If you have figured out an appropriate sleep window to help build sleep drive and improve sleep quality, should you be worrying about or adjusting the sleep window based on how long it takes to fall asleep or how much time you spend awake during the night so that your sleep window remains long enough?

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The short answer is no! The goal of the sleep window is to allot an appropriate amount of time for sleep. All we want you to do is allot an appropriate amount of time for sleep, based on your average nightly sleep duration. So, if you average around five hours of sleep, it might be worth starting with an initial sleep window of fiveandahalf hours.

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If you are allotting fiveandahalf hours for sleep but it takes you halfhour (or longer) to fall asleep, that's OK. You are still allotting fiveandahalf hours for sleep. In the short term, how much actual sleep you get during the sleep window is less important than the duration of the sleep window itself.

Avoid the temptation to modify your sleep window too often. I suggesting modifying your sleep window no more frequently than weekly (ideally every two weeks). This way, you give the sleep window time to work and you avoid monitoring and evaluating sleep on a nightly basis.

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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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