Sleep is supposed to be a time for your body to recharge, a respite from the demands of the workaday world. Yet, according to the documentary Sleepless in America, 40 percent of Americans are sleep deprived, with many getting less than five hours of sleep per night.

For many, sleep isn’t a respite at all but rather has turned into a source of great frustration and stress. If you’ve ever struggled with insomnia, you know the anxiety that can occur when the clock starts approaching bedtime.

Will you be able to fall asleep? Will you lie in bed, awake, for hours, only to fall asleep shortly before your alarm clock goes off? Though it may seem hopeless, let me assure you that sound sleep can be yours.

Oftentimes it only takes some simple tweaks to your bedtime routine and, ironically, to your habits during the day to make sound sleep a reality.

Lack of Sleep Can Leave You Functionally Drunk

Before I delve into how to improve your sleep, let’s go over why it’s so important to do so. You probably already know that sleep is important — and that you feel lousy after a night with barely any shuteye.

However, you may be surprised by the results of a recent University of Michigan study, which found even six hours of sleep a night is too little and may leave you functionally impaired, similar to being drunk. University of Michigan mathematician and study author Olivia Walch said:¹

“It doesn’t take that many days of not getting enough sleep before you’re functionally drunk … Researchers have figured out that being overly tired can have that effect.

And what’s terrifying at the same time is that people think they’re performing tasks way better than they are. Your performance drops off but your perception of your performance doesn’t.”

Smartphone App Reveals Insights Into How the World Sleeps

In 2014, Walch and colleagues released a free app that recommends optimal lighting schedules for adjusting to new time zones (i.e., helping to reduce the effects of jet lag).

The app, called Entrain, asks users to input their sleep times, home time zone and typical lighting schedule, and it can also record hourly light and sleep schedules.

The researchers used data collected from the app to reveal trends in how people sleep around the world.² Average sleep duration ranged from seven hours and 24 minutes for residents of Singapore to eight hours and 12 minutes for residents of the Netherlands.

This might not seem like a large discrepancy, but even 30 minutes of extra sleep can make a big difference in your health and ability to function. Other interesting facts revealed by the study included:³

• Middle-aged men got the least sleep and often slept less than seven to eight hours a night.
• Women tended to schedule more time for sleep and slept about 30 minutes more per night than men. Women tended to go to bed earlier and wake up later.
• People who spent time in the sunlight each day tended to go to sleep earlier and got more sleep than those who spend most of their day indoors.

Trends were also noted by age, which suggests your biological clock may influence your internal clock. In particular, the researchers noted that people’s schedules dictated their bedtime but their internal clock governed their wake time.

Therefore, the best way to get more sleep is to go to bed earlier. Study co-author Daniel Forger, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan explained:

“Across the board, it appears that society governs bedtime and one’s internal clock governs wake time, and a later bedtime is linked to a loss of sleep …

At the same time, we found a strong wake-time effect from users’ biological clocks — not just their alarm clocks. These findings help to quantify the tug-of-war between solar and social timekeeping.”

1 in 3 U.S. Adults Don’t Get Enough Sleep

In February 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that one in three U.S. adults don’t get enough sleep.⁴

In this case, “enough” sleep was defined as seven or more hours per night, but many adults may need closer to eight hours per night (and thus lack of sleep may affect even more than one in three adults).

What are the health risks of this reported sleep deprivation? Research has found that when participants cut their sleep from 7.5 to 6.5 hours a night, there were increases in activity in genes associated with inflammation, immune excitability, diabetes, cancer risk, and stress.⁵

Poor or insufficient sleep was even found to be the strongest predictor for pain in adults over 50.⁶ Interrupted or impaired sleep can also:

• Increase your risk of heart disease and cancer
• Harm your brain by halting new neuron production. Sleep deprivation can increase levels of corticosterone (a stress hormone), resulting in fewer new brain cells being created in your hippocampus
• Contribute to a pre-diabetic, insulin-resistant state, making you feel hungry even if you’ve already eaten, which can lead to weight gain
• Contribute to premature aging by interfering with your growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep (and during certain types of exercise, such as high-intensity interval training)
• Increase your risk of dying from any cause

16 Chronological Daily Tips to Improve Your Sleep

If your sleep could use some improvements, try these 16 tips compiled by Reader’s Digest.⁷ What makes them unique is that you do them starting in the morning and continue throughout the day and night.

By the time it’s bedtime, you’ll be ready to hit the hay. Here’s the chronological list, starting with when you wake up and continuing until bedtime.

1. Open Your Shades

Exposure to bright light first thing in the morning stops production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and signals to your body that it’s time to wake up. Outdoor sunlight is best, so you might even want to take a quick walk outside.

2. Make Your Bed

This is a psychological trick aimed at making your bedroom less cluttered — and therefore easier to relax in — come bedtime. You can also quickly put away any junk cluttering your nightstand and dresser.

3. Exercise

Exercise leads to better sleep at night. Many people schedule their full workouts for morning, which makes it easier to also exercise while fasting (an added benefit). If you don’t have time for a full workout, at least do some quick stretching or bodyweight exercises.