Sleep Hygiene Checklist — Free Evidence-Based Worksheet
12 evidence-based sleep practices with daily tracking. Pairs with the Sleep Audit for full behavioural sleep work. Free in the Mindtalk app.
The 12 sleep hygiene items
- Consistent wake time every day, including weekends — single biggest leverage point
- Morning light exposure within 1 hour of waking (15-30 minutes outdoor or near a bright window)
- Caffeine cut-off by 12-2pm
- Screen-free 30-60 minutes before bed
- Cool bedroom (18-21°C ideal)
- Dark bedroom (blackout curtains, eye mask, no LED clocks)
- Quiet bedroom (earplugs or white noise if needed)
- Bed for sleep and sex only (not work, scrolling, eating)
- Consistent wind-down routine in the last 30-60 minutes
- Regular daytime exercise, not within 2 hours of bed
- Limit alcohol close to bed (disrupts deep sleep)
- Same bedtime within a 30-minute window each night
Pair with related Mindtalk tools
- The Sleep Audit worksheet — the one-time diagnostic that identifies your specific disruptors; pair with the Checklist for implementation
- The Sleep meditation audios — 8 guided audio sessions designed for sleep onset and middle-of-night wakings
- The Stress, burnout, and sleep assessments category includes the Sleep Hygiene Index for periodic numeric tracking
- For chronic insomnia (3+ months), the Mindtalk doctors directory lists clinicians trained in CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia)
- The Workplace Wellbeing and Burnout Recovery journeys both use sleep hygiene as the foundation phase
How to use the Sleep Hygiene Checklist
- 1
Start with the Sleep Audit first (recommended)
The [Sleep Audit worksheet](/worksheets/sleep-audit) identifies your specific sleep disruptors. The Checklist works better when targeted to your gaps rather than applied generically. If you have not done the Audit, you can still use the Checklist; pick 3-4 items that intuitively apply to you.
- 2
Pick 3-4 items to focus on
Trying to overhaul all 12 simultaneously usually leads to abandoning the whole plan. Pick the 3-4 that most apply to your situation; layer additions over weeks once the first set is habitual.
- 3
Track daily — yes / no per item
Did you do the item today? Simple yes/no tracking. The checklist is not a graded report card; it is honest data about what you are actually doing.
- 4
Review weekly
What worked? What was hard? Which items had the biggest sleep-quality impact for you? Adjust the focus list based on what you learn.
- 5
Re-take the Sleep Audit at 4 and 8 weeks
The Audit re-take is the outcome measure — has your sleep changed? Compare the original Audit results to the current state. Adjust the Checklist focus based on persistent gaps.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is sleep hygiene?
- Sleep hygiene refers to the behaviours, habits, and environment that support good sleep. The term sounds clinical but the practice is practical — consistent wake time, morning light exposure, caffeine timing, screen-free wind-down, bedroom environment, and so on. Sleep hygiene is the foundation for healthy sleep; it does not replace clinical treatment of chronic insomnia (which requires CBT-I), but it eliminates the behavioural and environmental contributors that most non-clinical sleep difficulty stems from.
- How is this different from the Sleep Audit?
- The Sleep Audit is a one-time assessment that identifies your specific sleep disruptors — a diagnostic snapshot. The Sleep Hygiene Checklist is a daily tracker for implementing changes — an action tool. They pair together — do the Audit first to identify what to change; use the Checklist daily to track implementation. Many users do both.
- Will following the checklist fix my insomnia?
- For most non-clinical sleep difficulty, yes — implementing sleep hygiene consistently for 2-4 weeks produces meaningful improvement. For chronic insomnia (3+ nights/week sleep difficulty for 3+ months), sleep hygiene is necessary but not sufficient — the evidence-based treatment is CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia), which includes sleep hygiene work plus targeted cognitive and behavioural interventions like sleep restriction and stimulus control. If hygiene alone does not help after 4-6 weeks of consistent practice, speak with a clinician about CBT-I.
- Which checklist items are most important?
- Three highest-leverage items — (1) consistent wake time every day including weekends — the single biggest leverage point; (2) morning light exposure within an hour of waking — anchors circadian rhythm; (3) screen-free 30-60 minutes before bed — both blue light and activating content matter. If you can only do three things, do these three. The other items add incremental benefit.
- Do I really need to follow all 12 items?
- Most people benefit from focusing on the 3-4 items that most apply to them. Trying to overhaul everything at once usually leads to abandoning the whole plan. The checklist's value is identifying your specific gaps (via the Sleep Audit) and tracking deliberate change on the items that matter for you. Perfectionism is a sleep disruptor in itself; aim for sustainable consistency, not perfection.