From chapter 3, Rest Like You Mean It

A wake time is not a treatment

This note is from Running with Llamas. It is general education, not care. The chapter rates the practice weak.

What the week can hold is ordinary: a wake time you can keep, and a last stretch of the evening that is dim and off the screen. That is not the same thing as care for chronic insomnia.

A joint consensus says adults should sleep 7 or more hours a night on a regular basis. That statement is for adults aged 18 to 60, and it does not set a firm upper limit. It is a floor, not a single bedtime. The NHS says adults need 7 to 9 hours on average, that needs differ, and that constant daytime tiredness is a clue you are short. Chasing a perfect number on a tracker can become its own problem.

Sleep hygiene is the familiar list: caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, a regular schedule, light, noise, exercise, naps, and the wind-down. A 2015 review is blunt. Sleep hygiene is ineffective as a stand-alone clinical treatment. Individual recommendations are generally associated with sleep, and their direct effects in the general population remain largely untested. The book will not sell a tip sheet as a cure.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, CBT-I, is what a major guideline recommends first when insomnia in adults has become chronic. The recommendation is strong, on moderate-quality evidence. The program includes thoughts about sleep, stimulus control, sleep restriction, and education. This page will not give you a homemade schedule of hours in bed, and it will not give you a rule about getting up after a set number of minutes. Learn those pieces from a qualified person. An app is not that person. The NHS says to check with a doctor before taking anything for a sleep problem. The book does not recommend a sleeping pill or a supplement.

When a sleep program actually improves sleep, mental-health scores tend to improve with it. That does not mean a tidier night repairs a mind. If mood is what is breaking the day, talk with a clinician.