Just like a healthy diet, the optimum amount of sleep is a very individual thing. It can depend on how old you are, where you live, what you do for a living and a whole host of other factors. For adults the consensus is usually around 7-8 hours a night. But elderly people may need as little as 5-4 hours. Teens need 9-10 hours and children around 11-12. The best way to figure out how much you need exactly is to try out different amounts for at least 4 weeks at a time and document how you feel in a sleep journal.

A healthy biological clock means sleeping and waking up at the same time every day. If you go to sleep at midnight one day while waking up at 6am, but go to sleep at 9pm another day while waking up at 8am, it’s going to leave you feeling almost jetlagged most of the time. Find a time you’d feel comfortable going to bed at most days and calculate what time you need to wake up to get the right amount of sleep. Try your best not to sleep in on the weekends, coz the short-term pleasure you get doesn’t outweigh the long-term havoc it wreaks on your system.

Another important part of your sleep routine should be your pre-sleep rituals. If you do the same thing in the same order every night before bed, you will train your brain and body to power down and prepare for bed the second you hit the sack. Good examples of pre-sleep rituals are brushing your teeth, washing your face, cuddling with a significant other, reading the kids a bedtime story, enjoying a shower or bubble bath, and reading a book.

Remember how I said that sleeping in is a no-no, if you want to maintain healthy sleeping habits? Well, here’s another reason to convince you not to hit snooze. When you sleep, you’re not just out of commission; you’re going through 4 very distinct stages. And that rested feeling you get in the morning only happens, if you’ve woken up during the light stage of the sleep cycle. When you go back to bed, you start the cycles all over again. Five minutes isn’t enough time to go through all the cycles again, so your body gets confused and makes you groggy.

To make sure you wake up during your light sleep stage, use a sleeping app. They calculate how long it will take for you to be in the proper part of the cycle before waking you up and suggest a good time to go to bed, so that you get the optimum amount of sleep before waking up.

Eating less than 2 hours before going to sleep (or 4 hours for heavier, high carb meals) slows the natural release of growth hormone and melatonin. This is because a lot of bodily resources are going into the digestive process, which detracts from the powering down process. Waiting a couple of hours for digestion to finish up will also make sure you’re thoroughly drowsy by the time your head hits the pillow.

This is kinda like the “don’t eat” rule above. Only this time it’s because drinking too soon before bed will mean you’ll need to urinate during the night. If you’re sensitive, it might wake you up. If not, it will put strain on your bladder, which doesn’t like holding things in for very long. If you drink your tea, water, smoothie, juice, etc. at least two hours before your bedtime, that will give you enough time to go to the toilet and enjoy a lovely restful sleep without bodily distractions getting in the way.

This should go without saying, because caffeine stimulates your nervous system and stops you from naturally relaxing at night. Caffeine can stay elevated in the blood for up to 6–8 hours, so try not to drink any coffee, tea or energy drinks after 3pm. Trust me, your body will thank you.

Even just one serving of alcohol at night can negatively affect your sleep and hormones. Alcohol causes and increases symptoms of sleep apnoea, snoring and disrupted sleep patterns. It also alters night-time melatonin production, which plays a key role in your body’s circadian rhythm. Alcohol consumption at night decreases the natural elevations in growth hormone, which helps your body recuperate while you sleep. Not to mention it puts your body in danger mode, because it’s considered a toxin that your body tries desperately to filter out.

Try wedging a pillow between your knees for back pain and knee comfort. Your lower back may not hurt enough to wake you up, but mild pain can disturb the deep, restful stages of sleep. Putting a pillow between your legs aligns your hips better and stresses your lower back less. Not to mention it’s so comfy, like cuddling a cloud!

A lot of factors play into whether or not a pillow and mattress are ideal for your body. There’s the softness of the material that touches your skin (pillow cases and bed sheets), the firmness or springiness, whether or not it’s hypoallergenic, etc. If there is anything about your bed and its accessories that you’re not happy with, it could mess with the quality of your sleep, so make sure to invest in quality products that will fulfil your needs.

No matter what kind of pillow you’re using – whether it’s firm, fat, made of feathers or hemp – you should make sure it supports the natural curve of your neck when you're resting on your back. If you sleep on your side, line your nose up with the centre of your body to make sure your spine stays in the proper position. Try not to sleep on your stomach, because it twists your neck and can reduce the quality of your sleep by a large margin.

You may not notice, but appliances like fridges, televisions, radios and laptops emit frequencies and electromagnetic waves that can mess with your sleep. Make sure none of these things are in your bedroom, or switch them off completely and unplug them from the wall, if possible. Alternatively, invest in a Himalayan rock salt lamp to ease the ionic energy around you.

Exposure to light during the night throws our circadian rhythm out of whack, tricking your brain into thinking it’s still daytime. This reduces hormones like melatonin, which help you relax and get deep sleep. Blue light is worse than any other light. It’s emitted from electronic devices like smartphones and computers. Methods you can use to reduce blue light exposure before bed include:

• Wearing special glasses that block blue light.
• Downloading an app such as luxto block blue light on your laptop or computer.
• Installing an app that blocks blue light on your smartphone.
• Stop watching TV and turn off any bright lights 2 hours before heading to bed.

In the evening hours, after the whole day has whirled by, it can be hard to get some clarity. You’ve just spent a whole day at work, shuttling the kids to and from school, cooking dinner and trying to make sense of all the thoughts in your head. These thoughts can plague us all through the night, if we’re not careful to reign them in before bed. Find a method that suits your lifestyle: try meditating, journaling, yoga, a bubble bath, listening to music, reading a book (ideally using an actual book, not on a screen that emits blue light), aromatherapy or progressive muscle relaxation. Even having a cleansing chat with someone you care about can help empty your mind.

Contrary to what you might think, slightly lower temperatures are better than higher ones when it comes to where you sleep. Our bodies get very uncomfortable if it’s even slightly too warm when we’re trying to get some shut-eye, because it keeps cortisol levels high – even after you wake up! However, if it’s a little chilly in your room, that doesn’t bother us as much and it actually helps us sleep better, because we feel safer when we’re thoroughly rugged up under a cosy blanket. Think back to when you were a child and thought that the monsters could get you. But even the thinnest sheet could put your mind at ease. Things haven’t changed. Your lizard brain is telling you that you’ll be safer when concealed from view.

For some reason, cold extremities keep us awake longer than necessary. They can even mess with the quality of your sleep by giving you nightmares and making you toss around. A simple way to remedy this situation is to wear socks to bed. Alternatively, you can bathe your feet in warm water before bed, keep a hot water bottle next to your feet in bed or use an electric blanket.

I know this sounds like it goes against what I just suggested above, but wearing clothes to bed can reduce circulation to certain parts of your body as you sleep. It’s a lot healthier to sleep without clothing. Not just because of the extra skin-on-skin contact when sharing a bed with a significant other. But also because when there are no hems and sleeves getting twisted in the sheets, there’s no adjusting to do and less distractions. Not to mention it’s healthier for your skin, because it gets a chance to breathe, which lowers the risk of skin infections.

A lot of research has gone into the psychology of colour, so we know enough to make sure it works with us and not against us. Your bedroom is a room where you want to be able to wind down, so colours that are stimulating, like red and orange probably wouldn’t be a good choice. Instead, paint your room a tranquil colour, like creamy beige or chocolatey brown. Pastel shades that blend into each other work better than bright, high-contrast ones. So stick to colours like baby blue or soft green, if you wanna be sure they will relax you.

This isn’t about hygiene. I’m sure your furry friend is very clean. The problem is, they sometimes wake up and move around at night. And even if they don’t wake you up, they can disrupt your quality of sleep without you even knowing it. I know it’s great to cuddle your animal companion at night, but they don’t need to be the same bed to give you comfort. Keep them in the same room, in their own little bed next to yours, if you like. Just try to establish some boundaries, so that they understand the big bed is just for the humans of the family.

Your body has a natural time-keeping clock known as your circadian rhythm. It affects every aspect of your body, keeping your brain healthy, regulating your hormones and telling your body when to stay awake and when to go to sleep. Getting exposure to natural sunlight or bright light during the day keeps your circadian rhythm healthy. But at night, even the slightest light can trick your brain into thinking it’s still not time for bed.

So invest in black-out curtains or window shutters, cover the bottom of the bedroom door to make sure light from other parts of the house don’t bleed into your room and turn off every little light in your room. That includes the small blue light on your laptop’s adapter and the one on your alarm clock. Cover them up, if you can’t power them down. Just try your best to sleep in a room that’s as close to pitch black as you can make it.

This might sound extreme, but I urge you not to ever do anything other than sleep and have sex in your bed. This is because it confuses the brain into thinking it may not be time for bed yet. If it gets used to watching TV, scrolling the web or working on spreadsheets while in bed (especially at a time close to bed time), it will try to keep you awake, just in case you need the brain power. If there are only two things you ever do when you lie down in your bedroom, then your body will either get sleepy or horny. Either one is a good thing. If you get sleepy first, great – go to bed. If you get horny first, even better – getting busy will tire you out and give you an even better sleep!

Staying active throughout the day will tire your body out enough to make sure you’re ready for a good night’s sleep when the time comes. But exercising less than two hours before bed will stimulate adrenaline and other neurotransmitters that will keep you awake and make it harder to get a restful sleep. The exception to this rule would be something light and relaxing, like stretching or yoga. Feel free to do anything like that before bed, as it will progressively relax your muscles and prepare you for sleep as though you just received a lovely massage.

While we’re on the subject, you could get an actual massage instead of just stretching. If you’re lucky enough to have a significant other loving enough to do the honours, that’s fantastic! If not, you could purchase one of the many gadgets available online that can help you give yourself a relaxing massage in your own bed. Depending on how much cash you’re willing to spend, you could even get yourself a whole bed that massages you as you fall asleep, or a chair that can do it before bed, so you can smoothly transition from one to the other.

It should go without saying, but sleeping during the day interrupts your body’s internal clock. It confuses it and throws all your systems out of their natural rhythms. Not just because you’ll be less tired at night, but also because it doesn’t give you enough time to get through a full sleep cycle and leaves you groggy. If you must nap, keep it under 20 minutes and try to simulate your night time experience as closely as possible. This means making the room as dark as you can, brushing your teeth or doing anything else you usually do during your pre-sleep ritual and keeping your environment free of noise and other distractions.

If you live in a noisy neighbourhood (or household), there may be no other way to get some peace and quiet. It’s important that your environment calm and quiet while you sleep, but not completely silent or hearing a pin drop might wake you up. Ideally, ear plugs can filter out the really annoying noises and a white noise machine can get the rest while making sure the environment isn’t completely noiseless.

Make sure to invest in quality sleep ear plugs, because cheap ones aren’t made to stay in your ears for more than an hour at a time. If your ears can’t “breathe” the pressure build-up can damage them and it might cause pain that disrupts your sleep, which would defeat the purpose or wearing them in the first place. There are special ear plugs on the market made especially to be worn during sleep. They have little holes that allow for pressure to be released, but don’t allow noise to come through.

Sometimes, no matter what we do, we just can’t sleep properly. You might have followed all of the above tips to a T, but if you suffer from a medical condition, none of them will help. If you suspect that you have sleep apnoea, depression, a sleep disorder or anything else that may lead to insomnia, contact your doctor. They can help treat your condition, instead of just dealing with the symptoms.

This wouldn’t be my personal choice and I don’t recommend it be your first choice either. Assuming you’ve tried everything else on this massive list and your doctor has ruled out any clinical disorder, perhaps it’s time to try out one of these supplements that can induce relaxation and help you sleep.

• Ginkgo biloba:A natural herb with many benefits, it can aid in sleep, relaxation and stress reduction. Take 250 mg, 30–60 minutes before bed.
• Glycine:This is an amino acid. Take 3 grams, half an hour before bed.
• Valerian root:Taking 500 mg of this root can help you fall asleep and improve sleep quality.
• Magnesium:Magnesium can improve relaxation and enhance sleep quality. You can take it orally in tablet form or spray it on in oil form.
• L-Theanine:This, too, is an amino acid, and taking 100–200 mg before heading to bed can improve relaxation and sleep.  
• Lavender:This is a powerful plant-based supplement that can induce a calming effect to improve sleep. Take 80–160 mg containing 25–46% linalool or diffuse lavender oil into the air.
• Melatonin: This is a key sleep hormone that signals your brain when it’s time to relax and go to sleep. It has no withdrawal symptoms, but it may alter your brain chemistry, so consult a doctor before using it. You may even need a prescription for it, depending on where you live.

So there you have it. If you’d like more personalized help with anything at all, ask me in the comments below, send me a message, or book a FREE breakthrough session to see how I can help you through Skype.

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Until next time, remember: Happiness doesn’t require energy. It requires Strategy.