Sleep Hygiene Checklist: Review Your Habits and Build a Plan for Better Sleep

About this tool

This Sleep Hygiene Checklist helps you identify everyday habits and bedroom conditions that may be getting in the way of restful sleep. Use it to review your routine and choose manageable changes, while recognizing that a completed checklist cannot diagnose insomnia or rule out another sleep disorder. Sleep hygiene covers the practical basics: a consistent schedule, a cool, dark, quiet bedroom, sensible use of caffeine and alcohol, light exposure, and a calming wind-down. These habits can support healthy sleep, although they do not treat a sleep disorder on their own.

The evidence is strongest for a few core habits. Keeping a regular schedule, especially a fixed wake time, steadies your internal clock. Getting bright light in the morning and dimming it at night supports your natural sleep-wake rhythm. Limiting caffeine to earlier in the day, avoiding alcohol close to bed (it fragments sleep even though it can make you drowsy), and keeping the bedroom cool and dark all reduce the things that disrupt sleep. Reserving the bed for sleep, rather than work or scrolling, strengthens the link between bed and sleep.

A realistic word of caution: for chronic insomnia, sleep hygiene alone is usually not enough, and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the recommended first-line treatment. Think of sleep hygiene as the foundation. Get the basics in place, see how much they help, and seek targeted treatment if poor sleep persists. The most useful approach is to change a few habits at a time, which is what the personalized plan below is for.

Caffeine's effects last longer than most people expect. Caffeine has a half-life of roughly five hours, so half of an afternoon cup can still be active in your system at bedtime, and it can measurably shorten and fragment sleep even when taken six hours before bed (Drake et al., 2013). That is one reason the checklist asks about the timing of your last dose, not just whether you drink coffee at all.

Light is the strongest cue your body uses to set its internal clock. Bright light in the evening, including from phone and laptop screens, delays the release of the hormones that make you feel sleepy, while morning daylight helps anchor an earlier, more consistent wake time (American Academy of Sleep Medicine, reviewed 2021). That is why the checklist separates morning light exposure from evening screen habits rather than treating light as one item.

The most common mistake is trying to change everything on the same night. Choose a manageable starting point and notice what makes the habit easier to repeat before adding more. A missed evening is information about an obstacle, not a reason to abandon the plan. Chasing a difficult night with a long list of strict new rules can add pressure around sleep. Write down what you can realistically change given your work, caregiving responsibilities, and living environment.

If you have kept good sleep hygiene for several weeks and still struggle to fall asleep, stay asleep, or feel rested, that is a sign to look further than habits alone. A therapist trained in CBT-I, or tracking your nights with a Sleep Diary, can help identify what is actually driving the problem. Our therapist directory can help you find someone who treats insomnia.

The Irish and colleagues review examines the evidence behind individual sleep hygiene recommendations, rather than validating this checklist as a clinical test. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine guideline recommends cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and advises against using sleep hygiene alone to treat chronic insomnia. A long list of checked boxes therefore does not establish that your sleep is healthy or that further care is unnecessary.

Use the personalized plan to name a specific action and the obstacle most likely to interrupt it. For example, if evening work keeps the room bright, decide how you will finish work and lower the lights. A Bedtime Routine Planner can help make that transition concrete. In your Sleep Diary, note both your habits and how rested you feel; a pattern can guide a conversation with a clinician, but it cannot prove what caused a difficult night.

The Coping Skills Library offers exercises if stress is part of your evening routine. An Insomnia Test provides screening information to discuss with a professional, without diagnosing a sleep disorder. Loud snoring, gasping during sleep, or marked daytime sleepiness also warrant medical assessment for possible sleep apnea. Seek help when poor sleep is affecting daily life rather than waiting to perfect every habit.

A bedtime routine and stimulus control serve different purposes. A routine prepares you for rest; stimulus control, a component of CBT-I described by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, addresses the association between being in bed and being asleep. It includes going to bed when sleepy and getting out of bed when unable to sleep. The checklist is not a personalized CBT-I plan. If getting up is unsafe because of mobility limitations, discuss an adaptation with your clinician.

Bring a list of prescription medicines, over-the-counter products, and supplements to a sleep appointment. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute notes that some medicines, including certain cold and allergy products, can interfere with sleep. Ask a clinician or pharmacist whether a product or its timing could be relevant to your pattern. Do not stop prescribed medicine or change the dose based on this checklist; use your observations to support a medication review.

Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW
Reviewed the checklist items for accuracy and alignment with evidence-based sleep guidance.

References

1. Irish LA, Kline CE, Gunn HE, Buysse DJ, Hall MH. The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: a review of empirical evidence. Sleep Med Rev. 2015;22:23-36.
2. American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Healthy sleep habits. AASM; reviewed 2021.
3. Drake C, Roehrs T, Shambroom J, Roth T. Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed. J Clin Sleep Med. 2013;9(11):1195-1200.
4. Edinger JD, et al. Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 2021;17(2):255-262. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7853203/
5. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Sleep Apnea. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-apnea
6. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Insomnia: Treatment. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/insomnia/treatment

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