A common behavior among people with insomnia is going to bed earlier or spending more time in bed in an attempt to get more sleep. Unfortunately, this often ends up making sleep even more difficult because we can start going to bed before we are sleepy enough for sleep and this leads to more time awake rather than more time asleep.

With this in mind, it can often be helpful to go to bed later if you find yourself finding it hard to fall asleep or stay asleep through the night. In the shortterm, this can lead to more sleepiness, especially as your new bedtime approaches — and it’s when this heightened sleepiness hits that many of my clients ask me whether it’s OK to go to bed a bit earlier if they’re finding it hard to stay awake.

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Since going to bed later can be so helpful, I usually encourage clients to do what they can to remain awake until their sleep window begins, at least for the first couple of weeks.

Since it’s usually quite difficult to fall asleep when we are moving about or standing, one way of preventing sleep from happening too early might be going for a short walk, or doing some other things that require a little movement — for example, you might pick out tomorrow’s clothes, make tomorrow’s lunch, or plan the week’s meals. Sometimes even some light stretching or doing things like drawing, crafting, or coloring can be helpful.

Typically, as heightened sleep drive leads to less time awake during your chosen sleep window, you’ll start to allot a little bit more time for sleep in short increments.

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However, if you are not filling your sleep window with sleep but still find it really hard to remain awake for the start of your sleep window, you do have a couple of options.

First of all, you might try advancing your chosen sleep window — this would involve keeping it the same in terms of duration, but starting and ending it earlier. For example, a sleep window of midnight to 6:00 AM might change to become a sleep window of 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM.

This can be particularly helpful for people who may have a body clock that wants to naturally wake earlier in the morning (and, therefore, sleep a bit earlier in the evening).

Another option involves making the hour or halfhour before the start of your sleep window the last time you check the clock. During this time, just do things you find relaxing and enjoyable (it’s always a good idea to give yourself time to unwind before going to bed) and, if you start to feel sleepy enough for sleep — remember that sleepy is not the same as tired — allow yourself to go to bed.

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It can also be helpful to have a clear plan in place for what to do if you find it hard to sleep when you are in bed during your sleep window. A plan I often recommend is to get out of bed whenever being in bed doesn’t feel good and doing something a bit more pleasant until conditions feel right for sleep.

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My name is Martin Reed and I am the founder of Insomnia Coach®. I offer sleep coaching services that give people with insomnia all the skills and support they need to enjoy better sleep for the rest of their lives. I also offer a free twoweek sleep training course for people with insomnia at https://insomniacoach.com/sleeptrain...

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