The general ideas are:
- Make the bedroom a place that is associated with sleeping
- Before you go to bed, do things that are associated with sleeping.
Rules:
- Have a regular bedtime, but make sure that you do not go to bed when you are still very energetic.
- Try to get up at more or less the same time every morning. Even over the weekend, try not to stay in bed longer than 1 ½ hours longer than during the week.
- Never use the bedroom for anything but sleep. So, no TV, eating, talking on the phone, or discussing problems in the bedroom. Also, bedtime is not the time to be worrying about things. Tell yourself that you will do your worrying tomorrow (make a time with yourself, or with someone else, to talk about worries with sometime during the day).
- Do not have naps during the day.
- Do not drink anything that has caffeine in it (for example, tea, coffee, energy drinks or Coke) for several hours before you go to bed.
- Exercise in the late afternoon (not less than 2 hours before bedtime) because exercise can be stimulating.
- Make sure that you have a period (at least one hour) before you go to bed when you do relaxing things. This would be a good time to do a relaxation programme.
- Develop a routine before going to bed and do things that will make you feel relaxed and secure. For example, having a bath/shower, getting into pyjamas, cleaning teeth, saying goodnight to someone, reading, listening to soothing music.
- Make sure that there isn’t too much light or noise that will disturb you, and that you aren’t too hot or cold.
- Don’t go to bed hungry, or immediately after a big meal. A warm milk drink will be a good supper before going to bed.
