I want to…
Time to fall asleep: 15 min
Average is 10–20 minutes. Bump it up if you tend to lie awake; bump it down if you crash the moment your head hits the pillow.
To wake feeling rested, go to bed at
Wind-down protocol · for the hour before bed
- 60 min before: stop eating. Especially anything heavy. Digestion fights deep sleep.
- 60 min before: dim the house lights. Big overheads off, lamps on. Your eyes are reading the time of day from this.
- 45 min before: screens off — or at least, no doomscroll, no social, no news. Reading on a dim e-reader is fine.
- 30 min before: cool the room. 16–19°C is the sweet spot for most adults. Cracking a window counts.
- 15 min before:brain dump anything still spinning. Pen and paper. “Tomorrow I’ll…” Open loops on the page sleep better than open loops in your head.
- In bed:lights off. If you’re still awake after 20 minutes, get up briefly, sit somewhere dim, do something boring. Don’t lie there fighting it.
Sleep cycles average about 90 minutes but vary 70–110 between people and across the night. Use these times as a useful default, not a prescription. The bigger wins are consistent bed and wake times, daylight in the eyes within an hour of waking, and a cool, dark, screen-free last hour before bed.