afternoon for most people, and that includes tea, cola, energy drinks and dark chocolate. Caffeine fragments sleep even in people who fall asleep without difficulty.

What should I do if I cannot fall asleep?

After what feels like twenty minutes awake, get up, keep the lights low, do something quietly dull in another room until you feel sleepy, and then go back to bed. Lying awake and frustrated trains your brain to associate bed with wakefulness, which is worse than the rest you lose by getting up.

Is a consistent bedtime or a consistent wake time more important?

Wake time. Getting up at the same time every day, including weekends, is what keeps your body clock predictable and makes you sleepy at the right hour the next night. Bedtime can flex a little with how tired you are.

General wellness only: TritonSleep is not a medical device and these guides do not diagnose or treat any sleep condition. They summarise widely published guidance for general interest. If sleep problems persist, or you snore heavily, stop breathing in your sleep or feel exhausted most days, talk to a qualified healthcare professional.