Sleep is precious at any time of year, but after a summer of later nights and looser routines, getting back on track can feel like a project in itself. Add kids who have spent the summer sleeping in and staying up late, and the return to school can make the whole thing feel even more daunting.
But it doesn’t have to be. With a few simple shifts, you can help your body – and your household – settle back into a more consistent sleep routine.
We spoke with Heather Shantora, CEO of Resolve Sleep Health, about how to reset your sleep schedule, what actually makes a difference when it comes to your bedroom and evening routine, and the small changes that can help you wake up feeling more rested as we head into fall.
How long does it actually take to reset your sleep schedule?
This is where the good news comes in – you don’t need weeks to get your sleep back on track. Shantora says most people can reset their routine in about five days, making the period around Labour Day a natural time to start.
“Set your new wake-up time about a week before you need it to begin, and stick with it,” she said. “By the end of that week, everyone has an opportunity to be in really good shape as long as they’re disciplined.”
How much earlier should we be trying to get to sleep?
This depends on your natural sleep pattern. Shantora says there are early risers, night owls and the majority of people who fall somewhere in between.
For an early riser, the issue may not be getting up earlier, but rather what time they are going to sleep. Night owls, meanwhile, may need to be more deliberate about shifting their schedule.
“For night owls, you might need to essentially create a little bit of sleep deprivation for the first few days to make sure you start going to bed earlier,” she said.
Shantora recommends using your wake-up time as the anchor. Most women need around seven hours and 20 minutes of actual sleep, although individual needs vary, so you can work backwards from the time you need to be up to know when you roughly need to go to sleep.
The other piece is learning to recognize when you’re actually tired. That sleepy feeling is your body’s signal that it’s ready for bed. If you ignore it for too long, you may find yourself wide awake later.
“Sometimes we’re busy, and we like to keep powering through,” she said. “Then all of a sudden, it’s midnight and you no longer feel tired. You’ve essentially missed your window, which will make it much harder to actually get to sleep.”
What external elements can affect our sleep?
Your bedroom should make it easy for your body to understand that the day is winding down.
That starts with light. Shantora recommends dimming the lights throughout your home once the sun sets rather than sitting under bright overhead lighting. She says women in perimenopause and menopause may be particularly sensitive to artificial light at night.
“It’s got to be on a dimmer, or it’s got to be off and use lamps,” she said.
The same goes for your phone and laptop. Use the evening blue-light setting, particularly if you’re looking at a screen close to bedtime. And try to keep the television off before bed, as it has no blue-light control, and the flashing picture doesn’t signal to your brain or body to be calm.
Then there’s temperature. Shantora recommends keeping the bedroom around 15 to 19 degrees Celsius.
“While that might sound lower than most people expect, the coolness actually indicates to your body that it is time to power down and go to sleep,” she explained.
Noise is another consideration. A fan or white-noise machine can provide a consistent background sound, while earplugs may help if you’re dealing with a noisier environment.
What should we avoid before bed?
Before bed, think about what you’re doing to calm yourself down. Shantora says we should avoid exercising, eating or drinking alcohol at least three hours before bed to give your system time to process.
Caffeine is another one to watch.
“I suggest no caffeine after 2:00pm,” she said. “Everyone is different, but the older we get, the longer caffeine stays in your body. Where one cup used to stay for one hour, now it’s staying for three. And so you really want to make sure, especially if you’re sensitive to it and you’re not sleeping, that that variable is removed and not affecting you.”
Instead, reading, gentle stretching, or another familiar ritual can help create a transition between your day and sleep.
What if you’re in bed, but just can’t fall asleep?
If you haven’t built up enough sleep pressure, melatonin may be worth considering. She recommends taking it before bedtime rather than once you’re already lying awake.
“You want to take it about three hours before you plan to go to bed,” she said. “That’ll actually help signal to your body to create those hormones to create that sleep pressure.”
If you’re waking up in the middle of the night, the reason matters. Sometimes it’s a racing mind or worry. Other times, you can be fully awake without feeling particularly anxious or uncomfortable. In that case, it could be worth trying magnesium.
“Most Canadians are magnesium deficient,” she said. “The act of sleeping is actually to wash the glycogen from your brain, which helps stave off dementia and a whole host of positive things. But if you don’t have enough magnesium in your body, it actually can’t do it. It needs the magnesium to do that function.”
Shantora recommends starting with a low dose and says cognitive behavioural therapy may be a better route when nighttime waking is driven by worry or racing thoughts.
What about kids going back to school?
For children, Shantora recommends starting the reset about a week before school begins.
The key is to start waking them at the time they’ll eventually need to get up for school to help build enough sleep pressure during the day to make an earlier bedtime easier to manage.
Morning light and movement can make the transition even smoother. Getting outside soon after waking helps reinforce the body’s internal clock, particularly when paired with some activity.
“It tells you and your body that it’s the reverse of nighttime. It’s getting warmer, it’s getting brighter, you’re moving your body… those are all the signals we need to begin to wake up,” she said.
For teenagers, this may be easier said than done. But even a morning walk, bike ride or other outdoor activity can help shift their circadian rhythm earlier.
Does your morning routine really matter as much as your bedtime?
How you start the day can absolutely help reinforce the sleep-wake cycle you’re trying to establish.
Shantora likes the idea of waking gradually, whether that’s through a light-based alarm clock or simply avoiding a jarring start to the day. She also recommends resisting the urge to immediately reach for your phone.
Instead, get some water, seek out natural light and get moving. A morning workout or walk outside can combine several of the signals your body needs to recognize that the day has begun.
There are also hormonal rhythms at play, too. Cortisol should naturally rise in the morning and taper throughout the day, but Shantora says some women experience the opposite pattern.
“A lot of women are waking up, and they’re having three cups of coffee to stay awake. Your cortisol is supposed to spike two to three hours after waking up, but in these cases it’s running low all morning, and it’s spiking at 4:00 pm. So all of a sudden, in the evening, they’re feeling more awake, but it’s not coming down enough for them to go to sleep.”
That hormone dysregulation can be what’s interrupting your sleep, but by making these changes, you can teach cortisol to fall in line with your circadian rhythm.
What about my sleep tracker?
Sleep trackers can be useful, but Shantora says not to take every number they give you as gospel.
Devices such as Apple Watches, Garmin watches, Whoop bands and Oura Rings can give you a reasonably good sense of how long you’ve slept. They’re much less reliable when it comes to breaking that sleep down into specific stages, such as REM or light sleep.
“I think some people will find it stressful because it adds a lot of pressure to sleep,” she said. For those people, tracking may be doing more harm than good. If a poor sleep score makes you anxious about how tired you’re going to feel the next day, that anxiety can make it even harder to relax.
The big takeaway
While getting back into a proper routine can feel like a big undertaking, you can take it one step at a time.
And if you ask Shantora for her biggest piece of advice? Pick your wake-up time and stick with it – even on weekends if you can.
“If you stick to that wake-up time at a minimum five days a week, everything else should shift into place,” she said. “And if your cortisol, circadian rhythm, diet, and caffeine intake all fall into that rhythm, you’re going to find you’ll have a lot better, consistent sleep.”
