“Spending more time in bed is essential to achieving longer sleep but this is not beneficial if the person is lying awake in bed, trying to sleep,” St-Onge pointed out.
According to her, “recommendations must be personalized based on a person’s social and personal obligations.”
“For example, does the person have a set wake time to be able to get to work on time? If so, counting backwards to a possible bedtime is more relevant,” she advised.
“Are there some evening/night time activities that can be reduced in duration or re-allocated to another period of the day to allow for an earlier bedtime? And it’s probably better to start with incremental increases in time in bed duration to ensure that you can fall asleep well and gradually adjust to the new schedule.”
– Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, CCSH, FAHA
“Also, reduce/eliminate things that interfere with your ability to fall asleep like eating close to bedtime, consuming caffeine too late in the day, doing stressful activities,” the researcher suggested.