Sleep: Seven Steps to Better Sleep

A bad night makes the next day’s glucose harder to control: even a few nights of short sleep measurably increases insulin resistance. Sleep also drives appetite — hunger rises, cravings shift toward carbohydrate, and willpower meets a brain that is running on too little fuel. Treating sleep is not self-indulgence; it is part of the same metabolic problem as your cholesterol and HbA1c.

Step 1 — Fix the wake time, not the bedtime

Get up at the same time every day, weekends included, within about 30 minutes. The body sets its clock by when you wake and when light hits your eyes, not by what time you decide to try to sleep. A fixed wake-up time is the single most effective change in insomnia treatment.

Step 2 — Get outdoor light within an hour of waking

Ten to twenty minutes of daylight (not through a window, not on your phone) anchors the circadian clock and makes melatonin arrive at the right time that evening. In Christchurch winter this means the commute, the first walk of the day, or coffee outside.

Step 3 — Draw lines around caffeine and alcohol

• Caffeine: half of it is still in your blood six hours later. Cut off by early afternoon — 1–2pm for most people, earlier if you are a slow metaboliser (genetics; some people genuinely need lunchtime to be the limit).
• Alcohol: helps you lose consciousness but fragments sleep in the second half of the night and worsens snoring and apnoea. Two drinks within three hours of bed is enough to show up on a tracker for many people.

Step 4 — Build a 45-minute wind-down

Give your brain a runway. Dim the house lights, drop screens to their darkest setting or put them away, and do something low-stimulation: reading, tidying, stretching, an audiobook. Write tomorrow’s list down beforehand — a page of notes is far more effective than lying there rehearsing it.

Step 5 — Make the bedroom boring

• Cool: about 17–19 °C. A warm room is one of the most common causes of 3am waking.
• Dark: curtains or a mask. Even standby LEDs register.
• Quiet: earplugs if there is noise you cannot remove, a fan if there is not.
• Phone out of the room, and no working or arguments in bed — the brain learns by association what a place is for.

Step 6 — If you are awake, get up

Twenty minutes awake in bed and you are training your brain that bed is a place for being alert. Go to another room, keep the light dim, do something dull, return when sleepy. Do not look at the clock — turn it away. Naps are fine if under ~25 minutes and before mid-afternoon.

Step 7 — Get checked for sleep apnoea

The two-minute STOP-BANG questionnaire estimates your risk; take it to your GP if you score in the intermediate or high range. Weight loss often reduces the severity of obstructive sleep apnoea.

In this series: the 7pm rule and aerobic exercise.