Picture the scene: your to-do list is spiralling and you can't switch off. But you're so severely sleep deprived that you fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow... only to then wake up at 3 a.m. on the dot.

This used to be my nightly reality, a nightmarish space where stress, anxiety and middle insomnia punctuated my sleep. As arguably the world's two best and well-known sleep doctors, Dr. Michael Breus and renowned Ted Talk superstar Dr. Matthew Walker, have now explained to me, stress-related cortisol is the main culprit.

Below, I'll explore what cortisol is (spoiler: it's not the enemy of sleep you might think it is), plus I'll share doctor-prescribed tips for lowering stress levels for better sleep.

Key takeaways: At a glance

• We produce cortisol as a stress response to enhance our physical and cognitive abilities. However, cortisol also plays a crucial role in regulating our sleep-wake cycles.
• Cortisol levels rise naturally around 3 a.m. but stress can cause cortisol levels to rise too high or too fast, causing us to wake up in the middle of the night.
• Tips for relieving stress levels, and therefore boosting your chances of sleeping through the night, include spending time in nature and writing a to-do list for the following day.

What is cortisol and what role does it play in sleep?

Cortisol is a hormone commonly associated with stress. Our bodies produce cortisol as a response to stress in order to sharpen our physical and cognitive abilities. However, a response to stress isn’t its only function.

"One of the biggest myths I hear is that cortisol is the enemy of sleep," says Dr. Michael Breus, a double boarded Clinical Psychologist and a Clinical Sleep Specialist.

"It isn't. Cortisol is actually one of the hormones that helps you sleep and wake up at the right times — it should be low while you're sleeping and naturally climb before your alarm goes off."

"Cortisol is best understood not only as a 'stress hormone' but also as a timing hormone," adds Dr. Matthew Walker, sleep scientist and author of the best-selling book Why We Sleep.

"It follows a strong circadian rhythm: levels fall to their lowest point around the time we fall asleep, begin climbing in the second half of the night, and then surge sharply in the 30 to 45 minutes after we wake — what's called the 'cortisol awakening response'," explains Dr. Walker, a Professor of Neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas Dallas.

So the natural rise in cortisol in the early hours of the morning helps us feel alert upon waking. "That rise is not a malfunction," explains Dr. Walker. "It's part of how the body mobilises energy and prepares the brain for the day ahead."

Is cortisol waking me up at 3 a.m.?

If, like me, you're no stranger to 3 a.m. wake-ups, it's not a coincidence. As Dr. Walker explains above, cortisol levels begin to naturally rise around 3 a.m. as part of your Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR).

However, the steady rise in cortisol correlates with the drop off of sleep pressure – our hunger for sleep. As Dr. Walker explains, sleep pressure (or homeostatic sleep drive) has a "chemical signature: adenosine."

Adenosine, a byproduct of physical and mental activity, begins building the moment you wake and begins to drop when you fall asleep.

This means that when cortisol levels begin to rise around 3 a.m., we're more like to wake then than we would at, say, 11 p.m.

A higher than normal baseline level of cortisol, due to chronic stress or anxiety, could mean that when levels rise naturally at 3 a.m., it's enough to wake you up completely.

By then, "the mountain" of adenosine you had accumulated during the day has largely been discharged by sleep.

"You are, in a real sense, running low on the very substance that makes sleep happen," explains Dr. Walker.

"Rising cortisol then tilts an already precarious situation further toward wakefulness. That's why the small hours feel so uniquely, maddeningly alert, and why 'just go back to sleep' is such useless advice at 3 a.m."

Tired but wired

"If you're waking feeling alert, anxious, or with a racing mind, stress-related cortisol may be contributing," says Dr. Shelby Harris, who is board certified in Behavioral Sleep Medicine.

However, all of the experts I spoke to agree that cortisol isn't necessarily the only enemy here. As a woman in her 40s, Dr. Harris points out that hormonal fluctuation could also be to blame for my 3 a.m. wake-ups.

"For women in their 40s and beyond, early-morning awakenings are extremely common during perimenopause and menopause, when fluctuating estrogen and progesterone can make sleep lighter and increase nighttime awakenings," says the author of The Woman's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia.

Meanwhile, Dr. Breus, a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine, reiterates that rising cortisol levels in the early hours of the morning helps your brain and body prepare for wakefulness.

"The problem occurs when that rise happens too early, too quickly, or in combination with a hyper-alert nervous system, causing your brain to transition from sleep to wakefulness before you're ready," says Dr. Breus, who is also a Fellow of The American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

"That's why recurring 3 a.m. awakenings can be linked to chronic stress, insomnia, sleep apnea, menopause, depression, alcohol, or circadian disruption," continues the sleep specialist. "The key isn't trying to 'lower cortisol' — it's identifying what's causing your stress system and biological clock to become misaligned in the first place."

5 ways to lower stress to combat 3 a.m. wake ups

Cortisol plays a crucial role in regulating our sleep-wake cycle, helping us to sleep deeper earlier in the evening and wake up feeling alert.

While cortisol isn't the enemy to our sleep, stress is — so here's some expert advice on how to lower your stress-related cortisol levels for better overnight sleep.

1. Spend time in nature — but don't feel obliged to walk

We've all been told that exercise, especially in the morning and outdoors, can help promote better sleep. And while that is true, Dr. Walker cites a study that indicates that simply spending time in nature can lower cortisol levels.

However 'spending time in nature' is not exercise by another name, urges Dr. Walker. The sleep scientist flags an additional study that indicates that spending a minimum of twenty minutes either sitting or standing in nature can improve cognitive performance.

"Get into a forest, and don't feel obliged to walk," urges Dr. Walker.

2. Write a boringly specific to-do list for tomorrow

A spiralling to-do list and stress go hand in hand, but writing it down at bedtime could actually help you fall asleep faster.

"Write tomorrow's to-do list at bedtime — and make it boringly specific," says Dr. Walker, who acknowledges that this flies in the face of usual advice.

"In a polysomnography study, participants who spent five minutes writing a to-do list for the coming days fell asleep significantly faster than those who journaled about tasks they had already completed — and the more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep".

3. Take a warm bath

"Take a warm bath — but one to two hours before bed, not right before it," urges Dr. Walker. "Nearly everyone gets the timing wrong, and the timing is the active ingredient"

A 2019 study found that water at 40–42.5°C, for as little as 10 minutes, scheduled one to two hours before bedtime, significantly shortened the time taken to fall asleep and improved sleep efficiency, which is the time it takes you to fall asleep, says Dr. Walker.

Bathing two to three hours before bed gives allows your core body temperature to drop, which is necessary in order to fall asleep.

"Do it five minutes before bed and you get the warming without the cooling, which is the opposite of what you want," says Dr. Walker.

4. Stop working late at night

A small month-long study of IT employees found that checking emails outside of work hours was associated with worse sleep quality, regardless of how long ago they had finished work.

Findings from same study also indicated that those who worked late were more likely to experience a higher cortisol awakening response (CAR), indicating higher stress.

The takeaway? Finish work and don't come back to it. "An evening routine cannot out-run a nervous system that never actually clocked off," says Dr. Walker.

"Three glances at your inbox after dinner may undo more than a lavender bath repairs."

5. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule

In order to optimize your sleep-wake cycle it's important to stick to a regular sleep schedule, such as the 7:1 sleep rule. That's where you go to sleep within the same one hour window every night and accumulate at least seven hours of sleep.

"If you're trying to lower nighttime cortisol, don't waste your money chasing the latest supplement," concludes Dr. Breus, Chief Sleep Officer at Orion.

"The biggest wins come from rebuilding your body's natural rhythm: keep a consistent sleep schedule, exercise regularly, manage stress, and create a bedroom that's cool."

Night sweats and allergens can ruin our sleep during the summer, and not washing your bedding enough can make these issues even worse. Sweat, oil, and allergens can build up if sheets and pillows during heatwaves, but how often (and at what temperature) should we wash our sheets in the summer?

While research has found that the average person changes their sheets every 24 days, an infection prevention expert says this is way too long a wait wash your bedding.

"Bedding collects normal skin bacteria, environmental bacteria, yeasts, mold spores, dust mites, and the allergens that come with all of it," says Dr. Shanina C. Knighton, PhD, RN, CIC, a Research Associate Professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

So, to set the record straight, I've called on Dr. Knighton to tell us how often we should be washing our sheets and pillows during the summer. She'll also tell us what temperature to wash your bedding at, and three other ways you can prevent summer allergens from piling up and disrupting your sleep.

Key takeaways: At a glance

• Wash your sheets and pillowcases at least once a week: but those with skin conditions, an active lifestyle, or allergies will need to change them more frequently.
• Duvet covers should be washes at least every two weeks: pillows and comforters can be washed every few months if they aren't visibly soiled or stained.
• Wash bedding at a temperature of at least 130°F: with 140°F being the optimal for killing dust mites.
• Make sure bedding is well-ventilated: this prevents moisture from encouraging bacterial growth, and use a waterproof mattress protector.
• Wear slippers: these stop your feet from picking up floor debris and bringing it into your bed.

How often should you wash bed sheets and pillowcases in summer?

"Wash your sheets and pillowcases weekly at a minimum during hot weather," advises Dr Knighton.

However, the infection expert stresses that many people may need to wash their bedding more frequently depending on their lifestyle, occupation, and conditions.

"Wash more frequently if you sweat heavily, go to bed without showering, have oily or acne-prone skin, have allergies or eczema, share the bed with pets, or work a high-exposure job such as healthcare, sanitation, childcare, or repair work where you carry the day home with you," she shares.

How often should other types of bedding be washed in summer?

While Dr. Knighton advises pillowcases and sheets be washed frequently, other types of bedding can survive a longer wait.

"Duvet covers should be washed weekly or every two weeks depending on use," says Dr Knighton. "Pillows and comforters follow the care label, which is usually every few months, and sooner if they become sweaty, stained, musty, or visibly soiled."

However, just because pillows, duvet cover, and comforters don't need to be washed as often as sheets and pillowcases, this doesn't mean they aren't immune to allergen and moisture build-up.

In fact, Dr. Knighton says that dense pillows and comforter can hold onto moisture far longer than thinner sheets do, trapping heat, sweat, skin oils, and dead cells without airflow.

These warm, moist conditions allow bacteria, fungi, and odors to thrive deep inside the fill — even if your sheets look completely clean on the surface.

"Over time, that same combination is what produces the musty smell, the yellowing, and the staining that will not wash out easily," explains the health specialist.

What temperature should bedding be washed at in summer?

As for what temperature you should was bedding at, Dr Knighton points to research that found that 140°F (60°C) kills all house dust mites.

However, she suggests following the bedding's care labels and opting for the warmest temperature the fabric can stand, with most allergy guidance pointing to 130°F (which is 54.4°C).

What happens if you don't wash your bedding often enough in summer?

So, we know if we don't wash our bedding often enough, oil, sweat and allergens will start to accumulate in our beds, but what are the consequences of that happening?

"The risk is not the same for everyone, and that is the honest answer," Dr. Knighton tells me. "For a healthy person with intact skin, the usual result is odor, breakouts, skin irritation, or allergy and asthma flares.

"For someone with asthma, mold sensitivity, eczema, broken skin, or a weakened immune system, the picture is more serious, and there is real infection risk for the immunocompromised."

3 more ways to keep your bedding clean in summer

1. Wear slippers or socks

"Slippers are not optional in my house and serve a purpose beyond just comfort," says Dr Knighton.

She says this rule applies especially to those who have pets or allow outdoor shoes indoors, where the floor could be covered in debris,

."Walking across it barefoot and then climbing into bed means you have just dragged all of that up onto your sheets with your own feet.," she warns. "A pair of slippers between the floor and the bed breaks that chain."

2. Don't bring your phone to bed

You may want to skip your nightly doomscrolling session, as a phone's surface are "one of the dirtiest things most people own".

The same phone that has been on restaurant tables, in bathrooms, and in their hands all day, and they set it on the pillow or the sheets, " says Dr. Knighton. "My phone does not come to bed with me."

The expert also says she doesn't bring the clothes she's been wearing all day to bed either. " Whatever my outdoor clothes and my phone touched during the day stays out of the space where I sleep," she reveals.

3. Make sure your bed is dry

While washing your bedding is important, keeping it dry also prevents the risk of allergen buildup.

To prevent your bedding trapping moisture and encouraging microbial growth, Dr Knighton recommends using one of the best mattress protectors with waterproof protection and ensuring your bedding gets enough ventilation.

If excessive sweating at night means you're waking up to a damp bed, the infection prevention expert recommends allowing the bedding to dry before making it.

"After a sweaty night, throw the covers back, let the bed breathe for a while, and make it later," she advises.

For more cleaning advice, see our guide on how to clean a mattress. This is especially important if you've invested in the best mattress for your sleep needs and want it to last as long as possible to get your money's worth.

My sleep score has always been the first metric I check when I wake up each morning, but that’s changing as wearables shift focus to a new rating: the circadian score.

Picture the scene: you got at least seven hours of sleep last night and your sleep score was high, but you're still exhausted. The issue might have nothing to do with your quality of sleep and everything to do with your internal body clock.

A growing body of sleep tech recognizes this gap, moving beyond simple sleep scores toward circadian scores—a whole-picture metric that evaluates your 24-hour biological rhythm. Instead of just tracking time in bed or each stage of sleep, a circadian score factors in how daily habits like morning sunlight exposure and evening meal timing impact your rest.

Here, I'll explain how monitoring your circadian score can help you fall asleep faster, wake up with more energy, and optimize your schedule. Plus, we look at six trackers leading the circadian health trend.

Key takeaways: At a glance

• Your circadian rhythm is a 24-hour body clock that regulates sleep, depending heavily on light exposure and habits.
• A sleep score is how you slept (duration, deep/REM sleep, night awakenings)
• A circadian score is why you slept that way (consistency, morning light exposure timing and duration, and timing of evening meals, etc).
• Leading sleep trackers that offer circadian scores, including the pre-order Rhythm Ring, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR, and the Circular Ring 2.

What is a circadian score?

To understand what a circadian score is, let's recap on what a circadian rhythm is. Depending on light exposure, our circadian rhythm acts as a 24-hour body clock that regulates sleep, hormones, temperature, and digestion to keep body processes synchronized with day and night.

Dr Nisa Aslam, advisor to Evera Nutrition, explains that our circadian rhythm is regulated heavily by the sleep hormone melatonin, calling it a "time keeper".

Dr Aslam continues: "It is produced in response to darkness, begins rising in the evening and then under normal conditions peaks at approximately 3:00am before declining towards morning.

"Its role is to signal when to sleep, not necessarily how deeply to sleep."

“Melatonin plays a central role, but restoring circadian rhythm requires more than a single hormone, it involves a balance of light exposure, behaviour, and neurotransmitter support,” he adds.

According to the health expert, irregular sleep schedules, artificial light, and travel can disrupt this balance, "making it harder to wind down".

So, a circadian score measures how well your daily routines strike this balance, aligning your sleep schedule with your circadian rhythm.

For example, studies show that exposure to sunlight in the morning can regulate your circadian rhythm, while research suggests that eating too close to bed can goes against your natural body clock.

Why circadian scores are dethroning sleep scores

While sleep scores tell you how you slept (for example, for how long you slept and how many nighttime awakenings you experienced), it can't tell you why you slept that way. A circadian score can give you key insight into how your daily habits are affecting your sleep quality.

For instance, going to bed at different times every night may be why you find it hard to fall asleep, or maybe a late night workout may be causing sleep disruptions.

6 wearables that track aspects of your body clock

1. Rhythm Ring

If you're looking to find out how late nights or an irregular schedule are affecting your sleep, then the pre-order Rhythm Ring (which you can now reserve for $1) is worth considering.

It's designed specially for shift workers (the first of its kind to do so), where erratic work hours lead to fragmented sleep.

The wearable offers a Circadian Score (rated on a scale of zero to 100) to tell you how well your natural light exposure matched your schedule that day.

2. Ultrahuman Ring AIR

The Oura Ring-rivalling Ultrahuman Ring AIR is a sleep-tracking smart ring, and with no subscriptions necessary you can now buy the Ultra Ring Pro for $479 via Ultrahuman.

The smart ring has a dedicated Circadian Phase Alignment Clock, which maps your body’s Phase Response Curve (PRC) to show where you are in your circadian cycle and gives real-time nudges for light exposure, exercise, and caffeine cutoff windows.

3. Circular Ring 2

The Circular Ring 2 is a smart ring (notice a pattern, here?) that tracks health, fitness and sleep, and it starts at $379 at Circular.

It uses an internal AI assistant (Kira) to track a sub-metric of its overall sleep score. This sub-metric scores your Circadian Rhythm (or rather how your sleep and activities align with it).

4. Oura Ring 5

I have an Oura Ring 5 (now $399 at Amazon) and the sleep tracking is excellent. While it doesn't provide a circadian score per se, it does rank how your sleep timing aligns with your own personal circadian rhythm.

While I'm still in the early stages of wearing my Oura Ring, once I've consistently worn my smart ring for 90 days, I'll be able to unlock the Body Clock feature to help optimize my daily schedules based on my sleep chronotype.

5. Withings

If you don't enjoy wearing sleep trackers to bed, the under-the-mattress Withings Sleep Analyzer, now $199.95 at Amazon) is perfect for tracking your sleep schedule.

While it doesn't provide a standalone circadian score, it factors a Regularity score directly into the overall Sleep Score calculation.

By continuously monitoring bedtime and wake-up consistency night after night, the mat highlights how well-synced a user's sleep habits are with their biological clock to help optimize their overall rest

6. Garmin

Now $169.99 at Amazon, the Garmin Sleep Index Monitor has circadian monitoring feeds into Sleep Alignment metric, which rates how closely a person's sleep schedule matches their underlying biological clock.

While the armband wearable starts logging core recovery metrics right away, once it tracks skin temperature and sleep patterns over a few weeks, it generates personalized guidance to help align daily routines with natural circadian rhythms.

How to improve your circadian score

Using a wearable to track your body clock is Act 1 – the exciting part happens when you use all that data to adjust your daily routine.

Here are four lab-tested, expert-vetted habits to boost your circadian score:

• Get morning light within 30 minutes of waking: Ideally step outside for this, as the sun contains natural blue light to wake you up and signal to your circadian rhythm that sleep is over and its time to be productive.
• Aim for the same wake-up time every day, even on weekends: Your rise time is more important than the time you go to sleep. Consistency is important, as varying your wake-up time from day to day can cause 'social jetlag'. This confuses your internal body clock and puts your sleep quality in the toilet.
• Switch to dim lighting around 60-90 minutes before bed: Bright, stark, artificial overhead lighting tricks your brain into thinking its daytime. Dim lighting boosts production of melatonin, a master sleep hormone.

Air conditioning is a sleep saviour when heatwaves have transformed your bedroom into an oven, but it could be the reason why you keep waking up at 3 a.m. This year, research has found that air conditioners can reduce indoor air quality, and now a doctor is warning that the reliance on AC can negatively impact sleep.

"Sleep is critical for recovery and repair, so anything that impairs respiratory comfort can interfere with the body's ability to fully recover overnight," says Dr Dale Christensen, Chief Science Officer for Climatic Health and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center.

But how exactly does air conditioning impair respiratory comfort? I asked Dr. Christensen to explain how AC can impact air quality and disturb your sleep. Plus, how to fix this issue in three simple steps.

• Read more: Stress was waking me up at 3 a.m. — until two of the world's best sleep doctors shared 5 fast fixes to lower my cortisol at night

Key takeaways: At a glance

• The best smart air conditioners with well-maintained filters have no negative effect on indoor air quality, but AC with neglected filters release harmful air pollutants.
• Airborne pollutants from unkept AC filters can block airwaves, leading to sleep issues such as frequent nighttime awakenings.
• The CDC says AC filters should be replaced every three months to lower harmful germs and viruses in the air and to reduce your chances of respiratory illness.
• The three simple fixes: Check and replace your AC filter every three months, increase ventilation in your bedroom, and avoid using room fragrances and products with high VOCs.

How air conditioners impact sleep

According to the United States Census Bureau, 90% of American households use air conditioning to keep them cool in the summer.

Dr. Christensen points out that air conditioning systems aren't inherently bad for indoor air quality, as long as their filters are properly maintained.

"Air conditioning systems that collect and pass warm air through regularly maintained conditioner filters have minimal effects on air quality since the filters have to allow high airflow in order for the system to cool the air," he explains.

However, as the 2026 DuraPlas Summer Cooling Report, 50% of homeowners admit they have skipped air conditioner maintenance to save money. This neglect not only affects the AC system's cooling performance, it also may lead to indoor air pollution.

"Poorly maintained HVAC systems build up dust, moisture and even mold in filters, ducts and cooling systems," warns Dr Christensen.

"This can actually add particulate matter and mold spores to the air and present an even greater risk for lung health than external air may present."

In fact, research has shown that clogged air conditioning filters can cause unfiltered dust and allergens to be recirculated right back into living spaces. According to Dr Christensen, these airborne pollutants can irritate the airways.

This irritation causes "congestion, coughing, and difficulty breathing", leading to those pesky 3 a.m. wakeups.

"Emerging research suggests that poor air quality may contribute to shorter sleep duration, more nighttime awakenings, and lower overall sleep quality," says Dr Christensen. "Even mild airway irritation can disrupt normal sleep patterns."

What other indoor air pollutants affect sleep?

However, it's not just a neglected AC system that can ruin your sleep; there are many household objects that significantly pollute indoor air and affect sleep quality.

"We usually talk about pollution in terms of traffic, factories, or wildfires, but the actual exposure people get is often a mix of small, repeated sources that add up over time, " says Ashlesa Mohapatra, a sustainability researcher and Senior Quality Engineer at ServerLIFT LLC

"At home or indoors, the biggest contributors are often the everyday things people don’t think twice about: gas stoves, candles, incense, air fresheners, and off gassing from certain materials," she adds.

Dr. Christensen agrees and says that indoor air can actually contain higher concentrations of pollutants than outdoor environments, particularly in "tightly-sealed buildings".

"Lesser known contributors include cleaning products that release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and wood-burning fireplaces and fire pits," he says.

The health expert warns that these pollutants can interfere with our body's circadian rhythm, which regulates our sleep schedule.

"Exposure to pollutants has been associated with increased systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, which can affect the body's natural sleep-wake regulation," the doctor warns.

3 simple ways to reduce indoor air pollution for better sleep

1. Check your AC filters regularly

As mentioned above, an air conditioning system only functions properly when air filters are properly maintained.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AC filters should be replaced every three months to lower harmful germs or viruses in the air and reduce your chances of respiratory illness.

However, there are filters you can use to keep your home's air cleaner besides well-kept HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) filters.

"Portable air purifiers with HEPA filters, along with regularly maintained HVAC filters, can also help capture airborne particles such as dust, pollen, and other pollutants, but make sure you have your windows closed when running them," advises Dr. Christensen.

2. Ventilate your home

There are plenty of sleep hacks that involve increasing your bedroom's ventilation, from bedroom burping to German sleep tradition lüften. As it turns out, these refreshing sleep hacks can also improve your house's air quality.

"For those who are looking to reduce their exposure to indoor pollutants a good place to start is by improving ventilation," advises Dr. Christensen.

"That means running kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans and opening windows when outdoor air quality is favorable can help remove pollutants before they build up indoors."

3. Reduce VOCs

If you're worried about indoor air pollution, Dr. Christensen says the good news is that indoor air quality is generally more manageable than outdoor air quality.

The health expert says that the best ways you can manage indoor air quality is by choosing products (such as paints, cleaning products, and furnishings, with low VOCs)

"Limiting the use of heavily fragranced products and aerosol sprays can also help lower indoor chemical exposures," he suggests.

In recent years, magnesium has become a bedtime must-have, promising to help you stop waking up at 3 a.m. by preparing your body for deep, peaceful sleep. I've been taking magnesium in the evenings for a while, but lately I've been wondering if I should take melatonin instead.

Both are popular sleep supplements, but is magnesium or melatonin better for reducing 3 a.m. wake-ups? "Neither magnesium nor melatonin is a guaranteed solution, but both can be helpful in certain situations," says Dr Shelby Harris, a board-certified clinical psychologist and behavioural sleep medicine specialist.

Here I ask Dr Harris and Vanessa Rissetto, a Registered Dietician on the Vitamin Shoppe’s Wellness Council, if either melatonin or magnesium can help you sleep through the night and stop you from waking up at 3 a.m., and what the pros and cons of each are. Here's what they said...

Key takeaways: Magnesium vs melatonin at a glance

• While neither magnesium nor melatonin are guaranteed to prevent middle-of-the-night wake-ups, both are effective at helping you to sleep better.
• Magnesium can be used to reduce nighttime awakenings if your broken sleep is caused by stress, tension, or a magnesium deficiency.
• Melatonin is more effective to fall asleep faster, rather than helping you to stay asleep.
• Always speak to your doctor before taking melatonin, as it isn't suitable for everybody.
• When taking melatonin, use the lowest effective dose possible, and discuss dosage times with your sleep specialist first.

What is magnesium for sleep?

According to Rissetto, magnesium is an essential mineral involved in hundred of reactions throughout the body. One such function is promoting calmness as it supports normal muscle relaxation and healthy stress response.

"I often tell people to think of magnesium as creating the right conditions for good sleep rather than forcing you to fall asleep," shares Rissetto.

However, the registered dietician also warns that magnesium "isn’t a magic sleep supplement".

"If someone is deficient, correcting that deficiency can absolutely improve sleep quality, reduce muscle cramping, and ease restless feelings at night," she explains. "But if your magnesium status is already adequate, the effects are usually more subtle."

Dr Harris agrees, explaining that, while magnesium isn't a sleep medication, evidence shows it may help people who are deficient or experiencing stress-related insomnia "by promoting relaxation and supporting healthy sleep quality".

"Certain forms, such as magnesium glycinate, tend to be better tolerated and are commonly used for sleep," the board-certified doctor adds.

What is melatonin for sleep?

Rissetto says that one of the biggest misconceptions about melatonin is that it's nothing more than a "nightly vitamin" or a supplement.

"It's actually a hormone your brain naturally produces in response to darkness, " she clarifies.

The dietician explains that the hormone is an integral part of our body's natural sleep schedule, which is know as our circadian rhythm, sending the body and "internal signal that it's time to wind down".

"As evening approaches, melatonin levels rise, helping prepare your body for sleep, and then they decrease again in the morning," she explains.

However, both Rissetto and Dr. Harris point out that melatonin should not be seen as a sleeping pill.

"As a supplement, it works by signalling that it's time to sleep rather than acting as a sedative," Dr. Harris tells me.

Dr. Harris says that it's most effective when being used for people who are experiencing issues with their circadian rhythm, such as travellers with jet lag and shift workers.

"Though the data behind its use specifically for insomnia isn’t very strong," she warns.

Magnesium vs melatonin: Which is better for deep sleep?

Before we compare the effects that magnesium and melatonin have on disrupted sleep, both Rissetto and Dr. Harris stress the importance of identifying the underlying cause of these nighttime awakenings.

"I’d be asking bigger questions," says Rissetto. "Is the person drinking alcohol? Is menopause playing a role? Do they have sleep apnea? Is blood sugar fluctuating? Are they under chronic stress?"

"Neither magnesium nor melatonin is particularly good at preventing middle-of-the-night awakenings if there’s an underlying cause," she adds.

Magnesium: Pros and cons

For Rissetto and Dr. Harris, magnesium seems to be the clear winner when treating nighttime awakenings caused by stress, nighttime anxiety, muscle tension or magnesium deficiency.

"Magnesium may promote relaxation and improve overall sleep quality, particularly in people who are deficient," says Dr. Harris.

"Magnesium may help some people feel more relaxed, especially if low magnesium levels, muscle tension, or stress are contributing to fragmented sleep," Rissetti tells me.

"Still, the evidence for reducing nighttime awakenings is mixed," the dietician adds, referring to research that indicates further investigations are needs to clarify the relationship between magnesium and sleep.

However, magnesium is still the experts' pick when choosing between the two supplements. "For someone who’s stressed, tense, or not meeting their magnesium needs through diet, magnesium may offer more benefit," Rissetto concludes.

Melatonin: Pros and cons

While melatonin has proved to be a popular aid for helping people fall asleep fast, both Rissetto and Dr. Harris agree that it's not the best option if you want to sleep through the night without waking up at 3 a.m.

"Melatonin primarily helps people fall asleep by supporting the body's natural sleep-wake cycle," says Dr. Harris.

"For someone with jet lag or a disrupted sleep schedule, melatonin may be the better fit as it's generally more helpful for helping you fall asleep than it is for helping you stay asleep," says Rissetto.

"I generally think of melatonin as a tool, not a long-term solution. If someone is using it every night for months because they can’t sleep, that’s a sign we should be asking why they’re not sleeping in the first place," she adds.

Is taking melatonin bad for you?

A November 2025 study found that people using melatonin supplements long-term had around a 90% higher chance of heart failure over five years — causing searches for "is melatonin bad for you?" to balloon the same month.

So, is it best to avoid melatonin supplements altogether, even if they do help you to fall asleep?

"In the U.S., it’s sold as a supplement, so dosing isn’t regulated as tightly as prescription medications, and studies have found that some products contain much more — or much less — melatonin than what’s listed on the label," warns Rissetto.

If you want to try a melatonin supplements for sleep, Risetto says to choose a high quality, reputable brand and remember that more isn't always better.

"Many products contain 5, 10, or even 20 milligrams, when research suggests much smaller doses, often around 0.3 to 1 milligram, may be sufficient for many people," she advises.

Dr. Harris agrees with smaller dosing, saying that melatonin is safest when used at the "lowest effective dose".

"Try 1-3mg max an hour before bed," says Dr Harris. "If you need more than 5mg of melatonin to sleep at night, it likely isn’t the appropriate treatment for you as 5-10 mg is quite a moderate to large dose."

"Working with a sleep specialist can be useful here to figure out specific timing," says thethe board-certified doctor.

Why do watches dominate the sleep tracking industry? They're bulky and uncomfortable, so it's time to take a stand... with a headband. The Muse S Athena, from $474.99 at Muse, is a gold-standard sleep tracking headband with lab-grade sensors. What's more, it might actually improve your sleep.

Having just tested the Muse S Athena, it was an obvious choice for our guide to the best sleep trackers. It's packed full of sensors to create a detailed picture of your sleep quality. And, as someone who hates sleeping in a watch but uses an eye mask nightly, it's a comfortable alternative to most wearables.

Plus, while my smartwatch has many great features, the Muse is at the forefront of sleep tech. In my Muse S Athena review I was blown away by the sleep intervention features. It literally reads your mind (well, your brainwaves) and then uses sound frequencies to improve your sleep.

Sleep intervention takes sleep tracking to the next level

The Muse S Athena excels as a sleep tracker. But I'll be honest, you can get trackers almost as good for a fraction of the price.

If you want details of your brain activity overnight, the Muse is worth it. If you just want to know how long you slept for and if you got good quality sleep, the Withings Sleep Mat is a wearables-free alternative for under $200.

But it's not really about the sleep tracking here. It's what Muse does with this information that makes it so interesting.

Muse has two (free) features that stand-out. The first is Sleep Assist. Used before bed, these sleep sounds and meditations gently lull you towards slumber. And when the Muse detects your brainwaves are changing, it adjusts the sounds to match your sleepiness.

The second is Deep Sleep Boost. Starting after you've fallen asleep, when the Muse detects slow brainwaves, it plays frequencies designed to strengthen this restorative sleep phase. As a result, you should sleep deeper and wake up fresher.

So a must have for our sleep tracking guide... and an early contender for our guide to the 'best gadgets straight out of science fiction.'

Packing your kids off to college? The best thing you can provide for them is a good night's sleep (that, and an endless supply of ramen). But in a college dorm, quality shut-eye isn't always to find. That's why we've rounded up the essentials to turn a dorm room into a sleep sanctuary.

Starting with the bed. Our best mattress guide has a pick for every sleep style but for dorm room comfort on a budget, you can't beat the Siena Signature (from $159 at Siena). Alternatively, a mattress topper adds comfort for less, while the right sheets and pillows are affordable upgrades that make a big difference.

And let's not forget the real barrier to good sleep in college: the roommate. (Why are they always nocturnal?) Ear plugs and eye masks are a must-have, plus a good going-away gift for the college bound. Because sleep in college shouldn't be a privilege — it's the secret to better learning.

College dorm room sleep essentials

The Muse S Athena is at the forefront of the next generation of sleep tech. This is a device that not only measures your sleep (and does so with incredible accuracy) but actively intervenes in your rest.

It does so by sensing heart rate, oxygen levels and even brainwaves, and responding with carefully selected sleep-inducing sound profiles.

For data collection, the Muse S Athena ranks among the best sleep trackers. It captures even the briefest late night disruptions (including ones I didn’t realize had happened), alongside data such as movement, sleep position and brainwaves.

This data isn’t always easy to understand (brainwaves in particular creates an interesting but indecipherable graph) but I can’t fault the accuracy.

As for sleep improvement, that’s harder to measure, although Muse’s own metric gives me an excellent average sleep score of 81.

I’ll note on nights I use the Muse S Athena I experience few disruptions and late night wake ups, and I’ve noticed I tend to be up before my alarm.

Not everyone will appreciate the feel of the Muse S Athena headband and it's a sweat magnet on warm nights. The setup could also be improved (it often takes me several minutes to get a connection between the sensors at the back of the headband and my ears).

However, these are small design gripes and the tech is impressively futuristic. More than that, it's actually effective.

Muse S Athena Sleep Tracking Headband: Price

The Muse S Athena headband is $474.99 at the Muse US store | €449.99 for shoppers in the UK (you’ll have to work out the exchange rate for yourself). It comes with a 1-year warranty.

That’s a premium piece of sleep tech — both the Oura Ring 5 ($399/£399) and Apple Watch 11 (from $399/£369) are cheaper and provide more expansive health tracking. If it’s (clinically validated) sleep tracking you want, the Withings Sleep Mat is a cheaper alternative.

However, the Muse S Athena is more than just a tracker and we’ll dive into all the ways it’s designed to improve your sleep below.

A better comparison might be the Elemind sleep headband at $399 (which both tracks your sleep and tries to improve it) or the Spatial Sleep headband at $319 (which uses sounds and vibrations to help you fall asleep faster).

Whichever way you slice it, the Muse S Athena is expensive and that’s without a premium subscription (starting at $55 | €50 per year).

But there’s also not much you can compare the Muse S Athena to, and that’s coming from someone immersed in sleep tech.

Muse S Athena Sleep Tracking Headband: Design and comfort

The Muse S Athena is unusual for a sleep tracking wearable in that it wraps around your head, rather than your wrist or arm. Putting it on feels very science fiction, like I’m preparing to communicate with the home planet.

The S Athena consists of a soft-to-the touch, washable headband and a plastic front piece, both fitted with a series of sensors: EEG channels, Infrared and red PPG sensors, fNIRS sensors, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.

That’s a lot of tech in one relatively small package but it’s not at all heavy and, apart from one over-tightening incident (the strap length can be adjusted), it’s never pinched or rubbed during the night.

However, we’ve had a recent heatwave in the UK and on particularly hot nights, I’ve had to abandon the Muse.

For me, the Muse S Athena is comfortable and I wear it alongside a lightweight eye mask, so there’s a lot going on. Most nights, I forget it’s there.

If you want a sleep tracker that’s more discreet, though, I recommend the Withings Sleep Mat or the Oura Ring 5.

Muse S Athena Headband: Sleep tracking

The Muse S Athena uses lab-grade sensors to monitor brain activity, heart rate, blood flow and movement to put together a comprehensive overview of your sleep. (And to improve your sleep, something I’ll discuss shortly.)

I compared the data from my Muse S Athena sleep headband to sleep tracking from my Withings Sleep Mat and the Muse has highly impressed me.

Both recorded similar wake times and start times, and the sleep stages largely overlapped.

When it comes to minor disruptions, the Muse S Athena comes out on top — it spotted a 5 a.m. wake up I remembered but my Withings tracker overlooked.

In addition, the Muse S Athena records metrics such as sleep position and movement. These details add to your overall sleep data — for example, excess movement often indicates disturbances — and can also help pinpoint problems like ‘why does my shoulder hurt so much this morning?’

For accurate data, the Muse S Athena is excellent if pricey. But the Muse S Athena is designed not just to measure sleep but to actively improve it.

Sleep Assist

The Sleep Assist feature is for when you’re trying to fall asleep. It utilizes a series of sleep-inducing sounds — from guided meditations to white noise — that play as you drift off.

That’s pretty relaxing as-is but Muse boosts the sleep benefits further by adjusting the sound based on the feedback received from your brain.

I’m a fan of the ambient sounds, particularly as warm nights mean I’ve been sleeping with the window open and letting in my noisy neighborhood. As I’m drifting off, the sounds waver in volume, recreating that feeling when you’re just on the cusp of sleep and your senses are starting to shut down.

I’ve found the meditations less effective, as the quietly dipping voices tend to send my ears perking up while I strain to hear what I’m missing. This is something that happens less the more I use the meditation (and so spend less time anticipating what’s coming next).

Overall, I enjoy the Sleep Assist and I’ll often turn it on before bed but I wouldn’t credit it with helping me fall asleep faster, even if I like the drowsy feeling. However, if you find white noise or sleep meditations helpful, the Muse delivers these sounds with a potential added boost.

Deep Sleep Boost

If sleep assist is for drifting off, Sleep Boost kicks in once you’re snoozing. Again, this uses biometric feedback to push your brain into a sleepier state. In this case, enhancing slow-wave sleep (aka deep sleep).

These ‘whisper-quiet’ sounds start when the S Athena identifies the slow brain waves that indicate you're in the deepest, most restorative sleep stage. The sound kicks in to strengthen these brainwaves (it sounds a bit like a crackle). This isn't intended to keep you asleep but instead to boost the performance of this vital sleep stage and keep you in continuous deep sleep for longer. (And this, in turn, can help you stay asleep for longer.)

The difference won't necessarily be seen in your sleep but in how you feel the next morning — fresher and more alert.

This is a hard metric to qualify as it’s based on personal experience but on nights when I’ve used deep sleep boost I tend to be up before my alarm (a previously rare phenomenon).

I’ve also noticed fewer late night wake ups and when disturbances do occur, they’re brief. In fact, the Muse S Athena headband tracker catches more ‘awake’ moments than I can identify, indicating they were brief and presented minimal disruption.

Muse recommends playing around with the Deep Sleep Boost volume, as you need to hear it but not be disturbed by it. It took a few nights, but I’m comfortable it’s in the right place and volume level now.

Muse also notes the sound should stop once you start wavering out of deep sleep, to prevent disruption.

Overall, this appears to be happening. I’ll note that I recently experienced some fragmented sleep and woke up a few times hearing the deep sleep sound — but only once, and then it stopped. This suggests the Muse is responding to real-time information from my brain.

Smart Wakeup

The Smart Alarm is a premium feature from Muse S Athena, which means I’ve not had a chance to test it. It’s the final part of Muse’s three sleep pillars (falling asleep, staying asleep and waking up).

Again, it uses real-time feedback from your brain, this time to wake you up at the perfect stage in your lightest sleep cycle.

You can pick a period to be woken up in (say, 7 a.m. to 7.30 a.m.) and when your brainwaves indicate you’re ready to go, the Muse will start to gently wake you.

I’m fairly attached to my alarm and I dislike uncertainty around wake times but based on the Muse’s precision in other areas, the Smart Wakeup is tempting me to upgrade to a premium subscription.

Muse S Athena Sleep Tracking Headband: Additional features

The Muse can almost literally read your brain and it doesn’t just use this function to boost sleep. The Muse S Athena is designed as an overall brain enhancement device, with courses to improve focus, memory and reduce stress.

On the free subscription, your access to these courses is limited. There's still things to try but considering the initial investment of the Muse S Athena, I'd appreciate a wider free library.

For those who want to make the most of Muse’s brain-reading tech to improve focus and memory, I recommend upgrading to the premium subscription for full access to the course library.

Having completed a meditation or training session, Muse offers an overview of your brainwaves and physical movement during a session.

With regular usage, you should be able to note improvements in performance, including less time with your brain ‘wandering’. If you want more detailed insight, you'll need to upgrade to premium.

The sessions I’ve used have felt high quality and calming, even in distracting circumstances — sitting outside while my neighbor hits a ball against our shared fence is not relaxing.

Enso AI Sleep Assistant

Upgrade to Muse’s premium tier and you also gain access to Enso, Muse’s AI assistant. Enso helps you understand your data and simplifies what you’re seeing, which can be an advantage for those starting out.

Enso also helps you set a goal and build a plan towards it, although the free tier provides plenty of guidelines in this area.

I’ve not had access to Enso and I’ve been happy with the amount of detail and explanation Muse provides, although for long-term goals I can see the advantage of plainer language.

Enso isn’t enough to convince me to go premium on its own but it’s a nice bonus for those debating an upgrade.

Muse S Athena Sleep Tracking Headband: Performance

Set up

The Muse S Athena requires minimal initial set up and the app talks you through the process. Once you’ve established a Bluetooth connection, all you need to do is strap the headband to your head… that’s where the problems start.

It takes some practice to get the Muse S Athena correctly situated for optimal performance.

The sensors have to make connections in five key areas and while I rarely struggle to get the front three (on the forehead) aligned, the two behind my ears are often tricky. And yes, that’s with my hair tied back.

This is a frustration but not a deal breaker, as it normally takes just a few minutes to sort the issue.

And even when I’ve struggled with the initial set up, I’ve always found the headband maintains connection throughout the night (sleep headphones can be a nightmare for falling out and losing data).

App

On the Muse app you’ll find all the meditation courses as well as your own sleep tracking and performance data. You need to use the app nightly in order to start a sleep session, so get used to the interface.

Overall, the app is well laid out. You can pin your favorite courses and sounds to the main page, for easy access, while the dedicated sleep tab is a blessing when your eyes are drooping and you just want to get the band set up and ready to go.

The Muse tracks a lot of data and that can make reading your metrics overwhelming. There are guides to understanding the information but first thing in the morning, you might not be up to interpreting a chart.

From speaking to the brand, the Muse S Athena collects more data than it even displays and I think there’s an advantage to holding back —there’s already a lot to wade through.

Muse also dedicates app space to your 'trends' (both sleep and calm) — in other words, performance over time.

Again, there’s plenty of info to explore which can be overwhelming but as Muse positions itself as training and improvement tech, I appreciate the focus on collective data.

From my conversations with sleep experts, repetition and consistency are key to good sleep. Muse puts the ethos into data collection.

Battery

Muse claims that the Athena S has a battery life of roughly 10 hours, although it varies depending on usage. In my experience, this is accurate — after a night of continuous sleep monitoring and intervention the battery is low but not completely depleted.

One disadvantage of the shorter life is that to avoid straining the battery, I only strap on the Muse headband directly before going to sleep. No big deal, but it does mean another blast of blue light and a quick scroll while I get the app connected.

Muse estimates a charge time of under three hours but it's been consistently quicker than that in my experience. This morning, the Muse S Athena was at 4%. It was back to full charge in 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Should you buy the Muse S Athena Sleep Tracking Headband?

Buy it if...

✅ You want lab-grade sleep tracking: Reading movement, heart rate and brain activity, the Muse S Athena tracks your sleep stages with impressive accuracy. (Muse describes itself as using 'the World's Leading EEG Technology'.)

✅ You keep waking up groggy: The Deep Sleep Boost massages your brain waves to make the most of this all-important sleep phase so you wake up feeling like you've made the most of your rest.

✅ Stress is ruining your sleep: Both Muse's sleep-targeting features and its mediation aids aim to create calm, helping you navigate the days (and nights) with less stress.

Don't buy it if...

❌ You don't want something on your head while you sleep: The Muse S Athena is lightweight and soft to the touch but it's still strapped to your head while you're trying to drift off. It won't appeal to everyone and it can get warm on a hot night.

❌ You want day-to-day health tracking: Muse's tracking tech is incredible but it's only useful during sleep or meditation sessions. For more well-rounded tracking data, consider the best smartwatches.

❌ You want more meditation options for less money: Yes, Muse does have several free meditations but you need to pay for a premium subscription to access the full library. If all you want is a mediation guide (or sleep noises) without the brain reading tech, the Calm app is a cheaper alternative.

Alternatives

As a sleep editor I get the opportunity to test a huge range of sleep tech and products, all geared towards helping us in our collective quest for a decent night’s sleep. I have everything I need for a good night’s rest, and yet I still struggle with middle insomnia.

Middle insomnia is characterised by falling asleep with ease, only to then wake in the middle of the night. For me, I go through periods of waking up at 3 a.m., unable to fall back to sleep. While unpicking the root cause of my nighttime awakenings is an ongoing process, I’ve learnt that there are habits that make the issue worse.

Below, three leading sleep doctors weigh in on the nighttime routine mistakes I’m making, like falling asleep in front of the TV. Plus, they share the three simple switches I can make in order to better manage my middle insomnia.

• Read more: Stress was waking me up at 3 a.m. — until two of the world's best sleep doctors shared 5 fast fixes to lower my cortisol at night

Why do I keep waking up at 3 a.m.?

• Sleeping in on the weekends: Breaks your natural circadian rhythm and causes 'social jet lag.'
• Falling asleep in front of the TV: Falling asleep in front of the TV diminishes your sleep pressure, making it harder to both fall and stay asleep.
• Getting inadequate exercise: Incorporating less movement into my day when I'm tired perpetuates the cycle of poor sleep.

3 simple doctor-approved daily routine switches to help you sleep through the night

I strongly suspect that the underlying cause of my 3 a.m. wake ups is due to elevated baseline levels of cortisol, the 'stress' hormone.

While there's no quick fix to dealing with stress and anxiety, there are several nighttime routine mistakes that I wasn't aware were contributing to my middle insomnia.

Below, sleep doctors weigh in on why certain common daily habits wreak havoc on my rest, plus the simple switches I can try instead for better sleep.

1. The 3 a.m. culprit: Sleeping in on the weekend

As a parent, sleeping in on the weekend isn’t something that I get to do all too often. But if the opportunity arises to sleep in past my usual wake time, I tend to grab it with both hands — especially following a broken night’s sleep.

But, according to experts, this is one of the biggest sleep routine mistakes I could be making.

“Even after a poor night's sleep, maintaining a consistent wake time can help restore healthy sleep patterns more effectively than sleeping in,” says Dr. Joshua Roland, medical director at Dreem Health.

Dr. Matthew Walker, a leading sleep scientist, agrees. "Irregular wake times, particularly across weekends, can create social jet lag: a mismatch between biological time and clock time, even without travel."

The swap: Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule

Following a consistent sleep schedule, like the 7:1 sleep rule where you go to bed within the same one hour window and achieve a minimum of seven hours of sleep, ensures you have enough time to build adequate sleep pressure throughout the day.

Sleep pressure is your biological urge to sleep. It’s also referred to as your homeostatic sleep drive. It starts building from the moment you wake up, reaches its peak as you nod off, before levels begin to drop again.

When you sleep in later than usual, you aren’t giving your body enough time to build enough sleep pressure to both fall and stay asleep all night.
The best way to fall into a consistent sleep schedule is by anchoring your wake up time — even on the weekend.

“A fixed wake time determines the length of the waking day, stabilizes the accumulation of sleep pressure, and provides a repeatable circadian cue when paired with morning light,” explains Dr. Walker, neuroscientist and professor of neuroscience and bioengineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.

“A consistent wake time is arguably one of the most important anchors of the body's circadian rhythm because it helps set the timing of hormone release, body temperature cycles, alertness, and subsequent sleep pressure,“ agrees Dr. Roland, a Board-Certified Sleep Medicine Physician.

2. The 3 a.m. culprit: Falling asleep in front of the TV

Falling asleep in front of the TV is my guilty pleasure, particularly on the weekend. I'm not alone, an estimated 61% of us fall asleep in front of the TV every night. However, doctors warn that it could be contributing to my middle insomnia.

“A [mistake] is the brief evening doze, often during television or reading," Dr. Walker has previously explained. "Even twenty minutes of sleep in the evening can partially discharge sleep pressure and make it harder to initiate sleep later."

Falling asleep in front of the TV or napping during the day is a common mistake that Dr. Roland also encounters.

“Many people compensate for sleepiness by resting on the couch or napping throughout the day, which can relieve sleep pressure and make nighttime sleep more fragmented,” explains the sleep doctor.

What's more, when we push past our natural sleep window, it can trigger the production of wakeful chemicals, such as orepinephrine, dopamine, orexin and, my biggest foe, cortisol.

"When we push past our natural bedtime, we create a tug-of-war inside the body. Sleep pressure has been building all day; natural melatonin is rising, and every signal is telling you it's time to rest," Dr. Roland has previously explained.

That can result in a tired and wired feeling, which is when you're physically exhausted but feel too mentally stimulated to fall asleep.

The swap: Pay attention to sleep cues and go to bed when I’m tired

Instead of napping through a film or falling asleep when reading, Dr. Walker stresses the importance of staying in tune to our natural sleep window.

“Adequate sleep pressure is usually signalled by increasing eyelid heaviness, yawning, reduced alertness, impaired sustained attention, and the repeated loss of focus while reading or watching something,” explains Dr. Walker, who notes that artificial lighting, screen time and stimulation late into the night can impair your natural sleep cues.

“These [sleep] signals are often missed because evening light exposure, screens, and mental stimulation can override or obscure the biological drive for sleep," explains the author. "Think of the system like an instrument panel: the body is displaying reduced alertness, but environmental stimulation can distort the reading."

3. The 3 a.m. culprit: Getting less exercise on the days I feel tired

Forget the under eye bags — a quick glance at my fitness tracker stats will tell you if I’ve had a good night’s sleep or not.

On the days when I’m existing in a fog of sleep deprivation, my step count is pitifully low. But when I’ve had a good night’s sleep I tend to move more.

Why does this matter? “Moving less during the day can make it harder to get a good night's sleep,” explains Dr. Shelby Harris, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in behavioral sleep medicine.

“But it’s really a cycle because when people don't get enough sleep, they're also often more fatigued the next day, which can lead to spending more time sitting and being less physically active.”

The swap: Incorporating movement into my day to build adequate sleep pressure

Instead of leading into exhaustion and barely getting out of my chair, Dr. Harris recommends incorporating movement into my day — even after a terrible night's sleep.

“Regular physical activity helps build the body's natural drive for sleep, supports a healthy sleep-wake cycle, and can reduce stress and improve mood,” says Dr. Harris, author of The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia.

However, that doesn’t mean you need to push yourself too hard. “If you're exhausted after a bad night's sleep, don't put pressure on yourself to do an intense workout," says Dr. Harris. "Even getting up to stretch every hour, taking a short walk during lunch, or walking while you're on a phone call can make a difference.”

How to fall back to sleep when you're awake at 3 a.m.

• Don't check the clock: If you're anything like me, rolling over and checking the time can stress you out further. It can also lead to the temptation of scrolling on your phone, making it even harder to go back to sleep.
• Practice the 15 minute sleep rule: When I do wake up at 3 a.m., the advice from experts is clear — get up and leave the room and do something relaxing. This prevents creating a negative association with your bed and bedroom.
• Try the cognitive shuffling method: This is a visualisation technique or random objects and helps empty my mind of racing thoughts. To practice it, think of a word and spell out as many objects as you can beginning with each letter.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Review in brief

Despite my love of sleep tech, I used to think the only way you'd get me in a smartwatch was by tearing my beloved analog watch from my cold, dead wrist. The Withings ScanWatch 2 has proven me wrong, showing there is an option for those who want functional health tracking in more attractive packaging than a black screen.

The Withings ScanWatch 2 looks like your conventional watch but packed inside is a wealth of health and fitness tech. From sleep tracking to step counters to SpO2 measures, the ScanWatch 2 features advanced tech designed to give you a well-rounded view of your health.

Overall, the health and sleep data is comparable to the best sleep trackers (although I found the Withings Sleep Mat comes out on top for sleep metrics), and the Withings app makes it easy to understand. You do have to upgrade to Withings+, however, if you want advice on what to do with that data.

To maintain the analog look, the ScanWatch2 does have to make some sacrifices. The paired down display means you have to use the app for detailed insight and scrolling through the small dial can be frustrating. It’s also one of the bulkier health trackers, which makes it less comfortable for sleep (and quite warm to wear).

But this is a smartwatch for people who don’t want to wear a smartwatch and although the display might be simplified compared to say, the Apple Watch 11, the data and the tech isn’t.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Price

The WithingsScan Watch 2 starts at $369.95 US / £319.99 UK at Withings. A standard wristband is included, but you can add additional wristbands (including a metal buckle design) from $35.95 / £35.95.

That places it among premium fitness trackers, such as the Apple Watch 11 (from $399.99 / £369.99 at Amazon) or the Oura Ring 5 (from $399 / £399 at Oura). Withings does offer a more affordable alternative in the ScanWatch Light ($249.95 / £319.95) or, if it’s just sleep tracking you want, the Withings Sleep Mat is $199.95 / £129.95.

I tested the Withings ScanWatch 2 using the basic free tier but you can upgrade to the Withings+ subscription. One month comes free and after that it's either $9.95 / £8.95 per month, or $99.50 / £89.50 a year.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Design and Comfort

I’m a diehard analog watch lover and so the hybrid design of the Withings ScanWatch 2 appeals exactly to my taste. It looks like an analog watch until you get close and discover the double dials are hiding a health tracker and a step counter.

The upper dial is the digital display and it's here you'll find your health tracking data (and any notifications). It's easy to see both in daylight and the dark. The crown on the bezel is used not to change the time (that happens automatically automatically) but to scroll through the menu. The lower dial tracks your fitness goal, such as how close you are to 10,000 steps.

Made from Sapphire glass and a stainless steel case with an FKM (fluoroelastomer), the ScanWatch 2 feels durable (and perhaps a little bulky — I'll get into that now). It's also swimproof.

The disadvantage of this hybrid design is that the ScanWatch is cumbersome in comparison to lightweight trackers such as the FitBit Air. It's particularly notable when sleeping — I wear my watch on my left wrist which is the side I gravitate towards in sleep. As a result, it often takes some readjustment to ensure my watch isn’t pressing into me.

However, it’s not much bulkier than the Apple Watch 11 or the Garmin Forerunner, which both prioritize plenty of tech over a streamlined design.

There's also less data available on the screen, although that does mean it's less distracting than other smartwatches. It's a matter of preference; if you want a traditional look with at-a-glance data, the ScanWatch 2 has you covered.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Sleep tracking

The Withings ScanWatch 2 tracks a variety of metrics to deliver a sleep score summing up your night. This includes duration (time in bed and time asleep), sleep stage, heart rate, and HRV (heart rate variability).

I compared the sleep metrics collected by my Withings ScanWatch to the data from my Muse S Athena headband and, bar a few minor differences in sleep and wake time, the results largely matched. My heart rate metrics are also comparable.

However, the ScanWatch 2 has a tendency to miss minor interruptions, attributing them instead to light sleep. For example, in data from July 7th my Muse S Athena noted a wake up at 5.17 a.m., which my ScanWatch didn’t. I know for certain I was awake at this point because I checked the time... but I did fall asleep again quickly.

The ScanWatch can also confuse moments of stillness for sleep. (See my ‘nap’ at 7.40 a.m. which was definitely just me scrolling through my phone.) However, I’ve found it’s more accurate than Withings’s dedicated Sleep tracker for determining when I’m actively trying to sleep — the Withings Sleep Mat tends to mistake ‘reading in bed’ with ‘lying awake’.

The ScanWatch 2 has a few more advantages over the Sleep Mat (also from Withings). For a start, it’s portable which means I can track consistently even when traveling. It also collects health data that’s not directly related to hours in bed but nonetheless influences your rest (such as temperature, activity levels, and menstrual cycle).

However, for accurate and detailed sleep tracking, both the Withings Sleep Mat and the Muse S Athena come out on top. The ScanWatch provides an excellent overview but can miss the finer details. Not to mention, the bulky design means that on some particularly restless nights, I've had to take it off around 3 a.m.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Health and fitness tracking

Despite the streamlined display and the analog design, the ScanWatch 2 is packed with some high tech health tracking features, including a step tracker, heart rate monitor and SpO2 tracker. A lot of this tech is accessible subscription free, which is a bonus for a health tracker (for example, much of Whoop’s tracking features are premium access).

I use it primarily to track my steps (I’m a walker), although you can also log swimming, running, cycling and ‘other’. I have the dial on the watch face set to log my steps as I go, with a vibration and notification when I hit 10,000. It’s a useful feature to stay on top of your fitness without having it glaring in your face (overall, the ScanWatch excels at subtlety).

In terms of accuracy, both the step counter and temperature tracker have impressed me with their accuracy, although some steps do appear to be overlooked (I count more steps quietly padding around my living room than the ScanWatch acknowledges). From this, I assume data such as SpO2 monitoring is accurate, although I don’t have clinical results to compare to.

There’s two more additional features I’d like to call attention to. First, the ‘breathe’ app. This is displayed on the watch face and guides you through simple breathing exercises. I’ve found it useful both before bed and on-the-go.

Second, temperature tracking. Overnight temperature readings helped me see a clear link between warm weather and disrupted sleep (and it works with the menstrual tracking feature to predict periods). It's just a shame that the bulky design means on hot nights I tend to take the watch off midway through the night, because it's too stuffy.

While the ScanWatch has impressed me with its accuracy, for free users, it delivers little in the way of analysis — you need to upgrade to the Withings+ app for that.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Performance

Set up

The ScanWatch 2 is incredibly easy to set up. Connecting to your phone via Bluetooth, you’re guided through the best way to wear the ScanWatch, proper usage including setting your fitness goal (measured by the watch face dial) and even sets the time for you.

Scrolling through the data with the crown isn’t the easiest method to access information but that’s a natural downside of this type of design. And, once you’re familiar with the order of the menu, things do speed up.

App

The Withings App stores data from all your collected Withings devices and so for those dedicated to the brand, it can store a lot of metrics. Mine has access to my ScanWatch and my Sleep Mat, and I highly recommend editing the home screen to ensure your preferred metrics are displayed first — I used to scroll past all kinds of data to access my sleep score.

In the app, you can access all the data collected from your ScanWatch displayed in charts and graphs. Overall, I’ve found these easy to scroll through and to understand, with data clearly displayed (I particularly enjoy the sleep tracking analytics, which provide a thorough overview with just a quick glance).

You can also generate health reports in the app, drawing together data into a handy PDF you can send to your doctor.

For this review, I used the free Withings app, which I found helpful enough. For ‘health improvement scores’, you’ll need to upgrade to Withings+. This will give you access to AI insights and personalized care; useful for those looking to improve an aspect of health, rather than simply monitor.

Battery life

Withings claims the ScanWatch 2 has 35 days of battery life. Based on my experience, that’s accurate: I started wearing mine on April 23rd and by July 3rd, I’d only charged it twice. Those who favor referring to the watch screen over the app are likely to find the battery drains quicker but for moderate usage, you can get at least a month of wear before charging becomes necessary.

Withings ScanWatch also claims a “2 hour” charge time. Again, this seems accurate. On my last charge, I noted I had 15% battery life at 10.04 a.m. — by 11.04 a.m., I was up to 90%.

You do need to take the ScanWatch off to charge it, so quick juice is necessary to avoid missing out on data. It also has a non-standard charger which is $24.95 to replace, so during those 35 days you don’t need it, keep it in a secure place.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Should you buy?

Buy the Withings ScanWatch 2 if:

✅You want a classic watch design: The ScanWatch 2 is an excellent blend of form and functionality, pairing a classic analog watch design with a subtle display and a handy dial. The result is a sleep tracker that doesn’t look like a sleep tracker.

✅You’re looking for all-round health tracking: Withings’s free access app collects sleep data, heart rate, activity levels, temperature and more to give a reliable and accurate overview of your health. It’s a lot of info that’s easy to access.

✅You rarely find time to charge your devices: The ScanWatch 2 has a maximum battery life of 35 days and can fully charge in just two hours. That means minimal time off the wrist (and losing precious data) plus with careful planning, you can travel without a charger.

Don't buy the Withings ScanWatch 2 if...

❌ You won’t action, not just oversight: You’ll need to upgrade to the Withings+ if you want to turn your data into action with the help of AI intelligence and professional advice,

❌ You want a sleek wearable: The ScanWatch 2 has a classic watch design but the downside is it’s a bulkier wearable. The FitBit Air has a much slimmer profile while the Oura Ring is the closest you’ll get to invisible sleep tracking.

❌ You want top-class sleep data: While the ScanWatch 2 provides a decent insight into your sleep, Withings has another device that’s better suited to track your rest: the Sleep Mat.

Withings ScanWatch 2: Alternatives

Getting a good night's sleep is vital for a happy and healthy life, but lots of different factors can impact on it. Perhaps you're too warm at night and that's keeping you awake (increasingly likely in our summer of heatwaves.) Maybe you don't like your pillows, or are simply not comfy enough in your current bed linen. If that's the case then it's time to give your bedding a complete overhaul!

One of the brands leading the way in comfortable and affordable bed linen and pillows is Bedsure. The company delivers, in its own words, "everyday comfort" at a reasonable cost. There's a wide range of products to choose from here, all available now at Amazon — and many of them currently have money off. Read on to find out 12 of our favorites...

According to a recent poll, 67% of Tom's Guide readers use a sleep tracker. And if you're anything like me then checking your sleep score is a common morning habit. But one doctor warns we're using our sleep trackers wrong. When it comes to sleep scores, it turns out less is sometimes more...

Dr. Shireen Emad of Watches2U explains that it's easier to identify patterns and habits that are negatively impacting your sleep when you focus on your monthly sleep score, not your daily score. She emphasizes that no one has perfect sleep, so we shouldn't expect to always see perfect scores.

The best sleep trackers collect data throughout the night to create an overview of your sleep and they're helpful tools for boosting your sleep quality. Here's the two step system a doctor advises to use your sleep tracker right...

Key takeaways

• Your monthly sleep score provides a better picture of sleep trends than your daily score, helping you spot patterns and habits
• Daily scores are useful but obsessing over them can lead to orthosomnia, which is anxiety surrounding getting the perfect night's sleep
• Everyone experiences the occasional bad night's sleep, which is why daily scores can be misleading
• You should also consider how you feel in the morning, not just what your sleep tracker says

What is orthosomnia?

Orthosomnia is a term to describe an unhealthy obsession with achieving a 'perfect' night's sleep. Research indicates that orthosomnia is usually driven by wearing sleep trackers, like smart rings and watches, to monitor your sleep score.

The doctor approved metric you should check on your sleep tracker

Dr. Emad, a practicing NHS doctor at Highgate Grange Medical Practice in Islington, London, has two big tips for making the most of your sleep tracker: Check your monthly score, not your daily and treat how you feel as another metric.

What is your monthly sleep score?

Your daily sleep score is an at-a-glance overview of various metrics collected throughout the night by your sleep tracker. Your monthly sleep score is the average score over the course of the month. And this is the score you should be focusing on, according to Dr. Emad.

“I would encourage people to look at patterns across several weeks rather than becoming concerned about one poor sleep score," says Dr. Emad. "Everyone has occasional bad nights, and that is completely normal.”

She adds that closely monitoring your daily scores can create "hyper awareness" which can cause you to misinterpret "perfectly normal" fluctuations as causes for concern.

For example, last night my sleep score was 66 — not great. But my overall score last month was 80 — much better. While that 63 might initially cause concern, as part of my overall sleep data, it's a blip. And, on reflection, one with some obvious causes (a hot night and a noisy neighbor.)

Most good sleep trackers provide a monthly score or monthly averages. However, you may need to break out the calculator and work it out for yourself.

Don't overlook the hidden metric: How you feel

“Sleep trackers can be incredibly useful tools, but it’s important to remember that they provide estimates rather than perfect measurements," says Dr. Emad. "One of the biggest mistakes people make is treating the data as an absolute judgement on how well they slept.”

Her advice is to factor in another metric, one your sleep tracker can't identify: How you feel in the morning.

“If your watch tells you that you slept badly but you wake up feeling rested, energized and functioning well, it’s important not to disregard your own experience. Technology should complement how you feel, not override it.”

Here's Dr. Emad's top tips for making the most of your sleep tracker:

• Focus on long-term trends rather than individual nights
• Use the data to identify habits, not to judge yourself
• Note how you feel physically and mentally, not just what the app says
• Remember that occasional poor sleep is normal and expected
• Consider taking short breaks from tracking if it starts causing stress

Why you shouldn't overthink your daily sleep score

Everyone loves to see a good sleep score but Dr. Emad explains that focusing too much on your nightly total can be detrimental to your sleep. Particularly if you're always striving for that perfect 100 score.

“There is no such thing as perfect sleep, and trying to optimize every minute of the night can actually create stress that makes sleep worse," says Dr. Emad.

“For some people, checking sleep metrics first thing every morning can immediately create anxiety if the score is lower than expected."

She adds that over-checking can lead to orthosomnia, a term that describes the stress and sleep disruption that occurs when you become fixated on improving your sleep score.

"When used sensibly, [sleep trackers] can improve awareness and encourage positive habits, but they should never become a source of anxiety in themselves,” she says.

"The goal should be better sleep, not perfect sleep.”

Sleep tech our Tom's Guide team has tested and loved

We're once again experiencing a brutal heatwave but while in my part of the country temperatures are expected to reach triple digits, I'm not too concerned — I'm fortunate to have the Saatva Memory Foam Hybrid, now $400 off in the Saatva 4th of July sale, a mattress that wicks away heat so I can sleep cool. Yes, even in a heatwave.

We look for good temperature regulation in all the best mattresses we've tested and the breathable design was a highlight of my Saatva Memory Foam Hybrid Mattress review, especially since I had a bout of night sweats. It's a feature that's coming in clutch again, as I now have to contend with Mother Nature's rapidly rising thermostat.

The 4th of July mattress sales are nearly over so if you're eyeing a new bed while sitting directly in front of the air con, here's why I highly recommend this entry-level Saatva hybrid mattress.

How the Saatva Memory Foam Hybrid Mattress helped me cool off at night

At the time I received my Saatva Memory Foam Hybrid Mattress to test, I was dealing with a spell of night sweats and a surprise heatwave. This double-whammy of hotness presented me the ideal opportunity to evaluate just how well this hybrid mattress could regulate temperature.

The Saatva Memory Foam Hybrid is built to breathe with a base of individually-wrapped coils, an organic cotton cover, and a layer of waved AirCradle foam. Lying on the mattress without bedding, I didn't feel any noticeable heat buildup — and dressing it with bamboo sheets and a lightweight quilt didn't impede that breathability in the slightest.

The lack of profound sinkage also helped, as I didn't feel embedded in the mattress (pun intended), allowing air to pass through more easily. However, this was a detriment to side sleeping, as I would have liked more give for my joints. (Take a look at our guide to the best mattresses for side sleepers if that's what you need.)

For most people, the Saatva Memory Foam Hybrid Mattress will sleep comfortably enough amidst high nighttime temperatures. But if your night sweats are severe and you need that cool-to-touch sensation to help soothe you to sleep, I'd sooner recommend a dedicated cooling mattress.

For powerful, all-natural cooling, try this...

Most of us know what we need to do in order to get a good night’s sleep. But I’ve found that when life gets busy, my routine gets thrown out of whack and middle insomnia makes an unwelcome return.

Waking up at 3 a.m. is miserable and I’ll never stop searching for ways to sleep peacefully throughout the night, every night. To help get my sleep back on track and fix my middle of the night awakenings, I’ve given the 3-2-1 sleep rule a go — and it’s already reduced my middle insomnia.

Sticking to a simple wind down strategy like the 3-2-1 method has helped me get back to the basics of healthy sleep hygiene and effectively reducing my 3 a.m. wake-ups. Below, I’ll dig into what this method is and how it helps with middle insomnia, plus share expert advice from leading sleep doctors on how to banish 3 a.m. wake-ups.

• Read more: Stress was waking me up at 3 a.m. — until two of the world's best sleep doctors shared 5 fast fixes to lower my cortisol at night

Key takeaways: At a glance

• The 3-2-1 sleep rule is a structured process of winding down before bed
• Practices such as avoiding heavy meals and cutting out screens before bed help promote quality sleep
• As well as falling asleep faster, I’ve found that sticking to a strict wind down structure helps combat my 3 a.m. wake ups through the healthy production of key ‘sleep’ hormones

What is the 3-2-1 sleep rule?

The 3-2-1 sleep rule is a term to describe a structured wind down routine, drawing on healthy habits that help promote deep sleep in a structured way. Here’s how to do it:

• 3 hours before bed: Stop eating heavy meals or consuming alcohol.
• 2 hours before bed: Stop working and engaging with stimulating tasks.
• 1 hour before bed: Turn off your screens or devices, including your TV.

How the 3-2-1 sleep rule reduced my 3 a.m. wake ups

The 3-2-1 sleep rule isn’t ground breaking, but I’ve found that following it is reminding me of the healthy habits I need to follow in order to get the sleep I need.

Here’s how it’s helping with my 3 a.m. wake ups...

My blood sugar levels stay regulated

Rich, heavy meals too close to bedtime is a leading cause of broken sleep, say dieticians. “One of the most common reasons for waking around 3 a.m. is a drop in blood sugar during the night,” Conny Wade at Wade Wellness, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P) and practising Nurse Practitioner, previously explained to us.

“If you eat dinner too late or the meal is unbalanced, your body may release stress hormones to bring blood sugar back up, and that can wake you suddenly,” Wade explains.

As someone with recurrent nighttime anxiety, I knew that rising cortisol levels were often to blame for my 3 a.m. wake ups. However, I didn’t know that my evening meals could be contributing to that.

Instead of late, carb-heavy dinners, I’m making an effort to eat my evening meal by 7 p.m. in order to allow my body to digest my food before my 10 p.m. bedtime. If I’m still hungry in the runup to bedtime, I opt for light healthy snacks like yoghurt and fruit and water.

As for cutting out alcohol three hours before bedtime, I rarely drink so this isn’t something I have needed to take on board. However, it’s worth reiterating that, along with a whole host of other side effects, studies show that alcohol consumption compromises your sleep quality and disrupts your rest.

That’s because our brains produce cortisol in order to metabolize alcohol, leading to frequent nighttime awakenings. If you’re struggling with middle insomnia and enjoy a nightcap or two, consider cutting yourself off three hours before bedtime in order to allow your body to metabolize it before nodding off.

Avoiding stimulating tasks before bed prevents disruption of key sleep hormones

Whether it’s work or life admin that you haven’t had time to tackle during the day, the pocket of time you might have in the runup to bedtime (or beyond) can feel like the right time to tick things off of your to-do list.

However, studies indicate that when we work past our bedtime, it disrupts the natural rhythm of key sleep hormones required to help us feel ready for sleep — and that can lead to difficulty both falling and staying asleep.

“The brain activates its alertness systems, releasing chemicals like norepinephrine, dopamine, and orexin to keep you functional,” explains Dr. Joshua Roland, a board-certified sleep medicine physician and medical director at Dreem Health.

“Cortisol can creep up, too, which is why you get that ‘tired but wired’ feeling: physically drained but mentally switched on,” says the sleep physician. Cortisol levels naturally rise around 3 a.m. before peaking upon waking. However, elevated baseline levels of cortisol levels can cause levels to rise enough around this time to wake you up.
As a time-poor parent, working beyond bedtime is a trap I often fall into, and it’s why I often lie in bed feeling too switched on to fall asleep, only to then wake in the early hours of the morning. Now, if I’m aiming for a 10 p.m. bedtime, I’ll close my laptop at 8 p.m. and allow my brain to wind down naturally for sleep.

Going screen-free before bedtime calms my nervous system

There is evidence to suggest that blue light from our screens isn’t as disruptive to the production of the sleep hormone melatonin as we once thought. However, the content that we’re consuming on those screens can be, and it can lead to an overwrought nervous system.

“What's interesting is that scrolling often feels restful, but physiologically it isn't,” says Dr. Jessica Meers, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at Rhythm Wellness. “Every swipe brings something new and unpredictable, keeping the brain engaged and alert.

“Even when we're relaxing on the couch, our brains are still processing information, emotions, and stimulation. That's one reason many people feel mentally tired but not truly rested,” says the Board-Certified Sleep Behavioral Specialist.

So, although scrolling on my phone or watching TV looks like downtime, switching off my screens one hour before bedtime in favor of an analogue activity (puzzling and reading are currently my go-to activities of choice) I’m allowing my nervous system to decompress — and that’s crucial for combatting middle insomnia.

3 sleep doctor-approved tips for stopping 3 a.m. wake ups

It’s normal to partially wake during the night as we cycle through different sleep stages and rarely even remember it.

However, waking up at night becomes a problem when you find yourself wide awake for extended periods of time and struggle to fall back to sleep.

For me, nighttime anxiety is a leading cause of my 3 a.m. wake ups. Here, leading sleep doctors share their tips for banishing middle insomnia and getting the rest you need.

1. Set aside worry time

In an ideal world we wouldn't worry at all, but if anxiety is causing you to wake up at night then setting aside time before bed to offload could help.

"One of my favorite strategies for reducing nighttime anxiety is what I call a cognitive offload," says Dr. Meers.

"Before bed, write down everything that's on your mind — tasks, worries, reminders, anything unfinished. It helps signal to the brain that it doesn't need to keep rehearsing those thoughts overnight."

2. Build sleep pressure

Building adequate sleep pressure has been a game changer for my sleep. Sleep pressure, also referred to as your homeostatic sleep drive, is essentially a term to describe your biological urge to sleep.

It builds from the moment you wake up and hits its peak just before you go to sleep. Things that add to sleep pressure include exercise and a consistent wake time. On the flip side, excessive napping, a sedentary lifestyle and caffeine can rob you of the sleep pressure required to stay asleep all night.

3. Try an invisible hour

I've tried an invisible day method, a digital 24-hour detox, in order to combat my 3 a.m. wake ups. While it undoubtedly works, it can be difficult to carve out the time in my busy schedule to implement one.

Instead, Dr. Eric Zhou, associate professor in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, recommends taking a regular 'invisible hour' before bedtime.

"Create a consistent 'invisible hour' each night," recommends Dr. Zhou, a sleep researcher. "During this time, promise yourself that you won't turn on your work laptop, or see what your friends have posted on Tik Tok. Instead, use this time to participate in something that you genuinely enjoy."

Let's face it, buying a new mattress can be super expensive nowadays. However, sometimes you need to bite the bullet if your mattress is so uncomfortable that it's affecting your sleep. But what if there were ways to keep saving up for a new mattress while fixing your current one in the meantime?

Luckily, there are two sleep products that can help: pillows and mattress toppers. The best mattress toppers are a low-cost, high-impact way to adjust firmness and extend the lifespan of ageing beds, while the best pillows can offer the right support that your mattress is struggling to still provide.

That's why I've curated all the best 4th of July mattress and sleep deals for fixing every kind of mattress issue. Mattress too hard? Try the super-soft Lucid 4" Gel Memory Foam Topper. Need more support? Use an adjustable pillow to get the right pillow loft for your sleep position. Mattress too stuffy? I've got plenty of cooling pillow and bed topper deals, too. Now, let's take a look...

Top 6 pillow deals for rescuing your old mattress

Top 6 topper deals for rescuing your old mattress

Cheap mattress deals worth considering

If you can invest a few hundred dollars in a new mattress, there are some good deals worth shopping in the 4th of July mattress sales. Here's what we recommend...

• DreamCloud Classic Hybrid – From $399 at DreamCloud
• Siena Signature Hard Foam Mattress – from $159 at Siena
• EgoHome Black Memory Foam – from $269 at EgoHome
• Lucid Memory Foam Mattress – from $172 at Lucid

More sales coverage

• Deals tracker: The best luxury 4th of July mattress sales for every sleep position

It's the 4th of July weekend and while the hot weather is great for your backyard barbecue, it's a nightmare for sleep. The Eight Sleep Pod 5 smart cooling mattress cover, now up to $500 off at Eight Sleep, might be the answer to your disrupted nights and sweaty mornings.

It was the hottest June on record in parts of the U.S. and with more heatwaves expected, modern problems require modern solutions. The high-tech Eight Sleep Pod mattress cover is one of the best smart beds and mattresses on the market and it's pushing the boundaries of cooler comfort. Our lead tester described the Pod 4 as "any hot sleepers dream".

Want a traditional mattress that sleeps cool? Many of the top-rated beds in our best mattress guide excel at temperature regulation, and all of them are discounted in this year's best 4th of July mattress sales too. For now, here's more about the Eight Sleep Pod 5 sale...

The ideal temperature for sleeping through the night

The Eight Sleep smart mattress cover is fitted with a series water pipes that run across the surface and connect to the main Pod. These pipes warm or cool throughout the night, adjusting the bed to a temperature of your liking.

The lead tester in our Eight Sleep Pod 4 mattress review describes being "blown away" by the Eight Sleep's temperature control during a heatwave. When she climbed into bed, the surface was perfectly chilled and because the bed monitors and changes the feel as you sleep, she never woke up sweaty.

In winter, on the other hand, she could use the controls to "gently warm" the mattress before climbing in — none of that 'cuddling up in a snow drift' feel.

Temperature plays an important part in your sleep-wake cycle. In the evening, your core temperature naturally drops, signaling to your body to drift off.

But when the room is too hot, your body can't lose this excess heat, and you'll struggle to fall asleep. And when you do drift off, you might find your sleep remains in lighter stages, causing frequent nighttime wake-ups.

The Eight Sleep's integrated climate control allows you to take charge of this temperature drop, so you can sleep better whatever the weather.

And don't forget, this is a smart mattress cover: in-built sensors monitor throughout the night to create a consistently comfortable feel. Plus, the longer you use it, the more it learns your preferences. By the end, our tester found it had "seriously leveled up [her] sleep quality."

Smaller budget? Try this...

More good sales to browse

• DreamCloud Classic Hybrid – From $399 at DreamCloud
• Siena Signature Hard Foam Mattress – from $159 at Siena
• EgoHome Black Memory Foam – from $269 at EgoHome
• Nectar Premier Memory Foam – from $549 at Nectar Sleep
• Birch Essential Organic Hybrid – from $692 at Birch Living
• Cocoon by Sealy Chill Cooling Bed – from $349 with code COCOON35

If you or your loved one is off to college, it's important that you have everything you need to transform your dorm room from a basic box bed into a sleep-friendly sanctuary. Because sleeping well at college can set you up for life — a new study found students who slept longer had a higher grade point average that those who slept less.

But between rowdy roommates, strict schedules and less-than-inspiring dorm beds, you might be wondering how you can catch enough Zs to earns those As. Luckily, there are plenty of sleep products that can help — and they're on sale this 4th of July. Below I've curated all the 4th of July mattress and sleep deals on dorm room essentials.

From the best mattress toppers to soften (and add a hygienic layer to) uncomfortable dorm beds to side sleeper-friendly earplugs to block out noisy neighbors, here's every sleep product you need to make your dorm as relaxing as possible.

Choosing new bed sheets might seem like an easy task at first, but the. sheer number of fabrics, types of weaves, designs and more can be overwhelming. But that's where we can help, as we've tested multiple sets of bedding to create this guide to the 5 best bed sheets sets in 2026.

There are four main considerations you should make when choosing the best bed sheets for you: softness, ease of care, durability, and the maximum safe temperature they can be washed at to banish allergens, fungi and bacteria.

In this guide you'll find bed sheets sets for every budget, from under $20 to luxury hotel sheets made to last several years. Even better, many of our top-rated options are reduced in price thanks to this year's 4th of July mattress and bedding sales. Here's what we recommend...

Read more on 4th of July mattress and sleep deals

• The best Helix 4th of July mattress sales 2026
• The best Saatva 4th of July mattress sales 2026
• The best luxury 4th of July mattress sale 2026

The 6 best bed sheets we've tested

Also recommended

We're constantly testing new bed sheets to see if they're good enough to make the grade in our best bed sheets set guide. While we haven't finished reviewing the following yet, we also recommend considering them based on our early positive test data coupled with verified customer reviews.

Budget bed sheets sets

Luxury organic bed sheets sets

How we test bed sheets sets

Products reviews are at the heart of our content at Tom's Guide and to ensure we give you our top recommendations, we test rigorously. Our bed sheet guide is no exception.

Our in-house reviewers spend two weeks sleeping on each set and putting them through two wash and dry cycles. This lets us gauge the overall performance of a set— how it feels, fits, regulates temperature, its durability and ease of maintenance. We score each parameter out of 5 — 1 indicating poor and 5 meaning it's outstanding.

Our main objective is to help you make an informed decision and find the right set of sheets for your sleep, right from the fabric thread count, the material, softness and visual appeal.

For more information, refer to our bed sheet testing methodology.

How to choose the best bed sheets for you

Thread count, the number of horizontal and vertical threads woven into one square inch of fabric, is something to consider when choosing bed sheets.

It denotes the feel and softness of materials like cotton, bamboo or tencel. However, a higher thread count does not necessarily mean better quality.

"While it's often marketed as a sign of quality, thread count alone doesn't determine how soft, breathable, or durable sheets are," says Byron Golub, Vice President of Product and Merchandising at Saatva.

"Other factors like the type of fabric, weave, and fiber quality matter just as much," he adds.

Another key aspect to think of when picking bed sheets is material.

Classic cotton is the one material recommended by experts for year-round use thanks to its breathability, softness and durability.

If you're a hot sleeper, switching to cooling fabrics like linen, bamboo or Tencel Lyocell can help with overheating or night sweats.

"Linen is naturally cooling, moisture-wicking, and airy while bamboo (viscose or lyocell) is silky soft, temperature-regulating, and great for hot sleepers. Best in the 250–350 thread count range," says Golub.

"Tencel is another eco-friendly, breathable option that’s smooth and cool to the touch— ideal in the 300–400 range," he adds.

Heatwaves are gripping parts of America right now, and the National Weather Service is warning there'll be more sweltering hot weather over the holiday weekend. So one question remains: how are we meant to sleep in this record-breaking heat?

While there are plenty of cooling bedroom hacks to try, one of the most effective things you can do to fall asleep fast in a heatwave is to invest in cooling sleep products. From mattresses that use heat-dissipating Phase Change Material to bedding woven with specialist cooling fabrics like GlacioTex, these essentials help hot air cool so you can get some shut-eye.

I spent the last heatwave tossing and turning so I've been hunting for the best cooling deals the 4th of July mattress sales have to offer. And I've found 12 excellent price drops on cool-to-the-touch mattresses, mattress protectors, sheet sets, and blankets...

Top 3 cooling mattress protector deals

Top 3 cooling sheet set deals

Top 3 cooling blanket and comforter deals

Top 3 cooling mattress deals

Just when I think I’ve got my sleep problems under control and I'm finally getting the rest I need, my 3 a.m. wake ups make an unwelcome return. During these periods of middle insomnia (the most common cause of insomnia) I wake with a jolt and my heart pounding in my chest.

Key takeaways: At a glance

• Doctors pinpoint three potential causes of my 3 a.m. wake ups, which include a lack of adequate sleep pressure, elevated cortisol levels and blood sugar fluctuations
• Daily habits such as napping and sleeping in on the weekend are unexpected causes of middle insomnia
• Tips for sleeping through my 3 a.m. wake ups include eating my evening meals earlier and sticking to a consistent sleep schedule
• Doctors also recommend spending more time in nature to manage anxiety and lower cortisol levels

Staring at the clock and willing myself to fall back to sleep just isn’t cutting it, so I spoke to leading sleep doctors to help pinpoint the cause behind my 3 a.m. wake ups — and how, crucially, I can better manage them for improved rest.

Together, they’ve helped identify the three main culprits behind my middle of the night awakenings, along with simple routine strategies I can use to try and sleep through once and for all.

• Read more: Stress was waking me up at 3 a.m. — until two of the world's best sleep doctors shared 5 fast fixes to lower my cortisol at night

Doctors pinpoint the top 3 causes of my 3 a.m. wake ups

Whether it's a health condition such as sleep apnea, a late-afternoon caffeine habit that you can't quite kick or environmental factors (like noisy neighbors or a sweltering heatwave), many of us go through periods of waking up at 3 a.m.

My middle insomnia has ramped up over the past five years or so and I'm determined to find a solution. But in order to do so, I need to find the root cause. Here, doctors outline the likely culprits behind my 3 a.m. wake ups.

1. Lack of adequate sleep pressure

Sleep pressure can also be referred to as your sleep hunger or homeostatic sleep drive. Essentially, it's how tired you feel in the run up to bedtime. Driven by neurotransmitter called adenosine, sleep pressure begins building from the moment you open your eyes, dropping once you go to sleep.

As cortisol levels naturally begin to rise around 3 a.m., insufficient sleep pressure means you're more susceptible to being woken up by the alerting impact of cortisol. So, if your homeostatic sleep drive is on the lower side before you go to bed, you're more likely to experience fragmented sleep.

Sedentary lifestyles, excess caffeine and late afternoon naps are all examples of factors that can negatively affect your sleep pressure.

After a disrupted night's sleep, I know I'm guilty of reaching for more coffee to help me get through the day. On those low-energy days, I'm also less inclined to exercise and I'm more inclined to snatch time for a nap — and that's a big no-no.

"Think of a late-afternoon nap like snacking just before dinner: it takes the edge off your appetite," explains Dr. Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and bioengineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.

"In the same way, a late nap can blunt your sleep hunger, leaving you with less biological force driving you down into sleep at night," explains the leading sleep expert.

2. Elevated cortisol levels

Cortisol has a bad reputation as being the 'stress' hormone, but it also plays a pivotal role in our sleep-wake cycles. Cortisol levels begin to naturally rise in the early hours of the morning, before peaking upon waking. That's called your Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR). It's part of what helps us feel alert when we start the day.

However, if your baseline level of cortisol is higher — often caused by stress or anxiety — that slight increase of cortisol at 3 a.m. can be enough to wake you up. That's why, for some of us with middle insomnia, those awakenings are accompanied by a racing heart and feelings of anxiety.

"The Cortisol Awakening Response is when your cortisol begins to rise early in the morning, a few hours before you get out of bed, which transitions your body from sleep to wake by raising blood sugar, blood pressure, and mental readiness," Dr. William Lu, a sleep medicine physician, has previously explained to me.

"However, if this increase happens too early it can wake you at 3 or 4 a.m. This usually happens when you are on high alert from stress, anxiety, or blood sugar instability," says Dr. Lu, medical director at Dreem Health.

3. Blood sugar fluctuations

As a busy working parent, there are times during the week that I don't get the opportunity to sit down and eat my evening meal until around 8-9 p.m. While going to bed soon after eating doesn't exactly feel comfortable and often means I have difficulty actually falling asleep, I didn't know that late, heavy meals could also be contributing to my middle insomnia.

“One of the most common reasons for waking around 3 a.m. is a drop in blood sugar during the night,” Conny Wade at Wade Wellness, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P) and practicing Nurse Practitioner, previously explained to us.

“If you eat dinner too late or the meal is unbalanced, your body may release stress hormones to bring blood sugar back up, and that can wake you suddenly,” Wade explains.

Again, the culprit here is rising cortisol levels, which our bodies produce as a reaction to low sugar and insulin levels — which can wake you up.

The sleep doctor-recommended routine switches to help manage middle insomnia

Unfortunately, there's no one silver bullet solution to overcoming 3 a.m. wake ups. However, I have learnt that there are a series of small actions you can take every day for sleep better at night.

I've noticed that each small habit outlined below supports the others, which helps to improve my overall sleep hygiene and reduce middle of the night awakenings.

1. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule for improved sleep pressure

Sleeping in later than usual can feel like an enticing prospect following a rough night of broken sleep. However, an erratic sleep schedule can lead to insufficient sleep pressure — which is a common culprit of middle insomnia.

Instead, sticking to a regular sleep schedule — like the 7:1 sleep rule — allows an adequate amount of time for adenosine to build, which makes you less susceptible to nighttime awakenings.

"A consistent wake time is one of the strongest behavioral anchors for the circadian system," explains Dr. Walker, who notes that while a consistent bed time is also important, sleep onset can't be forced and is therefore difficult to control.

"Waking at a stable time, followed by morning light exposure, provides the brain with a reliable daily timing cue that helps synchronize the 24-hour rhythm," says the best-selling author of Why We Sleep.

2. Forest bathing to help soothe my stressed nervous system

Forest bathing might sound like the act of rolling around on the muddy forest floor but is actually an ancient Japanese mindfulness practice that involves immersing yourself in nature.

I've written before about how making the time for a twenty minute mindfulness walk through my local woods helped calm my frazzled nervous system. However, once I saw an improvement in my stress levels and sleep, forest bathing slipped down my list of priorities.

Now that my 3 a.m. wake ups have returned, making time for activities that actively lower my baseline level of cortisol and increase my sleep pressure (adenosine is a natural by product of exercise) is something I need to prioritize.

"Science shows that spending mindful time in nature significantly lowers cortisol (our stress hormone) and blood pressure," says Gary Evans, director and co-founder of The Forest Bathing Institute in the UK.

If possible, spending time outdoors within the first 60 minutes of waking has the added benefit of natural daylight exposure, which helps build sleep pressure and anchor the circadian rhythm.

"Morning light helps stabilize the circadian signal, while daytime physical activity can strengthen the depth and continuity of subsequent sleep," explains Dr. Walker.

3. Eating evening meals earlier to regulate my blood sugar levels

Instead of carb-heavy comfort meals close to bedtime, a nutritionally balanced meal around three hours before my chosen bedtime allows my body enough time to digest dinner before hopping into bed.

Your circadian rhythm is your body's internal clock, helping you to feel tired and alert at the right time. And as well as orchestrating your sleep-wake cycle, your circadian rhythm regulates your metabolism.

“The human body thrives on routine,” Emma Zengh, a certified nutritionist, previously explained to us. “Which means that eating dinner at the same time every night helps keep the hormones in the body in check.”

So, as well as allowing enough time to digest my food (and prevent a spike in cortisol due to low blood sugar levels), eating mealtimes at roughly the same time every day is another way to cement my circadian rhythm.

Quick tips to falling back to sleep when you wake at 3 a.m.

Waking up at 3 a.m. can feel debilitating. However, I have learnt how to better manage them in the moment in order to fall back asleep faster. These are some of the strategies I find useful...

• Practice the 15 minute sleep rule: Staying in bed when you can't sleep leads to a negative association with your bed. The advice from experts is clear — if after 15 minutes you're still awake, get up and leave the room and do something relaxing. Then, when you feel tired, go back to bed.
• Don't immediately check the clock: Rolling over and checking the time can cause further feelings of anxiety. It can also lead to the temptation of scrolling on your phone, making it even harder to go back to sleep.
• Try cognitive shuffling to stop rumination: If you're waking with anxiety, it can be hard to turn off the chatter in your brain in order to fall back to sleep. To help, I try cognitive shuffling, a relaxation technique. To do it, pick a random letter then think of different words beginning with that letter.

I'm a Certified Sleep Coach but early motherhood means I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in nearly four years. Most mornings I battle with sleep inertia — that dense, groggy feeling when your brain refuses to reboot. I’ve been relying on caffeine for an energy boost, but it’s interfering with my sleep (caffeine has a half-life of up three to seven hours in adults).

To break the cycle, I decided to stop propping up my morning brain with caffeine and start biohacking it instead. That’s how I ended up testing the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses (from $249/£249 at Ayo)—lightweight phototherapy frames that use blue-enriched light to fine-tune my circadian rhythm.

NASA’s Fatigue Countermeasures Lab team, led by Dr. Erin Flynn-Evans, is doing some interesting research into blue light as a way to reduce sleep inertia, so I was curious to see how effective AYO’s blue light glasses were. Here’s my experience after testing them for three months…

At a glance: Key takeaways

• The AYO+ glasses effectively reduce sleep inertia: The 470nm blue-turquoise light effectively flushes out deep, heavy brain fog after waking.
• They help stave off afternoon slumps: In my case, implementing a 20-minute ‘blue light boost’ session after lunch stopped me from crashing later that afternoon.
• Total freedom of movement: Unlike traditional 10,000-lux light boxes, you can go about your morning routine, get dressed, and pack lunches when wearing the AYO+ glasses.
• AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses are not an overnight miracle: It took around three weeks of consistent daily use for me to feel a noticeable biological shift.
• Some people need to exercise caution: Light therapy glasses aren’t suitable for everyone. People with cataracts, bipolar disorder, or lupus should speak to their doctor first.

What are AYO+ Light Therapy glasses?

• 10,000-lux equivalent: Because they sit in close proximity to your eyes, the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses produce the same powerful wake-up signals as a clinical grade light therapy box.
• Targeted blue-turquoise light: The AYO+ emit a 470nm wavelength, which studies show as the sweet spot for stimulating your internal body clock and boosting daytime energy.
• Eye-safe: These narrow-band LEDs are free of harmful UV rays and infrared rays, making them safe for daily wear.
• Optimized light strength: They deliver a peak irradiance (light intensity) of 250 µW/cm² – that’s an effective clinical dose of phototherapy without causing glare or eye strain.

AYO+ are the next-gen version of the original AYO Light Therapy Glasses, which began life as a Kickstarter in 2019. They’re often pitted against rival phototherapy glasses such as Luminette, and are fall into the circadian tech bracket – a branch of sleep tech designed to regulate, fine-tune and strengthen your circadian health.

The AYO+ glasses emit a blue-turquoise light at around 470nm (nanometer), with a ‘light strength’ (irradiance) of 250 µW/cm² (250 microwatts of light energy per square centimeter).

This targeted 470nm wavelength works by stimulating specialized receptors in our eyes called ipRGCs. Neuroscientists at Harvard discovered these receptors are uniquely tuned to blue-turquoise light for regulating sleep and alertness.

I wear contact lenses and prescription glasses and the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses work well with both.

On an eye health note, I haven’t experience any side effects since using the glasses, but on its website AYO lists possible side effects while your body adjusts to the glasses. These include headaches, eye strain and dizziness.

The glasses themselves are incredibly lightweight and can easily be worn over prescription eye glasses, emitting light downwards into your eyes via four light-emitting diodes.

The glasses turn on as soon as you open up the arms, kick-starting a 20-minute light therapy session. In the app you can change the duration of your session from 5 minutes (minimum) up to 90 minutes.

The light intensity can also be customized – choose from low, medium or high (most effective), or a custom intensity from 10% to 100%.

You also have the option of finishing your blue light therapy session with three minutes of red light.

There’s lots to dig into with narrowband red light, but in a nutshell it can stimulate the "powerhouses" of your cells (the mitochondria) to produce more energy. In terms of eye health, narrowband red light can help lower inflammation and give retinal cells a boost.

The root cause of my sleep and energy issues

There are two pain points in my day: feeling like a zombie when I wake-up, and hitting the wall, energy-wise, around 2.30 p.m. most afternoons.

In my defence, my sleep hygiene is excellent. I keep a consistent sleep schedule, follow the same bedtime routine, and go device-free and switch to circadian lighting an hour before bed. I drink water and eat soon after waking to give my body those wakeful cues, and I start moving my body.

None of that is a match for my wakeful three-year-old.

Sleeping has always been hard for him, for various health reasons. So I’m awake multiple times a night with my son, and that’s without my daytime caffeine habit fuelling more overnight chaos.

I can easily get through four or more cups of tea or coffee by 3pm. If I had to guess, I’ve probably been consuming around 400mg of caffeine in an eight-hour period (7am to 3pm) most days.

Caffeine can stay in your system for up to seven hours, which can make falling asleep within a decent time frame (20 minutes is average) quite tricky.

And according to the National Institutes of Health, even if you can fall asleep after a day on the caffeine train, high doses can reduce the amount of deep sleep you get. They can also trigger overnight awakenings.

Trading caffeine for circadian-optimized shots of blue light

I’ve tested many traditional light therapy boxes throughout my career working across Tom’s Guide, T3, TechRadar, and Top Ten Reviews, and while these S.A.D. lamps are highly effective, they require you to sit still.

The AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses are my first long-term experience using wearable phototherapy — and they’ve been a revelation.

Instead of being stuck at my kitchen table for 20 minutes each morning sat near a lightbox, I simply pop the AYO+ glasses soon after waking and get on with my morning routine.

From a productivity perspective alone, being able to move around the house while getting my daily dose of light therapy is convenient. And honestly? I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a stationary light therapy box.

But convenience wasn’t my main motive for testing the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses. Instead I was desperate to tackle three major, interconnected issues:

• Intense grogginess upon waking – that heavy, stubborn sleep inertia that makes me feel like a zombie.
• Regular afternoon slumps – the ones that left me reaching for caffeine long past the recommended midday cut-off.
• Frequent overnight wake-ups – which I strongly suspect my caffeine habit was worsening.

To break the cycle, for three months I used the AYO+ glasses for 20 minutes soon after waking every morning. I wanted to see if they could reduce my morning fatigue and help me gain day-long energy without hammering the caffeine.

Here’s what happened…

My 90-day testing experience with the AYO+ Light Therapy glasses

When you’re rolling a huge sleep debt and feel so tired each morning that you want to crawl back into bed, setting up fiddly tech is a hard no. Luckily, the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses are easy to use.

I keep mine next to my bed, nestled in the pill-shaped hard travel case they come in. My routine is simple: wake up, get out of bed, put on the AYO+ glasses, and go about my morning.

Here’s how effective, or not, the glasses were against each of my three big interconnected energy and sleep issues…

Sleep inertia

The AYO+ glasses were shipped to me during deep winter with its pitch black mornings. I’d given my Lumie light therapy box to a friend who was struggling with Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.), so I’d been without a light therapy device for weeks at that point and I was really feeling it.

The AYO+ glasses came packed in a white reinforced cardboard box with the brand’s logo on the outside. Inside was a hard travel case, housing the glasses, a white charging cable, and a small dust bag / soft travel pouch.

After charging the glasses (a full charge takes around three hours and lasts for around nine 20-minute sessions), I placed them on my nightstand ready for the morning.

I chose my normal wake-up time of 7 a.m. as the approximate start time for each daily session, as numerous studies have shown that light therapy is most effective within an hour of waking.

On my first day of testing I used the pre-set 20-minute session. While the glasses were a novelty – they look quite ‘Tron-esque’ when switched on – I didn’t feel any benefit.

I was still yawning after taking them off, and by mid morning I was flagging and hitting the caffeine. At 2.30 p.m., despite staying hydrated, eating a good lunch and going for a brisk walk, I was firing up the kettle.

AYO states that it can take a few days to a few weeks (or longer, depending on the individual, severity of symptoms, and lifestyle habits) to see any improvement.

So I persevered for a week to see if repeated daily use would nudge my body into easing off the melatonin and ramping up the cortisol and other wakeful hormones soon after waking. But it didn’t.

Come week two, however, I was beginning to feel less groggy in the mornings.

I usually need a cup of coffee before leaving the house for work or nursery drop-off. On the morning of day eight I didn’t. Instead, I had my first cup of tea at around 11 a.m. However, I was flagging again in the afternoon.

This became my pattern for another week. During my third week of testing, my morning grogginess had vastly reduced. In fact, I was waking up a few minutes before my alarm and feeling energised to boot.

And from a caffeine perspective, I was down to one cup at 11 a.m. These were huge wins for me compared to even a month before when I would be finishing my third cup by 10 a.m.

The afternoon slumps were still hell though, so I went back to the biohack drawing board. That was when I decided to introduce what I now call my ‘2 p.m. blue light boost.’

It was a game-changer…

Goodbye, afternoon slumps

Ever heard of anticipatory anxiety? It’s a phenomenon where you have a feeling of dread or worry about something that hasn’t happened yet.

Mine would start creeping in soon after lunch, when I’d begin worrying about the inevitable energy slump waiting to ambush my afternoon.

I’d panic about not having enough fuel in the tank to get through my work-load, or to keep up with my busy bee of a son for another five hours.

So after three weeks of single-dosing with light therapy I started double-dosing. I wasn’t expecting it to work so fast, but it did; like a gentle bubbling up of fresh energy that carried me through the afternoon.

Was it as instantly powerful as a cup of coffee? No. But it also didn’t give me jitters, heart palpitations or interfere with my sleep at night.

This post-lunch, 20-minute blue light boost has become a reset button for my afternoons. And I no longer have a physical need to consume caffeine after midday.

I always finish my second dose of phototherapy by 2 p.m. too, as blue light exposure can affect sleep in some people when used later in the day.

Why the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses didn’t stop my overnight wake-ups

The AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses are an excellent tool for strengthening your natural circadian rhythm and for understanding the best times of your day to eat, exercise, be productive, sleep, and wake up.

When your body clock is properly anchored, your brain naturally learns exactly when to produce the right hormones at the right time — whether that’s cortisol to keep you energized during the most productive parts of the day, or melatonin to help you wind down for sleep at night.

Biologically, this predictable rhythm should help you settle down, fall asleep faster and boost your chances of sleeping through the night.

So why am I still waking up at 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m. and on? I mentioned him earlier: my three-year-old who wakes regularly due to ongoing health issues. As effective as the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses are, they can’t help me there.

What I can say is this: when I do wake at night now, I fall back asleep fast. When I was necking loads of caffeine in the day, it took me an age to fall back asleep each time at night, even after practising techniques like 4 7 8 breathing or cognitive shuffling.

Energy levels rising, caffeine reliance dropping: Three months on

After three months of testing, the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses have become a daily essential for me.

I love putting them on each morning and seeing that slim band of turquoise-blue sitting above my eyes. It feels summery, tropical and mood-boosting, even on dark winter mornings.

Having spent years reviewing traditional 10,000-lux S.A.D. lamps across Tom’s Guide, T3, and TechRadar, the freedom of wearable phototherapy has been a revelation and one I wish I’d embraced sooner.

The AYO+ didn't solve my interrupted nights — no piece of wearable tech can reprogram a wakeful three-year-old. But by using clinical-grade blue-turquoise light to anchor my circadian rhythm and reduce my morning grogginess and afternoon slumps, it did something much better: it gave me my days back.

I no longer feel like a zombie in the mornings, I don’t hit the wall at 2 p.m., and I no longer have to chug several coffees just to survive the day.

My reliance on caffeine has plummeted from around 400mg a day to just one solitary, late-morning cup of tea – and some days I even skip that.

Is light therapy suitable for everyone? No. According to AYO, people with bipolar disorder, those with eye conditions such as cataracts, people on photosensitizing medications, and those with skin sensitivities such as lupus should be cautious when considering light therapy glasses.

I’d recommend speaking to your doctor or healthcare professional first.

My verdict

If you’re looking for a magic wand that instantly guarantees seven+ hours of uninterrupted sleep a night, the AYO+ glasses aren't it.

As a Certified Sleep Science Coach, my recommendations there are choosing a few good sleep hygiene tips and sticking to them, keeping a consistent wake-up time, investing in the best mattress you can afford, and not stressing too much about ‘perfect sleep’ (orthosomnia).

But if you are a parent, a shift worker, or someone drowning in sleep debt and looking to break free from a vicious cycle of morning fatigue and afternoon caffeine crashes, the AYO+ Light Therapy Glasses are worth it.

The early 4th of July mattress deals have begun, and this sizzling summer sale is one of the best times to invest in a smart cooling mattress. As each night is getting hotter than the last, I'm using the one sleep gadget I know will keep me cool: my Eight Sleep Pod. Latest Eight Sleep model Pod 5, now down to $2,749 (was $2,999) in a queen at Eight Sleep, is deigned for providing optimal cooling.

While Eight Sleep is the brand behind our top choice in out top-rated best smart mattress guide, it's not the only highly-rated cooling smart cooling bed on sale this weekend. Major brands such as Tempur-Pedic are also offering deals that are worth buying this 4th of July.

Lucky for you, I've been tracking the 4th July mattress sales to bring you all the best savings on smart cooling mattresses and mattress covers used by tech-bros, A-list celebs, and elite athletes — so you can start sleeping soundly no matter the temperature.

4 smart cooling mattress deals to shop now

Mattress shopping can be a tricky task for couples, especially if you have different sleep styles and body types. But the Saatva Solaire, which is now $4,074 (was $4599) for a queen size at Saatva, can put those disagreements to bed.

As our expert testers found out in our Saatva Solaire mattress review, this top-rated smart mattress is easy to personalize on each side and is excellent at stopping movement from travelling across the bed: no sleep divorce here.

Such a luxury, customisable bed comes with an expense, but fortunately, 4th July mattress sales are knocking $525 off the Saatva Solaire. Here's why now is a great time for you and your partner to take the plunge into smart sleep technology...

Why the Saatva Solaire is the best adjustable firmness mattress for couples

You won't be surprised to hear that Saatva is a great place to shop if you're looking for a luxury sleep set up. It's the brand behind the only mattress that has scored five stars under our rigorous mattress testing methodology (the Saatva Classic, if you're not familiar) and, out of the adjustable firmness beds we've tested, the Saatva Solaire Mattress has garnered the best ratings from our team.

Precisely, our review team award it 4.5 stars overall in comparison to the 3.5 stars they gave the similarly built Sleep Number i8 Smart Bed.

The dual air chambers have 50 different firmness settings meaning you can adjust your side of the bed from a plush, soft feel (great for light side sleepers) to a 'solid as a rock' feel providing enough support for front and back sleepers.

Having slept on the bed for three weeks with her husband, our lead tester, Ashley Zlatopolsky, summarises: "The Saatva Solaire is a smart investment for shoppers who want highly adjustable comfort or couples who don’t want to compromise on firmness."

Plus you needn't worry if your partner is a nighttime wriggler. Ashley says: "The Solaire’s dual air chambers also boost motion isolation for couples by allowing each side to remain largely unaffected by the other’s movements." It's a win, win.

Do note, however, that Ashley observed somewhat of a "hill and valley effect" when the two sides of the mattress were on drastically different settings. If you're yards apart in our firmness preferences, maybe that sleep divorce just has to happen.

Want a cheaper fix? Try this...

Unfortunately, my phone is often glued to my hand. I think it's my worst trait, and I know it has a massive impact on far more than just the divet in my little finger (you probably have one too, just saying).

Despite my affliction for scrolling into the early hours, I'm actually up and at 'em bright and early most days. Whether I'm catching a 7 am train or heading to the airport, there's always a reason to drag myself out from under the covers... even if my eyes are still half-shut. That's why, last year, I decided to get one of the best sunrise alarm clocks.

After a lot of research (which, yes, happened at around 3 am) and many a conversation with my colleagues from the Tom's Guide Sleep team, I got my hands on the Hatch Restore 3. Since getting it, I can't remember the last time I woke up feeling lackluster — all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed from here on out. And what's more, you can get the Hatch 3 Restore for $135 at Amazon.

• shop all last-minute Prime Day deals at Amazon

The easy wake-up

You can alter your wake routine in the Hatch app to best suit you and your circadian rhythm. I opt for a 15-minute routine. This works well for me, and I almost always wake up before the sound section of my alarm.

The clock lights up my bedroom with a dim glow that brightens over the 15-minute cycle, mimicking a sunrise. This means that my body isn't simply dealing with the shock of a blaring alarm but can naturally stir, so I don't feel like I'm being cheated out of sleep.

This has massively improved my mood every morning. Before using this clock, you couldn't talk to me until after I'd brushed my teeth and spent 30 minutes staring at the wall for fear of coming face to face with a few grunts and a blunt reply laced with an attitudinal edge. But now my morning persona is far more tolerable — even nice to be around.

The calm wind-down

My main pitfall when unwinding for the night is my phone. I use the iPhone's Night Shift mode to reduce blue light exposure and limit my screen time on apps, but it still never seems to cut it. But while the alarm initially requires my phone for setup, once your routine is built, you can fully control it from the Hatch device.

Now, at nighttime, my room is a phone-free zone, saving me from hours of doomscrolling. My favorite feature on the alarm is the reading light, so I can still cram in some evening entertainment with a good book, sans blue light.

I would recommend this sunrise alarm clock to anyone who finds themselves battling with early mornings or simply needs a little extra help winding down in the evening. And with 20% off for Amazon Prime Day, parading its lowest price, the Hatch Restore 3 is a must-buy.

We're tracking all the best Prime Day mattress deals

The current heatwave that has had the UK in a sweltering chokehold might be coming to an end, but the next one is right around the corner. The MET office has predicted a hotter than average July and more 'red temperature alerts' for Brits, which is terrible news for anyone like me who struggles to sleep in high heat. And things aren't looking any better for large parts of the US, with the Old Farmer's Almanac predicting a 'hotter than usual summer'.

After almost a week of sleepless nights, I’m thinking ahead to when the next heatwave hits — and I refuse to be caught out again. I thought closing my windows during the day was enough to cool the house down at night. But I clearly need more cooling tech on my side to get through this new breed of heatwave we're now facing.

Here’s everything I’m snapping up for cooler sleep before the Amazon Prime Day sale ends tonight, from powerful misting fans to portable air con units. I'm lucky enough to sleep on a great mattress that regulates heat well, but if yours turns into a giant foam oven in summer, check out our guide to the best Amazon Prime Day mattress deals for last-chance discounts on top-rated cooling mattresses.

UK Amazon Prime Day cooling deals for better summer sleep

US Amazon Prime Day cooling deals for better summer sleep

Amazon is full of sleep tracker deals this Prime Day, but it can be hard to know what's a good deal or what tech is worth buying. That's why we've rounded up every deal on every sleep tracker we've ever tested and loved, and that includes the Oura Ring 4 (now down to $226 at Amazon and £199.99 at Amazon UK)

The Oura Ring 4 may be our favorite sleep tracker, but it's not the only entry in our best sleep trackers guide to get a price drop this Prime Day. In this sleep-tracking deals hub we've included all the best Amazon discounts on top choices from Apple Watch, Garmin, Oura, Whoop, Withings, and Fitbit, all reviewed by the Tom's Guide team.

While Amazon's Prime Day event has, to be honest, been underwhelming in some areas, it definitely hasn't let us down in the sleep tech department. So, here's a list of the top five sleep tracker discount in both the US and UK, and why they're the best Amazon Prime Day mattress and sleep deals we've seen so far.

Don't forget your Prime Membership...

Top 5 sleep tracker US Prime Day deals

Top 5 sleep tracker UK Prime Day deals

While people's may turn to Amazon this week for Prime Day mattress deals, plenty of popular bed-in-a-box brands are throwing their own rival sales. For instance, the Nectar Classic Memory Foam Mattress, now $552 (was $649) in a queen at Nectar, is now offering even more value for money.

The Nectar Premier may appear in our best mattress guide for its side-sleeping, body-cradling comfort, but we think the Nectar Classic is the mid-range hero that outperforms its mid-market price tag. Testers felt it offered medium-firm support for all sleep positions, suiting back sleepers the most.

This Nectar deal goes to show that the best Amazon Prime Day mattress deals aren't necessarily at Amazon. Here's why we think the Nectar Classic offers the best value for money and the advantages of buying it from Nectar over Amazon.

The Nectar Classic offered medium-firm support

The Nectar Classic is one of the best memory foam mattresses on the market thanks to its mid-range price and medium-firm support that offers that Goldilocks-level of comfort for all sleep positions. While it may not be as pressure-relieving as some of the best mattresses for side sleepers, it's ideal for back and combination sleep styles.

Nectar mattress sales are pretty static, tending to boast the same mid-range prices every month. However, this $552-for-a-queen deal deviates from the normal $649 sale price.

Another perk of buying from Nectar (besides this surprise Prime Day-rivalling deal) is the guaranteed benefits. Buying a mattress from Amazon means you're usually facing a murky return policy, but Nectar's benefits are all there in black and white: a 365-night sleep trial, free shipping and free returns, and a lifetime warranty.

Smaller budget? Try this...

We've seen heatwaves in the US and the UK already this year, and while that might be great for a day at the beach or park, it's not ideal for sleeping. Especially if you're one of countless people making a common yet key mistake with your bedroom window that unintentionally makes your bedroom even hotter during a heatwave.

After staying in a beautiful, but particularly hot, rental property in the UK for a week as temperatures soared during a record-breaking May heatwave, I learned a bedroom window hack that can help keep you cool at night. And here I've spoken to sleep and home experts about why it actually works.

Read on to find out what key bedroom window mistake you should avoid at night during a heatwave, and what to do instead to keep your sleep space cool.

• Read more: 4 sleep experts share how they fall asleep fast and skip waking up at 3 a.m. in hot weather — 4 steps to take tonight

Key takeaways: At a glance 

• The key mistake – Keeping the bedroom window and curtains/blinds open during a heatwave is the most common mistake people make.
• Why it's a mistake – When the temperature is hotter outside than indoors, you're actually allowing warm air into the room, while open curtains/blinds allow sunlight in that can also heat up your sleep space.
• The fix – Keep windows and curtains/blinds closed during hot weather, opening them when the air is cooler in the evening. You can also use tin foil on windows during very hot weather, but this is only a temporary solution.
• The temperature thresholds – You must close up your bedroom the moment the outdoor temperature exceeds the indoor temperature. As a rule of thumb, experts recommend sealing the room once outdoor temperatures reach 22°C to 25°C in the UK, or 79°F in the US (the official indoor limit recommended by the World Health Organization). At this point, your walls begin to hold heat.
• Beware hidden heat traps – these include bedroom electronics on standby, memory foam mattresses, and thick bedding, non-breathable bedding.

The key bedroom window mistake people make during a heatwave

Picture a sizzling hot day. You're at home and you decide to throw the bedroom windows open to let some air in. After all, you want a cooler room before you try to sleep.

But think twice before you do, as John La Puma MD, author of Indoor Epidemic: 93% Inside Steals Sleep, Focus & Years—The 7% Outdoor Rx Restores Them says: "in a heatwave, opening windows and curtains is the wrong move to cool the bedroom."

"This is a very common mistake." He explains.

"Many people assume that opening windows automatically cools a room but that isn’t always the case," Jason Peterkin, director and founder at 247 Blinds tells me, explaining that in the UK in particular, homes are built to retain heat so we instinctively open windows to try and let fresh air circulate.

"However, if it’s hotter outside than inside, this backfires completely, and we end up making the room warmer by mistaking moving air for cool air," he adds.

Andrew Seed, sleep specialist and managing director at The Odd Company agrees: "Opening bedroom windows can help in mild weather, but it doesn't work during a heatwave when outdoor temperatures are higher than indoors."

Peterkin explains to me that heat moves to where it is cooler, so when the outside air is warmer than it is inside, "opening windows can allow warm air into the room and raise indoor temperatures, making it tough to sleep at night, even after the sun goes down."

Meanwhile, if you're leaving curtains and blinds open during the day too, you're allowing "direct sunlight to enter through uncovered windows which can also lead to rooms quickly heating up," he adds.

Closing windows during the day also prevents pollen entering your bedroom and exacerbating allergies that can impact sleep. Just keep in mind that pollen counts are often high in the early evening, too.

How this mistake affects your sleep all night in a heatwave

Letting warm air and sunlight into the bedroom during the day is clearly not a good idea, but won't the temperature of your sleep space just drop anyway as the temperature outdoors does?

According to the experts, it's not that simple. "During the day, heat that enters the room gets absorbed by the 'thermal mass' of your bedroom – everything from the walls to the flooring, and even your mattress," explains Peterkin.

"By bedtime, even if the outside air has cooled down, these objects continue to slowly release trapped heat back into the room throughout the evening, meaning that bedrooms can remain uncomfortably warm long after outdoor temperatures have started to fall."

And as Dr. La Puma says, "Going to sleep is really a core body temperature cool-down event. A warm room makes that nearly impossible."

The 4-step bedroom window hack to use in a heatwave instead

I can vouch for this hack, which consists of several steps, as I've used it myself. But the experts I spoke to gave me more insight into exactly why it works. Read on to find out more...

Step 1: Keeping windows closed in the day, even in the shade

When I was staying in a very warm home during a heatwave it did feel counterintuitive to close the bedroom windows during the day when it was so hot. But, the experts I spoke to backed up our decision.

"This helps prevent hot outdoor air from getting into the bedroom," says sleep specialist Andrew Seed. "By keeping windows shut, you have a better chance of retaining the cooler air that has built up overnight and slowing down the rate at which the room heats up."

Ideally you should also keep your bedroom door closed all day to ensure any cooler air remains trapped in the room, and isn't 'diluted' by warmer air throughout the day as temperatures rise.

Peterkin also explains that when the outdoor temperature is hotter than the indoor temperature, closing bedroom windows during the day "acts like a shield, preventing warm air from entering the room to reduce the amount of heat building indoors. It’s a like keeping your freezer door closed to maintain temperature, rather than opening it."

Step 2: Keeping curtains/blinds closed all day

I love sunshine streaming into my bedroom, so I was a little reluctant to have the bedroom curtains closed at our rental. However it was an effective strategy, alongside having the windows closed, for avoiding a stifling room come bedtime.

"Keeping your curtains and blinds closed acts as a barrier against direct sunlight, particularly in sun-facing windows, preventing it from entering your home and helping to keep the temperature cool," says Peterkin.

He suggests thermal blinds or curtains, while Dr. La Puma adds that "blackout curtains can be very effective from preventing heat from getting to the walls, which otherwise absorb and retain heat."

Step 3: Open windows in the evening when the temperature outside has dropped

The good news is that you don't have to keep your bedroom windows closed all night as well when there's a heatwave. Once it got a little cooler in the evening, we opened our windows and bedroom door to allow cooler air to flow through the room.

Here's what Dr. La Puma recommends: "Open the windows once the outdoor temp is cooler than the indoor temp, and cross-ventilate if you can."

Seed explains how opening the bedroom window once it's cooler outside: "It improves air circulation, helping trapped heat escape and allowing cooler air to flow into the room."

Expert tip: Both Seed and Peterkin suggest that opening windows at opposite sides of your home will help provide the most effective cross-ventilation.

Step 4: On super-hot days, use tin foil on your windows in the day

I'll admit that it did feel extreme to tape tin foil to the bedroom windows of our rental, but on the hottest days it worked wonders alongside the other steps listed above.

Seed explains that "on exceptionally hot days, covering windows with tin foil can be a good hack as it reflects the sun's heat away from the bedroom.

"While taping tin foil to your windows works in theory, acting like a giant mirror to bounce heat away, it isn't exactly a great look and is considered a temporary solution.

"You shouldn't have to make your house look like a spaceship just to stay cool," he says. Instead, he suggests looking for high-quality thermal blinds.

The specific temperature at which you should shut bedroom windows in a heatwave

Research indicates that the ideal temperature for sleep is between 65 to 70 F (18 to 21 °C), so is there a specific outdoor daytime temperature that should prompt you to close bedroom windows and curtains/blinds in hot weather?

Advice from the United States Environmental Protection Agency is to close windows in the home when the temperature of the air outside exceeds the temperature indoors, while UK government recommendations focus on only opening your home's windows when the air temperature is cooler outside than in, later in the day.

"In UK homes, I would recommend taking precautions to keep bedroom temperatures down once outdoor temperatures reach around 22-25°C, and more so if your bedroom is in direct sunlight," says Seed.

"The key factor is whether it’s warmer outside than inside, which is usually around the mid-20s," explains Peterkin.

Dr. La Puma says that in general in the US, "at 79°F or higher, after you get out of bed, close up the bedroom. If it already feels warm in the bedroom to you, the walls are already beginning to hold heat."

He points out that 79°F is the recommendation for maximum indoor daytime temperature from the World Health Organization (WHO).

7 hidden bedroom heat traps causing you to sleep hot

We've covered how you can utilise your windows to prevent a hot bedroom at night during a heatwave, but other elements of your room, items within it and even what you wear to bed can trap heat and cause you to have an unpleasantly hot sleep...

• “Thick duvets and non-breathable bedding can all trap body heat, making it harder for your body to cool down while you sleep," says Seed.
• "Many electronics on standby are basically small space heaters," says Dr. La Puma.
• Memory foam mattresses also "trap body heat," says Dr. La Puma. Dense memory foam beds in particular are known to retain heat.
• Thicker or large rugs in your bedroom might be great in winter, but they insulate, so can trap heat.
• Furniture placed flush to the wall can limit air circulation, so consider moving your bedroom pieces a touch away to prevent heat build-up.
• Blocked air vents prevent air flow and can lead to hotter rooms.
• Heavy pajamas or those made from synthetic fabrics like polyester, which holds onto heat and doesn't have good airflow.

One of the best cooling mattresses may be a good investment this summer if you regularly sleep hot anyway, or you could consider a mattress topper with cooling properties as a more affordable alternative for warmer months.

The best cooling duvet in our duvet guide works for all sleep styles and can be machine washed, while our guide to cooling bedding will help you understand which materials to choose, and which to avoid.

Sleepwear made from natural, breathable materials like 100% cotton or linen, or bamboo, eucalyptus or silk should help you avoid overheating.

Bedroom fans for cooler sleep in a heatwave

Amazon launched its Prime Day Deals earlier this year, kicking off on 23rd June and sneaking in ahead of the 4th of July mattress sales. While there are plenty of good Prime Day discounts on sleep tech and a few good cheap and mid-range mattress deals (Zinus, DreamCloud, and Nectar), Amazon's Prime Day mattress deals have been mostly underwhelming this year.

So if you want to buy a new mattress and are wondering whether to get one in the Prime Day sale or shop elsewhere in the 4th of July sales, here's what we recommend...

Stick with Prime Day if you want an affordable mattress that costs less than $550 for a queen, and if you want to stock up on affordable bedding, or nab a good sleep tracker for less.

If you're looking to invest in a hotel-style bed or luxury mattress, browse the 4th of July sales instead. Many of the top-rated options in our best mattress guide are on sale this week, so now is a good time to upgrade.

Here's what you need to know about buying a mattress in the Amazon Prime Day sales vs 4th of July...

Today's best deals on top-rated mattresses

• Best mattress overall – Saatva Classic: From $1,049 (was $1,449) at Saatva
• Best cooling – Bear Elite Hybrid: From $1,198 (was $1,998) at Bear
• Best value – DreamCloud Classic: From $429 (was $1,346) at DreamCloud
• Best cheap – Zinus 10" Green Tea: From $137 (170.99) at Amazon
• For side sleepers – Helix Midnight Luxe: From $1,119 (was $1,492) at Helix
• Best organic – Avocado Green: From $1,359 (was $1,599) at Avocado
• Best smart – Sleep Number ComfortNext: From $2,199 (was $2,599) at Sleep Number

Prime Day vs 4th of July: Top mattress deals compared

Top 3 Prime Day mattress deals

Top 3 4th of July mattress deals

Benefits compared: Prices, sleep trials and warranties

• Amazon Prime Day is better for cheap mattress and sleep tech deals
• 4th of July sales are better for mid-range, luxury and smart mattresses
• On the whole, buying direct from top sleep brands nets you better benefits

Let's start with a generalization: if you want a cheap mattress, stick with the Amazon Prime Day sales. If you want a good mid-range or luxury mattress, browse the 4th of July sales (many already have started).

In recent years, Amazon has expanded its arsenal of mattresses to included top-rated brands including Nectar, DreamCloud, Purple and Casper (see our guide to the best Amazon mattresses). However, Amazon is still primarily home to budget beds, and it's the place to look for a queen mattress under $400.

In the July 4th mattress sales you'll find a wider variety of prices, including discounts on some of the best luxury mattresses you can buy online. If you have a bigger budget — say, upwards of $1,000 for a queen —you'll have more chance to use it well if you look outside Amazon.

You'll also find better benefits outside Amazon... for the most part.

A standard mattress trial for a bed sold online is 100 nights (that's the time you can test it at home.) However, on Amazon many cheap beds come with no trial at all. That means once it's out of its packaging, it's yours. Luxury sleep favorites, on the other hand, sometimes offer as much as a 365-night trial.

You're also likely to get better warranties shopping outside Amazon (although even budget brands often include a 10-year warranty.)

The mattresses, bedding and sleep tech to look out for in each sale

The mattress might be the big ticket item but it's not the only thing that can help you sleep better. Here's which sale to shop for all your snooze essentials.

Mattresses

• Amazon sells excellent all-foam beds with Prime Day discounts
• For organic and luxury, shop the 4th of July deals
• The 4th of July sales will also have more variety

If you're looking for a budget-friendly mattress in the Amazon Prime Day sales, we recommend opting for a low-cost memory foam mattress.

That's based on our testing experience: brands such as Zinus, EGOHOME and Sweetnight have impressed our review team with their all-foam beds and budget price points. They're particularly good for side sleepers, as the dense foams hug the shoulders and hips to reduce pressure build-up (a must in the best mattresses for side sleepers.)

The 4th of July sales have a much wider variety of mattresses in a box on sale, including some of the best organic mattresses and our favorite hotel beds.

It's also the place to look for traditional beds (in other words, those delivered flat, like the Saatva Classic.)

Pillows & bedding

• Pillows and bedding are discounted for Prime Day and July 4th
• For affordable upgrades and guest room favorites, try Amazon
• For durable, premium bedding picks, shop the 4th of July deals

Many of our favorite sleep brands now run Amazon stores. So if it's one of the best pillows or fresh bedding you're after, there's a lot of choice.

As with mattresses, Amazon Prime Day will be the time to shop if you want a budget-friendly pillow or bedding set. And thanks to the typically quick delivery dates, you can order new bedding now and have it set up in your spare room before your 4th of July visitors arrive.

Alternatively, if you have your eye on mid-range to premium brands such as Coop, Brooklinen, and Nest, hold off for the 4th of July sales.

Sleep tech

• There are massive sleep tracker discounts in the Prime Day sales
• Plus bargains on sleep accessories, like ear plugs and eye masks
• For a smart bed, you'll find more options in the 4th of July sales

You'll find sleep tech discounts during both sales periods but if you're after one of the best sleep trackers, it's got to be Prime Day: we're already seeing deals from Oura and FitBit.

Prime Day will also be your best chance to save on sleep accessories; eye masks, ear plugs, sleepy time teas, pillow sprays... the small add ons that can elevate your sleep set-up. While you'll find a few deals over the 4th of July, we recommend adding these to your Prime Day basket.

But July 4th is likely to come out on top if it's one of the best smart beds you're after, with brands including Sleep Number and Eight Sleep leading the sales.

Amazon Prime Day vs 4th of July mattress sales: Which sale is better for you?

Shop the Amazon Prime Day mattress deals if...

✅ You want a cheap bed: Amazon is the home of affordable mattresses and with the Prime Day price drops, you can expect even cheaper deals. And it's not just Amazon, as rivals Walmart and Best Buy are running rival offers.

✅ You want high-quality sleep tech: From FitBit to Oura Rings (and their dupes), we're seeing plenty of sleep offers this Prime Day. We doubt the 4th of July will bring the same level of savings.

✅ You want some sleep-boosting accessories: A mattress is the foundation of good sleep but accessories such as ear plugs and eye masks can improve your zzzs for less.

Shop the 4th of July mattress sales if...

✅ You want more choice: Amazon's mattress line-up has expanded significantly in recent years but you'll still find more options when you go direct to the brand. Particularly if you want to save on a luxury or organic bed.

✅ You want better benefits: A sleep trial gives you time to break in a mattress and decide if it's right for you. They're standard from most sleep brands but can't always be expected when shopping from Amazon. You'll often find better warranties and perks shopping from the brand, as well.

✅ You want a smart bed: For most sleep tech, it's got to be Prime Day. But for smart beds, the 4th of July has the edge. Brands like Sleep Number and Eight Sleep are expected to run big 4th of July sales.

A groundbreaking study has shown that following a consistent sleep schedule and sleeping for a minimum of seven hours a night may add years to your life. However, following this 7:1 sleep rule can sometimes be derailed due to those pesky 3 a.m. wake ups. However, Amazon's Prime Day event is now swarming with sleep gadgets that can help you stay asleep all night.

For instance, research has found that even a small amount of light in your bedroom can lead to nighttime awakenings, which is why I've rounded up some light-blocking Prime Deals below. These include discounts on an eye mask, blackout curtains, and stickers to cover annoying charger lights.

I've also curated other sleep gadget deals, from distraction-masking earplugs to a soothing sound machine. These are some of the best Amazon Prime Day mattress and sleep deals we've seen so far, so hurry before they sell out..

While there are plenty of cooling sleep products that promise to help you fall asleep during heatwaves, the key to a cooler night's sleep could actually be on your plate. Certain foods are excellent at managing body heat — but others can trigger night sweats and overheating.

However, it can be hard to know which bedtime snacks can offer a hydration boost and which ones can lead to a stuffy, sleepless night. Even the size and timing of your evening meal can make or break your sleep.

That's why I've called on Helen Tieu, registered dietician and founder of Diet Redefined, to share the best and worst foods to sleep through heatwaves. Read on to find out which light snacks can keep you refreshed all night, plus what time you should stop eating to avoid sleeping hot.

Key takeaways: At a glance

• Manage temperature by opting for water-rich foods and light, hydrating snacks such as yogurt, fruit, and protein smoothies.
• Steer clear of heavy, fried or high-fat foods close to bedtime, as they force your metabolism to work harder and generate intense internal body heat during a heatwave.
• Hydrate throughout the day and stop eating two to three hours before bed to prevent heavy digestion from raising your core body temperature.

The 2 best foods for sleeping well during heatwaves

1. Food rich in fiber and protein

The first bedtime snack that Tieu recommends is one that can top up fluid levels while ensuring your glucose levels remain consistent through the night, with studies showing a link between stable nocturnal glucose and better sleep quality.

"I would focus on lighter, cooler, hydrating snack that still include protein and fibre to help keep blood sugar stable throughout the night," the dietician recommends.

She highlights the following snacks as good options for keeping cool throughout the night:

• Greek yogurt with berries
• Protein fruit smoothie
• Fruit with cottage cheese
• Fruit with hard boiled eggs
• Salad with protein

For example, yogurt is an excellent choice as it's been shown to contain electrolytes, which assist hydration by managing fluid balance, and plenty of protein.

2. Water-rich foods

Water-rich foods, such as watermelons and celery, consist of 70% to 96% water, and Tieu says these hydration boosters can help your body manage its temperature overnight.

"Water-rich foods can help, including cucumbers, oranges, berries, tomatoes, zucchini, leafy greens, and soups served chilled," the diet expert advises.

The 3 worst foods for sleeping during heatwaves

1. Spicy and hot foods

If you're someone who likes there to be a real kick to your meals, you may want to think twice before reaching for the ultra-hot spices.

"Very spicy foods can trigger sweating or acid reflux for some people when consumed close to bedtime," warns Tieu.

The temperature of your food can also raise the temperature of your body, so make sure your meal has cooled down a little before you take a bite.

"Meals served in hot temperatures can make it harder to sleep as digestion itself produces heat, especially if the room is already warm," Tieu tells me.

2. Fried and fatty food

A lot of research has emphasized how fried, fatty food can contribute to poor sleep quality, but did you know that they can also cause hot sleeping and night sweats?

And it's all to do with a phenomenon that research calls thermogenesis, the metabolic heat generated as your body works to digest and process heavy fat.

"High-fat meals and fried foods can contribute to feeling overheated or less comfortable in bed," Tieu warns.

3. Heavy meals

Tieu warns that eating a large or heavy carbohydrate meal like spaghetti can lead to blood sugar spikes, which in turn cause night sweats.

"Not to mention heavy meals can lead to acid reflux, indigestion, or discomfort from going to bed on a full stomach," she tells me.

A dietician's top 3 rules for sleeping during a heatwave

1. Reduce fluid intake 3 hours before bed

Tieu points out the importance of drinking water throughout the day during hot weather, as it keeps you cool and hydrated. However, most of your fluid intake should be reserved for the daytime.

"It is ideal to hydrate more earlier in the day rather than drinking lots of water at night time or right before bed," the health expert advises.

While Tieu says you don't need to stop drinking in the evening completely, but it's best to avoid "chugging large amounts of fluid right before sleeping".

"I’d recommend reducing fluid intake 2 hours before bed if nighttime bathroom trips are an issue," she says.

2. Finish your dinner before 2-3 hours before bed

As mentioned above, digestion itself can raise body temperature, so Tieu advises following the 10-3-2-1-0 sleep rule and finishing your last meal of the day two to three hours before bedtime.

"This gives enough time for the body to digest before lying down, which can help to prevent reflux, discomfort, and feeling warm in bed," she explains.

However, while you should leave a few hours between dinner and bed, Tieu assures that it's fine to have a light bedtime snack.

"Just keep it simple with balanced whole foods, such as yogurt with berries, whole grain toast with peanut butter, cottage cheese with fruit, a protein shake, veggies and dip, or a small protein smoothie," she says.

3. Avoid alcohol

Alcohol can reduce REM sleep, but it can also exacerbate sleep issues during heatwaves, with studies finding that alcohol triggers sweating by widening blood vessels and increasing blood flow to the skin, which tricks your brain into feeling warm.

"It may initially lead to feeling more sleepy, but it can worsen sleep quality, worsen hydration and lead to worse temperature regulation overnight," warns Tieu.

More from Tom's Guide

• Experts reveal the bedroom window heatwave mistake making your sleep worse — and the 4-step cooling fix
• 4 sleep experts share how they fall asleep fast and skip waking up at 3 a.m. in hot weather — 4 steps to take tonight
• From the 'caveman method' to the 'frozen salt water fan trick' — 7 expert-approved ways to cool your bedroom and sleep well in a heatwave

As we hit the warmest months of the year, a specialist cooling mattress can really be a game changer for your sleep, and I've got the perfect contender. Ahead, I'll be letting you in on how you can buy the Elite Hybrid, now 40% off at Bear, at its lowest price of the year.

Part of my role here at Tom's Guide is testing the very best cooling mattresses online to find the ones that truly deliver on their promises, be that keeping hot sleepers' temperature at bay or providing full-body support.

After sleeping on the Bear Elite for the best part of the last year, I'm pleased to report this hybrid bed does both those things. And the better news is: in parallel with Amazon's Prime Day mattress sales, Bear has cut the Elite Hybrid mattress back to its lowest price.

So, I think I've established it's a great mattress and great time to buy, but what's it actually like to sleep on? Ahead, I've gathered opinions from our wider testing panel to help you decide whether the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress is the right fit for you and your sleep needs.

What our testers like (and dislike) about this 'advanced cooling' mattress

Securing 4 stars from our panel of (picky) mattress testers, the Bear Elite Hybrid has a lot to offer.

Firstly, it's infused with Celliant fibres that suck up heat, pull it away from the body, then quickly shed it through the mattress surface. The result? A temperature neutral sleep surface free of any heat pools. My fellow mattress testers all agreed that the Bear Elite felt comfortably cool through our thermal tests, and I can vouch that it stays impressively temperature neutral even in a heat-trapping attic bedroom during summer nights (with my trusty Aecooly fan at my bedside).

In terms of support and comfort, our subjective and objective tests indicate the Bear Elite Hybrid is sturdy yet cushioning enough for side and back sleeping thanks to the combination of foams and coils. However, our front-sleeping tester, Ruth Jones, noticed a small amount of pressure in her lower back when lying prone. Hence, if you're a strict stomach sleeper, you may want to consider a firmer cooling bed like the Siena Signature Mattress.

What's more, particularly restless couples or people with limited mobility who need sturdy edges to push off from to get out of bed, may want to reconsider the Bear Elite Hybrid. Why? Our testers could feel one another moving next to each other on the bed. "If I was on the brink of sleep and the other person suddenly shifted, I'd likely wake up," Ruth noted.

Additionally, the Bear Elite Hybrid scored just 2.5 out of 5 in our edge support tests as the foot and sides of the bed collapsed in slightly more when weight was applied compared to other top-scoring mattresses like the Saatva Classic.

All in all, if you're a hot side or back sleeper with no other notable sleep issues, you're sure to sleep peacefully on the Bear Elite Hybrid Mattress — I certainly have.

On a tighter budget? Try this...

With homes in the UK acting like brick ovens and soaring energy bills leaving many in the US hesitant to blast the AC, the summer heatwaves are set to ruin your sleep. You need a way to cool down before bed so you don't spend the next few months sweaty, sticky and sleep deprived.

Your internal body clock relies several signals to fall asleep and one of them is temperature — your core needs to drop around 2°F / 1°C for you to drift off. But when your room is too warm, your body is unable to disperse heat efficiently. This leads to tossing and turning, which in turn causes cortisol levels to spike, leaving you vulnerable to 3 a.m. wake ups.

But a refreshing bedtime drink such as our Iced Summer Sleep Tea can help your body cool naturally, so you fall asleep fast even in a heatwave. Created by Claire Davies, Sleep Editor and Certified Sleep Science Coach, here we'll explain why this tea works, plus everything you need to make it.

How a bedtime iced tea helps you fall asleep fast in a heatwave

Our bedtime tea takes a three step approach to creating the perfect conditions to sleep in a heatwave.

First, it's cooling (both literally and mentally.) Served over ice, this tea cools the throat to provide immediate relief from the hot weather.

The menthol in the peppermint also makes you think you're cooler (without the shock of ice water.) By triggering the TRPM8 sensors in your mouth, menthol tells your nervous system that you're physically cold.

Second, it's hydrating. Slowly sipping a cooling drink replaces the fluids you've lost through sweating, keeping your body hydrated during the night. This helps you wake up energized and without the classic "heatwave headache" that comes from an under-hydrated system.

Third, it's full of sleep friendly ingredients. Chamomile is a source of sleep-inducing compound apigenin while the electrolytes from a splash of coconut water or a pinch of salt will help replenish the minerals you've lost through sweating. This in turn relaxes your muscles and calms a racing, overheated heart.

The ritual of the tea-drinking process can also help you relax before bed. But make sure to sip, rather than chug, to keep your bladder happy.

How to make an Iced Summer Sleep Tea

• Steep two chamomile tea bags and two peppermint tea bags in 500ml of boiling water for 8-10 minutes
• Remove the tea bags and add 60ml of coconut water and honey to taste
• Chill for 1-2 hours
• Serve over ice and sip roughly one hour before bed

Below are the detailed instructions to brew an Iced Summer Sleep Tea but don't worry, it's super simple. And if you keep scrolling, you'll find everything you need to make it.

Brew the tea (10 mins prep)
Place two chamomile tea bags and two peppermint tea bags into a heat proof pitcher. Pour over 500 ml of boiling water. Leave to steep for 8 to 10 minutes to extract the maximum amount of apigenin (a sleep-inducing antioxidant) and menthol.

Add a mineral boost (1 min prep)
Remove the tea bags and, while the tea is still warm, add 60ml of pure coconut water as a mineral boost to supercharge the tea with sleep-supporting electrolytes like potassium and magnesium. Alternatively, add 60ml of soda water and a pinch of natural sea salt.

Add honey (1 min prep)
Stir in one tablespoon of raw honey (or sweeten to your personal taste) until completely dissolved. Science tell us that natural sugars slightly raise insulin levels, making it easier for the sleep-inducing amino acid tryptophan to enter the brain.

Let it chill (2 to 3 hours)
Allow the pitcher to cool to room temperature before putting it in the fridge to chill completely for roughly two to three hours before you drink it.

Start drinking around 90 minutes before bed
Pour the chilled tea into a tall glass over large ice cubes. Sip it slowly over a period of 30 minutes, and around 90 minutes before when you want to sleep.

This allows the sleepy compounds to get to work while ensuring the liquid has passed through your system before bed, so you won't be woken up in the night because you need the bathroom.

What you'll need to make an Iced Summer Sleep Tea

For the highest concentration of apigenin to quiet the nervous system, we recommend using teas made with intact chamomile heads, rather than chamomile dust (but you might need your own tea filters.)

And opt for pure peppermint tea for the biggest cooling pay off. Whole leaves such as the Teapigs Peppermint Leaves are best, as they contain more menthol oil for that tingly fresh sensation.

For electrolytes and minerals, we suggest pure coconut water — a potassium boost with a touch of sweetness. Alternatively, use a pinch of natural saa salt for minerals without an unwelcome bite of sodium (Those on low sodium diets should opt for coconut water or skip this step.) And don't forget a spoonful of honey.

The equipment is simple but a heatproof glass pitcher is a must, so you can pour boiling water straight in without worrying about cracking (thermal shock resistant borosilicate glass is best.) We also recommend big ice molds which melt slower, keeping your drink crisp without watering it down. And for the final touches; insulated glasses and stirring sticks.

US shopping list

UK shopping list

Summary

If your usual mug of steaming chamomile tea looks less than appealing in the heat, our cooling alternative offers the same benefits without leaving you hot and bothered.

It also gives you what's likely to be a much needed hydration boost before bed. Alternatively, try TikTok favorite the sleepy girl mocktail, which uses tart cherry juice for a sleep-boost.

While the sun sets and your tea brews, cool your house by throwing open the windows and doors to create a cross breeze (but close your windows in the morning, to lock in any cool air.)

Put your lotions in the fridge while you take a lukewarm shower — your post-wash routine will feel like bliss on your skin. And if you want a snack with your drink, try a kiwi for a boost of serotonin.

Amazon Prime Day is a great time to shop tech. While not all gadgets are good news for sleep (your smartphone could be what's robbing you of quality ZZZs), wearable tech from trusted brands certainly has a place in the bedroom.

Right now, you can save 48% on the Oura Ring 4 at Amazon and take 33% off the Fitbit Versa 4 at Amazon. These devices can help you learn more about your sleep habits and supercharge your rest this summer.

I've spent the past two years on the hunt for the best sleep trackers on the market, putting various watches, rings, armbands, and mats through our sleep tracker testing methodology, and recording their sale prices along the way.

That means a) I know what design elements, software, and sensors make a good sleep tracker, and b) I can spot a worthy deal when I see one. So, here I'm zoning in on the best tracker deals in current Amazon Prime Day sleep sales on both sides of the Atlantic right now.

Don't forget your Prime Membership...

Top 4 sleep tracker US Prime Day deals

From 48% off the world's top-rated smart ring (need we mention, it's the Oura Ring) to $38 savings on an up-and-coming, contact-free sleep monitor, here are the deals I recommend checking out if you're in America...

Top 4 sleep tracker UK Prime Day deals

For UK folk, the best Prime Day deals feature Oura (shock), Fitbit and Withings. Read on for all the deets...

Amazon Prime Day has arrived in the midst of a scorching hot summer, making it the perfect time to save on cooling sleep gadgets designed to help you get the rest you need.

Snapping up a cooling sleep deal is one of the best investments you can make, especially when you consider that heat-related insomnia isn't just a summer issue — research shows the average global citizen is already losing 44 hours of sleep a year to increasing nighttime temperatures.

While not all deals in this days-long sales event are worth buying, these cooling products are some of the best Amazon Prime Day mattress and sleep deals we've seen so far that we predict will sell out fast. From heat-dissipating pillow cases to portable air conditioning units, these Amazon deals will have you falling asleep fast during heatwaves...

The best US cooling sleep deals

The best UK cooling sleep deals

I'm a sleep editor and a mother of two, so I know a thing or two about helping your kids get the sleep they need. I've combed through today's Prime Day deals to bring you my five top picks for helping your little ones sleep well through a swelteringly hot summer and beyond.

My top recommendation? The YOTO Player starter bundle, now $99.99 (was $124.99) at Amazon (£79.99 down from £99.99 at Amazon UK) which is an excellent price on this hugely popular audio book-player-come-nightlight.

With thousands of items discounted for Prime Day, it can be hard to know where to start. This is my fourth year covering the sales, and I've helped pick the best Amazon Prime Day sleep and mattress sales. Below, you'll find my top picks for helping your kids rest well, night after night.

• Shop all Prime Day deals at Amazon

5 Prime Day deals I’d buy to help my kids rest well at night

5 Prime Day deals I’d buy to help my kids rest well at night

If you've been eyeing up an Oura Ring, there's never been a better time to buy one. Not because the thinnest-ever, smartest-ever Ring 5 has just launched, but because the Oura Ring 4 is up to 48% off at Amazon this Prime Day.

That means our top-rated sleep tracker is down to its lowest-ever price of $226. Until now, $249 was the best price we'd ever seen it sell for — that extra $23 saving can cover your subscription fee for the next four months.

I've tested over a dozen sleep trackers the past year and the Oura Ring 4 is the only one I still go to bed with every single night. I'm yet to get my hands on the Oura Ring 5 (it's on its way), yet I can confidently recommend shopping the Oura Ring 4 for an outstanding price in current Amazon Prime Day sleep sales.

• Shop all Prime Day deals at Amazon

What makes the Oura Ring 4 such a great sleep tracker?

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me about my Oura Ring, I'd be able to fund my monthly Oura subscription no problem. But what are the features I boast about most?

Admittedly, it isn't my favorite tracker for my runs, cycles, or swims (for workout tracking, I rely on my trusty Garmin smartwatch), but by night, it's simply the best wearable I've tested.

It's comfy, accurate, and keeps me accountable. Under review following our robust sleep tracker testing methodology, the Oura Ring 4 came out on top, with nightly sleep reports matching up with my perceived sleep quality.

Said reports offer the most detailed metrics without becoming too overwhelming for average users (for reference, the Whoop MG is an equally good tracker but better suited to athletes who want VO2 max readings and more fitness-focussed data).

I especially love the Oura chronotype feature which has helped me create a consistent sleep routine that's in tune with my natural energy peaks and troughs throughout the 24-hour day. As a morning lark, my Oura Ring suggests relatively early sleep and wake windows, and I've noticed an improvement in my sleep quality after prioritising regular sleep timings over the past year.

What's more, the Oura app is loaded with sleep content including a personalised sleep advisor that literally tells me when my body could do with an extra hour of down time in the evenings, and a library of sleep sounds I can use to block out my partner's snoring or send my nephews to sleep when I'm babysitting.

The best thing? There's hardly any difference between the Oura Ring 4 and Oura Ring 5 in terms of sleep tracking functionality. The key difference between the two is design based (the Ring 5 is thinner and lighter). So, while it may be marginally more discreet to wear overnight, it's not a deal breaker worth $173 in my opinion.

Honestly, I've been waiting for the Ring 5 to release so I could tell all my friends to RUN to buy the Ring 4 at its lowest-ever price, and I'm not disappointed by Amazon's Prime Day deal this year.

We've put all of the leading sleep trackers to the test but there's one that continues to set the standard for lab grade tracking — the Oura Ring 4, now down to $226 at Amazon from $399. That's an incredible 43% off deal, which translates to a huge saving of $173.

That's the lowest price we've ever tracked on the Oura Ring 4, making it the Amazon Prime Day sleep tech deal to beat. The Oura Ring 4 offers gold-standard sleep tracking, fending off fierce competition from the likes of Whoop, Garmin and Apple to stay at the top of our best sleep tracker guide.

Savings of this level from Oura are ultra rare and will likely sell out fast. But is it the right sleep tracker for you? Let's take a closer look...

Why the Oura Ring 4 is still our top sleep tracker

Our lead tester Eve Davies has been wearing the Oura Ring 4 to bed over a year and, despite also putting other lead trackers from Apple, Whoop and Garmin through their paces, still rates it as the best sleep tracker you can buy.

That's because, when you compare the accuracy of sleep analytics, functionality and value for money, the Oura Ring continues to come out on top for its intricate tracking.

Despite its 'set and forget' screen-free design, the Oura Ring accurately measures everything from time spent in bed through to heart rate variability, sleep stages, overall sleep score and readiness for the day ahead.

You'll need to pay a monthly $5.99 subscription fee to access the full breadth of what the Oura App can offer, but for that you get your sleep data in a digestible, user-friendly format that's geared towards helping you to get more better quality sleep through sleep coaching and relaxation audio. And isn't that what we all want from our sleep tracker?

Smaller budget? Try this instead...

Temperatures are soaring, the Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting a "hotter-than-usual" summer for much of the US, and the UK is experiencing record-breaking heat. How are you meant to sleep with all that going on?

Here at Tom's Guide, we know a thing or two about struggling to sleep in the heat. In last year's heatwaves we were left restless, awake at 3 a.m. and trying every cooling sleep hack that drifted across our algorithm. This year, we're putting that pain to good use by curating the sleep tips that actually work and enjoying good rest even during the hottest nights of the year.

Below are the best of the best tips for sleeping in hot weather, tried, tested and approved by our sleep team. (Including hacks you can try out tonight, no purchase necessary.) So close your curtains, fill your ice cube maker, and enjoy sweet dreams of the Arctic Circle...

Key takeaways

• Use the caveman method: close the windows and curtains during the day to keep warm air out and open them up overnight to let cool air in.
• Feel cozy while sleeping cool: Dress your bed in a breathable top sheet to create a feeling of security without stuffiness.
• Go natural: Check the labels on your bedding and pajamas, then swap out synthetic fibers for natural fabrics such as cotton and bamboo.
• Harness any and all breezes: Place your fans facing an open window to create a cross breeze, or freeze a bottle of salt water and place it in the path of a desk fan to supercharge the cooling.
• Try the inverse hot water bottle hack: Half-fill your hot water bottle with water and freeze it. Place the frozen bottle by your feet for quick and effective cooling.

How to keep your bedroom cool in a heatwave: Expert tips

1. Try the 'caveman method'

"Having spent seven swelteringly hot summers in Sydney, my number one sleep tip is to close your bedroom window, blinds and doors during the day.," says Nicola Appleton, Sleep Editor.

This is known as the caveman method (because caves are cold and dark — get it?) and while it might seem counterintuitive, it's one of the best ways to cool your house during a heatwave.

On a hot, still day an open window simply lets more unwelcome warmth into the house. Closing your windows and your curtains keeps any lingering coolness from the night inside the house, for you to soak up, while blocking out sweltering air.

2. Open your windows and curtains at night

There's an important step two to the caveman method...

"When the outside temperatures drop lower than the indoor temperatures, open the window wide and allow the cool air to flow through," says Nicola. "And not just the window in your bedroom. Open windows on the opposite side of the house to create cross ventilation."

"I hate any light in my room when I'm sleeping but in a heatwave, I'll fling my curtains open at night to ensure lots of cool air can flow through," says Ruth Jones, Senior Sleep Writer. "I use an eye mask made of breathable materials to block out most of the light, so I get a comfortable balance of cool and dark."

Use your dual sash windows (if you have them)
“I used to live in a beautiful Victorian apartment with no AC but I did have dual-sash windows, and they were excellent for keeping my bedroom cool in summer," adds Claire Davies, Managing Editor of Sleep and Certified Sleep Science Coach.

“With these, you can open the window equally at the top and the bottom. Rising hot air gets sucked out the top of the window, and crisp, cooler air comes in the bottom, creating a natural convection current.”

3. The inverse hot water bottle rapid cooling hack

“I have a major issue with people putting their bed sheets in the freezer – mold on my mattress is just not worth it, thanks. But I do like the frozen hot water bottle trick when done correctly," says Claire.

“Here you fill a rubber hot water bottle with cold water to around halfway (if you fill it completely, the ice will expand and burst the hot water bottle), then lay it flat in the freezer for a few hours."

“Before heading up to bed, put the cold water bottle in a towel," she advises. "Place another thick towel at the foot of your mattress, where your feet will lie. Slide the bottle into its cover (or a thin pillowcase) just before you get into bed, then rest your feet on it once you’re in bed.

“This cools the blood in the vessels in your feet, helping to lower your body temperature so that you can fall asleep faster during the heatwave," she explains. For another way to cool your feet quickly, try keeping your socks in the freezer (put them in a bag first, to keep them away from your food.)

Freezing a hot water bottle can weaken the materials so avoid using it for hot water at a later date.

4. Turn your fan toward the window

No AC? A fan is the next best solution to quickly cool a room. But don't just point your fan at the bed. We've tried a better solution: direct your fan toward an open window. This pushes the hot air from your room out while helping cold air be drawn in.

For the most effective set up, try the two fan method. Open two windows: one in your bedroom and one on the opposite side of the house. Place one fan facing out towards an open window, and the other fan facing in towards the room by the second window. Turn both fans on to create cross ventilation and a consistent cooling breeze.

OR direct your fan at the wall or ceiling
If you don't have the windows (or fans) to make the above method work, try Frances's trick and turn your fan toward the ceiling or wall.

While having the fan facing your bed will give you the quickest stream of cool air, it also directs a blast of dust and other allergens directly at your face. This can lead to itchy eyes and sneezing.

By allowing the air to move around the room, you won't get the same concentration of allergens, for cooler sleep without the coughing.

5. Small fan? Try the ice water bottle trick

“One my mum taught me: freeze a few small bottles of water, and put a generous helping of salt inside each one before sealing them. Once the bottles are fully frozen, wrap them in a damp, thin cloth and stand them in front of your fan," says Claire.

“Salt lowers the freezing point of water, so these bottles will get significantly colder than ice cubes – and they will stay frozen for longer," she adds. "So you’ll feel the benefit of them for hours instead of minutes."

"I only have a small fan so unless it's point directly at my face, it can't keep me cool in the night," says Ruth. "Placing frozen bottles, or even a handful of ice cubes in a bowl, in front of it really ramps up the cooling power.

Why the damp cloth? "It catches condensation so you don't end up with a puddle on your nightstand come morning," explains Claire.

6. Ditch heavy bedding and sleep under a breathable top sheet

"Another tip I swear by is ditching the duvet and comforter in favor of a cooling and breathable flat sheet, like the DOZ Bamboo Flat Sheet," says Nicola.

"I don't really feel safe at night unless I have something covering me but a cooling sheet feels feather-light against my skin, allowing me to drop off quickly," she explains.

7. Upgrade your bedding to natural materials

"Check the material composition of your bedding, including bed sheets, pillowcases, mattress protectors, and eye masks," advises Frances Daniels, Senior Sleep Writer. "I used to use satin pillowcases and eye masks, plus polyester bed sheets and pjs, during heatwaves until I realized they were causing me to feel uncomfortably warm."

While you might be tempted to ditch the pajamas altogether, the fabric helps sweat dissipate so you cool down faster. When you're naked, sweat instead sits on the skin causing that uncomfortably clammy sensation.

"I now use natural materials like cotton, silk, linen, and bamboo-viscose," says Frances. "These have built-in breathability, allowing hot air to circulate and cool."

And this doesn't have to mean an expensive shopping trip: check the labels on the sheet sets and pajamas forgotten in the back of your cupboard.

Why is it so hard to sleep in a heatwave?

You're sweaty, you're frustrated, and your pillow feels like it's fresh out of the oven — no wonder it's so hard to sleep in a heatwave.

But hot weather impacts your sleep beyond discomfort. It's also a fly in the ointment of the internal processes that control our sleep-wake cycle.

In the evening, your body naturally starts to lower in temperature by roughly 2°F / 1°C. This mimics the natural temperature drop between day and night while indicating to your circadian rhythm (your internal body clock) that it's time to sleep.

During a heatwave, however, your body can't successfully lose that heat. An increased ambient temperature keeps you warm and disrupts your body clock's wind-down process.

High overnight temperatures have also shown a decrease in sleep efficiency. In other words, when you do fall asleep, you're more likely to wake up in the night.

At-home wearable sleep trackers have revolutionized the way we sleep, offering us key insights into our sleep stages and how to fall asleep fast, and Amazon has slashed the prices of plenty this Prime Day. However, not all wearables offer lab-accurate or even reliable sleep data, which is why the Whoop MG, now down from $359 to $299 at Amazon in a new Prime Day deal, stands out.

A top choice for athletes who prioritize recovery-enhancing sleep in our best sleep trackers, the Whoop MG gets its name from the medical-grade sleep tracking it can provide. "It gives you detailed breakdown of how your sleep and recovery is, or isn't, supporting your physical performance," says lead tester, Eve Davies.

This is one of the best sleep tech discounts we've seen among this year's Amazon Prime Day mattress deals, especially as it guarantees reliable sleep tracking insights. Here's what we (and Amazon customers), think of the Whoop MG, plus the key features that make it a top choice for those living an active lifestyle.

How the Whoop MG brings you clinical-grade sleep tracking

Whoop 5.0 and the medical-grade Whoop MG feature upgraded sensors tracking data 26 times per second. The MG includes ECG readings, while both monitor critical sleep and recovery metrics like HRV and skin temperature. This data yields detailed sleep reports and an overall nightly Sleep Performance score.

Whoop MG's sleep tracking is a little more advanced detail-oriented than other wearable sleep trackers, such as the Apple Watch, and are clearly targeted to athletes who want to use sleep (and sleep tracking) as a tool for physical recovery.

Our lead tester, a keen runner, said that she used the Whoop MG to improve her recovery during marathon training blocks. "I've found Whoop's advanced sleep tracking, and the more health-focused features, really helpful," she says.

As for Amazon customers, most point out the Whoop's sleep tracking as one of its highlights. "The sleep tracking is incredibly detailed, breaking down everything from sleep stages to how well you actually recovered overnight," says one customer.

Smaller budget? Try this...

Amazon's big sales event has begun and the Prime Day deals are coming in fast and furious! That means it's a great time to pick up a bargain across tech, homeware, entertainment and more.

One of the easiest ways you can improve your quality of life is by getting a good night's sleep. One of the things that is sure to help with that is a quality mattress. Luckily, there are lots of Prime Day deals that will help you find a good mattress at a decent price.

In this list we've pulled together 12 great mattress deals that offer comfort and value. We've made sure to select a range of price points, too, with some even coming in at under $100. As ever with Prime Day some products will sell out quickly, so don't sleep on these great deals.

MATTRESSES

We're tracking all the best Prime Day mattress deals

A bed topper is a cost-effective way to upgrade your sleep setup without having to spend a fortune on a new mattress, and this new Amazon Prime Day deal proves it. The Niagara Sleep Solutions Bamboo Mattress Topper, now down from £28.99 to £23.19 in a double at Amazon, is a hit with customers who want to add a soft, cooling touch to their bed.

While it has a much different design to the foam mattress toppers found in our best mattress toppers guide, this ultra-cheap bamboo mattress topper is an excellent choice if you want to add a breathable, pillow top layer to your bed in a pinch. It currently has a 4.2 star score from over 24,000 customer rating — 66% of those customers awarded the bed topper five stars.

Still, its design is more akin to a mattress pad than a bed topper, but as far as Amazon UK Prime Day mattress deals go, this discount definitely offers the best value for money. Here's more on what customers love (and don't love that much) about it...

What customers like about this 'cloud-like' bamboo mattress topper

There are plenty of reviews on this Amazon product, with the vast majority being very positive. Most praise the cooling breathability of the bamboo viscose material. One reviewer calls it "comfy and cool" while another customer shared that their bed "definitely feels cooler".

Softness received mixed reviews, with one customer saying it felt "incredibly soft and cloud like" while another said it it "definitely doesn't feel like sleeping on a cloud". We expect this, as the topper contains no foam, meaning that it's unlikely to change your mattress's firmness.

However, its value price tag and its machine-washable and tumble-dryer friendly design make it a low-cost, low-maintenance alternative to plusher and thicker mattress toppers. So, if you're priority is is saving your mattress on a smaller budget, we think this Bamboo Viscose Mattress Topper is an ideal choice.

Want something softer? Try this...

I've been dealing with a range of sleep issues this year, including 3 a.m. wake-ups and anxiety at bedtime. To break the cycle, I've been testing a range of sleep trackers to see which ones can help me optimize my sleep, and one of my favorites so far is the the Fitbit Inspire 3, down to $69.95 (was $99.95) at Amazon in today's Prime Day sale.

The Fibit Inspire 3 is a top-rated sleep tracker boasts an ultra bright screen display, long battery life (10 days per full charge) and – most importantly for me – reliable sleep tracking without feeling OTT. $69.95 matches the lowest price we've tracked the Inspire 3, which translates to $30 off.

That's an excellent Amazon Prime Day sleep deal, which matches the lowest price we've tracked this affordable wearable. Is it right for you? Let's take a look.

Affordable price, reliable sleep tracking

The Fitbit Inspire 3 is an affordable and comfortable fitness and sleep tracker with a clear display screen and long battery life. You can get a glimpse of sleep stats on screen (which is one of the first things I do when I wake up), or head to the Google Health app for a more intricate look at your metrics.

The Inspire 3 sensors track heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, movement and temperature, providing you with a 360 view of your health. I wear my Inspire 3 to bed every night and its sleep tracking is reliable (it won't count the hour you spend scrolling in bed as 'light sleep', for example).

When it comes to time spent in each sleep stage, your heart rate, how long it takes to fall asleep and how often you wake up, the Google Health app helps provides helpful parameters of healthy ranges. This all helps form your overall nightly sleep score.

There are also guided programs to help you improve your sleep, and get into a better bedtime routine. However, Fitbit Premium offers subscribers further insight into their sleep, as well as giving a sleep score, but costs $9.99/month.

Want the latest release and don't mind paying full price?

The Oura Ring 4 is hands-down our favorite sleep tracker, and it's just had a major price cut thanks to a new Amazon Prime Day deal. The Oura Ring 4, now up to 46% off at Amazon UK provides accurate sleep tracking, a comfy fit, and a panoramic, analytical view of your sleep.

The Oura Ring 4 takes the top spot in our guide to the best sleep trackers, thanks to its advanced features and seamless design. Lead tester Eve Davies rates the Oura Ring 4 for the way it helps her keep a consistent sleep schedule, as the smart ring's accompanying app reminds her when bedtime is approaching. "If sleeping better is your priority, the Oura Ring is the winner," says Davies.

While there are now plenty Amazon UK Prime Day mattress deals, this Oura Ring deal stands out as one of Prime Day's best savings for your sleep. Here's a more in-depth look at the Oura Ring 4, its spectacular Prime Day discount, and why it's great investment for your sleep.

Why the Oura Ring 4 is our #1 sleep tracker

Our lead tester says that the Oura Ring 4 helps her keep to a consistent sleep schedule, making it "my secret to falling asleep fast and waking up refreshed". But what sleep-improving features does the Oura Ring 4 boast?

First of all, the accompanying Oura app sends bedtime reminders to help you maintain your sleep schedule. The next benefit (and arguably most important) is the Oura Ring's accurate, precise sleep tracking, which gives the user key insight into their sleep stages and any nocturnal awakenings, data which betters your understanding of your sleep patterns.

Using your sleep data and sleep scores, the Oura App then offers an AI Oura Sleep Advisor who offers you tips and recommendations to enhance your sleep and improve any problems that may be lowering your sleep score.

Other benefits include a lengthy battery life, sleek screenless design, and an intuitive app that "presents data in a digestible, user-freindly format".

Smaller budget? Try this...

If you're having trouble sleeping, there's no better resource than the experts. Board-certified sleep specialists can offer personalized and effective science-backed sleep guidance based on your unique health and lifestyle factors — if you can access a professional, that is.

However, many people are turning their backs on medical professionals for the convenience of AI. Research shows that 15% of the UK consult AI chatbots instead of a doctor, while a survey found that 49% of insured Americans have asked AI tools for medical advice. But can can a chatbot ever truly fix your insomnia?

To find out, I asked three of the most popular AI-generative assistants — Gemini, ChatGPT, and Copilot — the same request for sleep health advice. I then called on Mattress Firm's Dr Jade Wu, a board-certified sleep specialist, to evaluate and rate each response. Here's what she had to say and why AI's response might seem good at first but can't delve beneath the covers to provide long-lasting help.

My experience with Gemini, Copilot, and ChatGPT

To see whether AI chatbots can actually give sound sleep advice, I asked Gemini, Copilot, and ChatGPT the exact same question, prefaced with the prompt; "Act as a board-certified sleep doctor," to ensure each assistant knew I wanted it to replicate expert-level advice. Here's the full prompt:

"Act as a board-certified sleep doctor. I average 6 hours of sleep a night and have an erratic bedtime and wake-up schedule. In 3 actionable steps, advise me on how I can fall asleep fast, sleep through the night and increase my average sleep duration to 7 hours a night."

Each one delivered guidance in an instant and that split-second response set off alarm bells. But then I read the responses...

I frustratingly couldn't find any flaws. To me, each answer offered sound recommendations, with tips that seemed to come straight out of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) textbook (and, on reflection, quite probably did.)

"If you're awake in bed for roughly 20–30 minutes, get up and do something quiet in dim light until you feel sleepy again," said ChatGPT, bringing up the gold-standard sleep rule.

"Get 10–15 minutes of outdoor light within the first hour of waking — this accelerates melatonin shutoff and makes it easier to fall asleep at night," advised Copilot, displaying knowledge about our circadian rhythm and the morning sunlight rule (...that I already follow.)

"Waking up at the same time every day builds 'sleep drive' (the biological hunger for sleep) throughout the day," Gemini told me, promoting the sleep consistency that experts have always championed.

Still, some cracks started to show. For a start, I was being given advice I already followed, rather than being questioned on my routine.

Gemini was also the only AI that came with a flat-out disclaimer to remind me that it's not a doctor. (However, Copilot did mention that if experiencing persistent insomnia, loud snoring, or breathing pauses at night, it’s important to speak with a healthcare professional — but this caveat wasn't as prominent as Gemini.)

"This is for informational purposes only", warned Gemini at the beginning of its answer. "For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional."

And when I showed all three responses to Dr Wu, she highlighted all the ways that disclaimer rang true.

A board-certified sleep doctor rates sleep advice from 3 AI assistants

Is ChatGPT sleep advice trustworthy?

When evaluating ChatGPT's advice, the first thing Dr Wu noticed was its lack of a disclaimer.

"Instead, it just launched right into advice with 'I' sentences spoken from the perspective of a medical professional," the board-certified doctor pointed out. "I don't love that."

While Dr Wu did say that ChatGPT's sleep guidance was "mostly evidence-based and sound", she tells me that the problem lies in its generalizing.

"It did not ask any follow up questions to try to figure out what exactly the sleep problem is, making its advice generic and not necessarily relevant — it may even backfire," she warned.

Dr Wu's ChatGPT rating: 2 out of 5

Is Copilot and Gemini's sleep advice trustworthy?

First of all, Dr Wu is pleased that both Copilot and Gemini did come with the caveat that it's always best to speak to a healthcare professional, but both still suffered from one-size-fits-all responses.

"They're better than ChatGPT's rating because at least there are disclaimers, but it's not 5 because, again, it did not do any assessment to see what the sleep problem actually is and what other contextual factors might be at play," she says.

Follow up questions the sleep expert herself would ask include "Are there any other symptoms, like signs of sleep apnea?" and " What have they already tried, and how well did it work?" She would also delve into daytime habits (such as whether the person naps) and work schedules, and why my question is fixated on getting 7 hours of sleep if I feel rested.

"Depending on the person's age, lifestyle, genetics, and many other factors, 6 hours might be enough, or perhaps even 7 is not enough," Dr Wu says.

"And we're just scratching the surface...I haven't even gotten to co-morbid health conditions, social factors and family history," she adds.

Dr Wu's Copilot and ChatGPT rating: 3 out of 5

Did any of the AI assistants provide good sleep advice?

While all AI assistants presented oversimplified advice without taking into account personal factors such as age, genetics, and lifestyle, Dr Wu didn't have any major concerns about the advice itself at a surface level.

"I like that all the models started with anchoring the wake up time and stabilizing sleep-wake schedule," she tells me. "The morning light exposure and evening wind-down period are also very good."

"All of them provide 'okay' advice in the sense that none of it is egregiously wrong, and there are some reasonably universal tips that would be good for almost everyone, such as stabilizing wake timing if possible," she continues.

That said, she admits that she can't look past the lack of questioning. Depending on what the sleep problem is, the advice could be "very different, or even opposite," she says.

"None of them even begin to try to understand what the real sleep problem might be," the sleep specialist says. "And all of them take the person's prompt question at face value, without pushing back at all or questioning the assumptions in the question itself. "

Dr Wu's 3 tips on how to ask AI for health advice

1. Be specific with your questions

According to Dr Wu, most flaws in the AI assistant's advice are a result of a vague or uninformed question you've asked. That might mean you're missing the real issue with your sleep or getting advice you already follow (see Copilot telling me to go outside in the morning.)

But without sleep advisor training, it's hard to identify these gaps in your knowledge.

"The main thing to remember is that you don't know what you don't know," she explains. "And that's not your fault! If you're not a Board-certified sleep clinician, why would you understand sleep neuroscience or clinical treatment at a deep level?"

2. Don't let faulty assumptions guide your questioning

There are lots of assumptions around what 'healthy sleep' looks like. But Dr. Wu points out that sometimes these assumptions are wrong, and she uses my 'fall asleep fast' prompt to illustrate this.

"Falling asleep fast is not necessarily a good thing," she explains. "In fact, it may indicate being sleep deprived, having sleep apnea, or having another problem."

So before you start grilling ChatGPT, remember that a healthy sleep onset latency is 15 to 30 minutes and falling asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow is likely a sign of sleep deprivation. Be clear, keep to the facts and share relevant details to get better advice.

3. Make the AI model push back or ask questions

As mentioned above, Dr Wu says that follow-up questions are a sign of a good sleep advisor.

"If the model doesn't push back on your assumptions or doesn't ask a lot of good follow up questions to figure out your holistic sleep situation, then you're not going to get good advice," she warns. "You may even get advice that backfires or delays you from getting real sleep diagnostics done."

While the AI chatbot can give you an overview of general sleep hygiene tips, without drilling into your exact circumstances, it's never going to get to the root of your sleep problems. For that, it's worth the effort of finding a specialist.

Let's face it, trying to sleep during heatwaves can be excruciating. You're frustrated, sweaty, and wide awake at 3 a.m. trying to calculate how many hours of sleep you could still salvage before you need to get up.

As a sleep writer who lives in a building without air con, I've tried practically every TikTok sleep hack that promises a cooler night's sleep, only to be left largely disappointed. But how do sleep experts mange to fall asleep during heatwaves? And what cooling sleep hacks do they use that actually work?

To find out, I've got in touch with four leading sleep experts who've shared the five hacks that help them swerve insomnia and night sweats during heatwaves. Plus, they reveal the three things you should avoid at all costs...

Key takeaways

• Ensure windows are closed and blackout curtains are shut during the day to trap cool night air in your bedroom
• Cooling hacks include switching to lightweight, breathable bedding, and taking a lukewarm shower to trigger your body's natural cooling process
• Avoid heavy or spicy meals and vigorous exercise close to bedtime, as both significantly raise your core body temperature.
• If sharing a bed with a partner generates too much heat, try sleeping separately temporarily or adopting the Scandinavian sleep method of using two individual duvets.
• If you are struggling to sleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed to rest in a cooler room and only return when you are genuinely tired.

5 things sleep experts do to fall asleep during heatwaves

1. The 'Caveman Method' for bedroom windows

This may be an obvious one, but the first thing you should do is try to cool down your room as much as possible. However, what isn't as obvious is how to keep your bedroom (especially when you have no air conditioning).

"Many people open their windows when it’s hot outside, but if the outside air is warmer than inside, you’re actually letting this heat in to the room," says Dr. Lindsay Browning, a neuroscientist and clinical psychologist at TroubleSleeping.

To avoid hot air streaming into your home, it's best to go full-on caveman method, and turn your room into a cool cave.

"I recommend keeping your blinds, curtains and windows closed during the day to stop the sun heating the room, then later in the evening once the outside air has cooled down you can open the windows to let the cooler evening air in," advises Browning.

2. The lukewarm shower trick

Dr. Saema Tahir, a quadruple board certified sleep and pulmonary specialist, swears by a warm shower 90 minutes before bed.

"It pulls blood to the skin surface and accelerates heat loss, triggering the core temperature drop that sleep requires," she explains.

“Not cold — lukewarm," agrees Sammy Margo, a sleep physiotherapist at Dreams.

"While it might seem obvious to take a cold shower to cool down before bed, stepping out of a lukewarm shower triggers your body’s natural cooling process and promoting relaxation, which in turn may make it easier to fall asleep comfortably,” elaborates Margo.

If you want to try this hack, aim for a water temperature between 104 °F and 108 °F (40°C and 42.5°C), which has been shown to be optimal for sleep.

3. The lightweight bedding switch

If you're using the same thick duvet or comforter that kept you warm in winter, then it'll likely make you sleep even hotter during summer.

"It still baffles me that people are still using the same duvet throughout the seasons," says researcher Hannah Shore, Head of Sleep at MattressOnline. "We need to be swapping out those thick duvets for a much thinner, lower tog duvet."

Even if you feel you're bedding is still lightweight, even the material may be trapping heat.

"Synthetic bedding, like polyester, traps humidity against the skin, preventing sweat from evaporating," says Dr. Tahir. "Loose-weave linen or cotton makes a significant difference, especially on humid nights."

"Natural fibres like cotton or linen are fantastic because they allow air to circulate and wick away moisture from your body, which may help you to keep fresh and cool throughout the night," agrees Margo.

"My favourite choice is lightweight, percale weave cotton sheets with a thread count between 200-400 as they provide optimal comfort,“ she adds.

4. The wet towel fan hack

No, we're not talking the Egyptian sleep method (which involves sleeping under cool, damp towels). We're talking about two fixes where you can use a wet towel to evaporate heat for a cooler bedroom.

The first one is a fan hack recommend by Dr. Tahir. "I point the fan across a wet towel rather than circulating hot air; it's basic evaporative cooling that can drop perceived temperature by a few degrees," says the board-certified physician.

The second tip is brought to you by sleep expert Shore, who often keeps a cold, damp towel on her nightstand in case of 3 a.m. wake ups.

"When I wake throughout the night, I can then apply this to my wrists and the back of my neck to help cool me down further," explains Shore. "Pick points on the body where the blood is closer to the surface, like your wrists, as this helps to cool your body internally as well as externally."

5. They get a (temporary) sleep divorce

This hack might be a little controversial, but it may be worth a shot if you share a bed with your partner, as Margo points out that “sharing a bed can double the body heat, making it harder to stay cool during warmer nights."

"If possible, you may wish to temporarily sleep in separate beds from your partner during a heatwave," advises Dr Browning.

If a sleep divorce seems too extreme, then you can try another sleep hack that gives you your own space while still sharing a bed.

"One simple but effective solution is the Scandinavian sleep method, using two separate duvets, which allows each person to regulate their own temperature and reduce overheating," says Margo.

3 heatwave mistakes sleep experts avoid

1. They avoid eating too late

Meal ingestion has been shown to increase body temperature, which is why you shout eat dinner earlier during heatwaves.

"Try to avoid doing things in the evening that can raise your core temperature, so leave a couple of hours between eating large meals," warns Shore.

"I also avoid heavy or spicy meals late in the evening, as these can make you feel warmer and more uncomfortable at bedtime," says Dr. Browning.

2. They avoid evening workouts

A 2025 study found that vigorous exercise within a four-hour window before bedtime can disrupt sleep. That's because the maintenance of a healthy sleep function is characterized by a decline in core body temperature.

Exercise, says Dr Browning, increases core body temperature and makes you feel even hotter during heatwave.

"Even though I am naturally an evening person and enjoy exercise in the late afternoon and evening, during a heatwave I specifically avoid vigorous exercise too close to bedtime," says Dr. Browning.

3. Clock watching

Still cant sleep in the heat? Just remember the one thing you should avoid: worrying.

"Most heatwaves are relatively short-lived," assures Dr Browning. "People are remarkably resilient at coping with short periods of poor sleep, and one bad night, or even a few disrupted nights during a heatwave, is unlikely to cause any lasting harm."

Shore says that clock-watching and counting the hours will produce "wake-promoting hormones, leading to further struggles", so the best thing to do is distract yourself.

"If you are struggling to sleep, don’t be afraid to get up, cool down elsewhere, do something to take your mind off things, such as reading or listening to a podcast, then head back to bed when you're tired," advises Shore.

"If you've been lying awake 20 minutes, get up, move somewhere cooler, and return only when sleepy,"agrees Dr. Tahir. "That's stimulus control therapy, the core of CBT for insomnia."

Each day during a heatwave, my neighbor hangs her pillows and bedding on the line for a few hours of ‘sun washing’ or ‘sun curing’ – a viral cleaning trend that claims leaving bed sheets in direct, super-hot sunlight UV-sanitizes them. I understand the appeal – this ‘CleanTok’ hack is free, and who doesn’t like sleeping in line-fresh bedding?

But here’s the microbiological truth: ‘sun washing’ does little to get fungi, bacteria, dust mites and odors out of your pillows, bed sheets and toppers. According to a study on optimal ways to remove dust mites, allergens and pollen, a standard machine wash at 104°F 40°C leaves 94% of dust mites alive and kicking in your bedding. Yep, 94%.

So why is my neighbor dead-set on ‘sun washing’ her bedding during a heatwave? “The real benefit is moisture and not disinfection,” says Dr. Shanina C. Knighton, PhD, RN, CIC, an infection prevention expert and Research Associate Professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

To help us separate cleaning myth from microbiological reality, Dr. Knighton explains what ‘sun washing’ actually achieves, why pillows and bedding become moisture bombs during heatwaves, and the exact temperature a washing machine needs to get rid of the nasties.

Key take-aways: At a glance

• The 'sun washing' misconception: Hanging pillows and duvets outside in the sun won't disinfect them. Sunlight cannot physically lift soil or skin cells, and UV rays can't penetrate dense pillow and comforter interiors where microbes hide.
• Why airing bedding in a heatwave is still smart: Moving hot air pulls moisture, sweat, and odors trapped inside dense bedding. It temporarily stops bacteria from multiplying, but it won't get rid of the bacteria.
• The wash temperature that works: According to one study, 104°F / 40°C washes leave 94% of dust mites alive in your bedding. To eliminate dust mites and pathogens, you must machine wash your bedding using the warmest setting its care label safely tolerates. The ideal is 130°F to 140°F / 54.4°C to 60°C.
• When to wash bedding in a heatwave: While pillowcases and bed sheets should be washed once a week (minimum) during summer, step up the frequency if you sweat heavily, skip nighttime showers, have acne-prone skin, or share the bed with pets. Especially during a heatwave.
• Prioritize a dry bed over a tidy bed: Never make your bed straight after getting up if you've been sweating and the sheets felt damp. Pulling up the covers seals in body heat and moisture – the ideal conditions for fungi and odors to multiply during a heatwave.

‘Sun washing’ refreshes bedding — it doesn’t disinfect

With regular use, pillows and bedding house a build-up of fungi, dust mites, other allergens and odors.

“When researchers at the University of Manchester cultured used pillows, ones in service from a year and a half to more than 20 years, they found between four and 16 species of fungi in a single pillow, with higher numbers in the synthetic ones,” reveals Dr. Knighton.

“The concern is not that any single pillow is a biohazard. It is hours of close contact, night after night, with moisture and skin debris and microbial buildup sitting right against your face and airway."

Deep penetration is required to disinfect dense pillows and comforters, especially older ones that don’t get cleaned regularly in a washing machine — and that’s something a few hours of airing outside can’t deliver.

“A machine wash physically lifts sweat, oil, skin cells, allergens, and microbes off the fabric through detergent, water, agitation, rinsing, and heat,” Dr. Knighton explains. “Sunlight does not lift soil off of anything.”

Even the geometry of some pillows and bedding dilutes the germ-killing potential of ultraviolet light.

“Direct sun can reduce some microbes on an exposed surface, but the exposure is uneven and unreliable,” says Dr. Knighton. “The top of a duvet might catch the sun while the underside, the seams, the folds, and the dense fill inside a pillow never do.”

The fungi and bacteria hiding deep within the stuffing or wadding of your pillow and comforter remain entirely unreached by sunlight, even if you're 'sun washing' during a raging heatwave.

“I would never tell someone to skip a wash because the bedding spent an afternoon outside,” warns Dr. Knighton.

Why you should still air pillows and bedding outside in a heatwave

Moisture, not microbes, is the real reason to hang your pillows, comforter, and bed sheets out to air during a heatwave. You aren’t UV-sanitizing, you’re UV-dehydrating.

Every night as you lie in bed sweating away during a heatwave, your bedding acts like a giant sponge. It drinks up sweat, saliva (drool), skin oils, dead skin cells, and not to mention skin and hair products. During a heatwave, that sponge becomes extra thirsty and absorption rockets.

“Putting pillows and bedding out in dry moving air pulls that dampness back out and cuts the odor that comes with it,” Dr. Knighton notes. “That is what airing does. It dries and freshens between washes. It does not sanitize anything.”

How pillows and bedding become ‘moisture bombs’ in hot weather

All those hot, sticky summer nights spent sweating away in bed drive moisture down into your mattress, pillows and bedding.

“A dense pillow or comforter holds onto moisture far longer than a thin sheet does,” explains Dr. Knighton. “After a hot night, it’s carrying sweat, skin oil, and shed skin cells, and the warmth stays in the fill.

“Warmth, moisture, and organic material with no airflow is exactly the condition that lets bacteria and fungi persist and lets odor build, and the bedding doesn’t have to look dirty for this to be happening.”

So even though your crisp white sheets still look clean after nearly a week of sleeping under them, what’s infiltrated the sheets tells a different story.

To be clear, a heatwave won’t conjure dangerous new organisms overnight, says Dr. Knighton: “What the heat does is drive more sweat and trap more moisture, and moisture is the thing most microbes need to survive.”

The washing temperature that actually kills dust mites and more

Now that we know ‘sun washing’ draws out moisture, but doesn’t sanitize, it’s time to look at what will: your washing machine.

A standard wash cycle won’t cut it during a summer heatwave (or during any other time of year) — especially if you suffer from allergies or asthma.

“For temperature, use the warmest water the fabric can safely tolerate,” Dr. Knighton advises. “The benchmark most allergy guidance uses for dust mites is 130°F / 54.4°C.

“One study found that washing at 140°F / 60°C killed all dust mites, while a warm wash at 104°F / 40°C killed only about six per cent of them.”

While dropping your laundry down to a cool or warm cycle protects the fabric and saves energy, from an infection prevention standpoint, the hotter the wash the better.

Check your bedding’s care labels to ensure it will withstand a hotter wash. And if you have asthma, allergies, or a chronic health condition, consider swapping to pillows, comforters and bedding that can be safely washed at 130°F / 54.4°C.

"Hospital laundry runs hotter and longer than that, but that is validated industrial processing, not something a household needs or should try to copy,” Dr Knighton explains.

“The practical message is simple: wash often, use detergent, use the warmest safe setting, and dry the item all the way through."

How often you should wash pillows and bedding in summer vs a heatwave

A weekly bed sheets wash is common in most homes, but according to Dr. Knighton you might need to clean them more often during a heatwave.

During extreme summer heat your body is working overtime to cool itself down at night (heat spikes can cause 3 a.m. wake-ups and other middle insomnia issues).

As a result, sweat, facial skin oils, dead skin and more all seep down into your pillows and bedding at an accelerated rate.

Dr. Knighton recommends stepping up your laundry schedule significantly if you match any of the following criteria:

• You sweat heavily during the night or experience night sweats.
• You prefer to shower in the morning and go to bed with daytime skin buildup.
• You have oily, acne-prone skin, eczema, or environmental allergies.
• You share your bed with dogs, cats, or other pets.
• You work a high-exposure job (such as healthcare, childcare, sanitation, or repair work) where you actively carry the day's grime home with you.

Here, Dr. Knighton breaks down exactly how often you should machine wash different types of bedding during hot weather to keep the microbial load under control:

Bed sheets and pillowcases: Once a week (minimum)

You should wash these at least once a week in hot weather, but "more often for a lot of people," says Dr. Knighton.

Duvet covers: Every one to two weeks

To combat fungi, dust mites, allergens and more, you should hot wash your duvet cover once a week during summer – more if you don’t shower before sleep then sweat in bed.

Using a top flat sheet as a barrier between you and the duvet cover buys you a bit more time – up to two weeks, but check your cover for odors.

Pillows and comforters: Every three months (or sooner)

Always follow the care label on your pillow or comforter, but generally you should be washing them every few months. However, in a heatwave you need to wash them immediately if they are damp with moisture, stained, musty, or visibly soiled.

“A tidy bed should not outweigh a dry bed,” says Dr. Knighton.

By using ‘sun-washing’ to reduce daily moisture build-up between washing your pillows and bedding on as safe a hot wash as they can handle, you’ll get the microbial load under control and enjoy much cleaner sleep in the hot summer months.

Nighttime anxiety has me in a chokehold, jolting me awake at 3 a.m. most mornings with my heart hammering in my chest. While I fantasise about a relaxing spa break where I can finally decompress, I’ve found the next best thing: an ‘invisible day.’ What is it? A 24-hour digital detox that allows my nervous system to re-set before bedtime — and sleep experts approve.

“Taking an invisible day, especially when done consistently, can be a powerful method of reducing stress and anxiety from an overstimulated brain, which can help with the 3 a.m. wakings,” explains Dr. Eric Zhou, associate professor in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

As a busy working parent, my smartphone is my lifeline. But every ping of a notification is also another demand on my time and attention. Instead, turning my phone off — even just for a day — helps me relax without being in a state of constant alert. Here’s why it's helping me to fight back against all those 3 a.m. wake-ups…

• Read more: Stress was waking me up at 3 a.m. — until two of the world's best sleep doctors shared 5 fast fixes to lower my cortisol at night

Key takeaways: At a glance

• An ‘ invisible day’ is a 24 hour digital detox during which you either turn your phone off or place it on airplane mode
• Experts believe that silencing the demand for our attention allows our nervous system to decompress before bedtime
• A higher than normal baseline level of cortisol is why many people with anxiety wake at 3 a.m.
• Reducing daytime stress helps lower the baseline level of cortisol, helping you to stay asleep all night

What is an invisible day and how can it help with your sleep?

It’s up to you exactly how you conduct your own 'invisible day'. However, the crux of it is that you are essentially invisible to the aspect of your life that is causing you the most angst. That might be caregiving or household chores.

It’s a pause in your busy, daily life.

For me, I initially chose a day to be invisible to my online world — where group WhatsApp messages demanding my attention were rolling in thick and fast — so that I could spend time with my family without distraction. During my 'invisible day' I felt present, calm and, crucially, I slept peacefully and didn't wake up at 3 a.m.

“It makes complete sense to me that you've found it helpful,” says Dr. Jessica Meers, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at Rhythm Wellness.

“The 3 a.m. waking pattern is one of the most common sleep issues I see, and it often comes back to a nervous system that never fully unwound during the day.”

I spend most days with my phone glued to my hand so that I can promptly respond to every email, call, Whatsapp or notification. Sound familiar? This constant input takes its toll on your nervous system and makes it hard to switch off at night, Dr. Meers explains.

“An ‘invisible day’ interrupts that cycle and gives your nervous system a chance to decompress before bedtime, which can absolutely improve sleep,” says Dr. Meers, a board-certified sleep behavioral specialist.

How an 'invisible day' curbed my anxiety and reduced 3 a.m. wake-ups

I took my first invisible day a couple of months ago during a period of feeling overwhelmed and suffering from poor sleep.

At first, I just wanted to turn off the constant background chatter that I was allowing to infiltrate every part of my life. However, I soon realised that it was helpful for combating my 3 a.m. wake-ups too.

Here’s the science behind why…

1. It reduces cortisol levels

“Waking at 3 a.m. can be the hallmark of sleep maintenance insomnia, driven by an overactive nervous system; a stress-response system that can't sustain consolidated sleep,” explains Dr. Ranji Varghese, a Board-Certified Sleep Medicine and Psychiatry Specialist.

“For most people, cortisol (the body's primary stress hormone) naturally bottoms out around midnight and rises around 3 a.m,” says Dr. Varghese, noting that, in chronic insomnia, cortisol levels remain high.
However, studies point to a reduction in cortisol levels following a digital detox. By lowering your baseline level of cortisol, you’re then less likely to be woken when levels naturally begin to rise around 3 and 4 a.m., says Dr. Varghese, Medical Director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center.

2. It eliminates constant brain arousal

Scrolling on your phone might look like rest, but what’s really happening is that your brain is suspended in a heightened state of alert. Rarely giving our brains the opportunity to relax or switch off results in a tired and wired feeling that’s difficult to shake off come bedtime.

“Every single tap, swipe, and scroll triggers your brain's reward pathways,” explains Dr. Zhou, a sleep researcher. “This is because every app you use, every video you watch is all designed to keep you engaged. As a result, you are in a constant state of heightened arousal.”

3. It enables me to wind down without distraction

If we’re honest, most of our bedtime routines involve scrolling on our phones until the wave of exhaustion eventually pulls us into sleep.

As well as being able to decompress during the day, I found that, without the lure of my smartphone during my invisible day, I was better able to relax before bedtime, too.

“I've seen that when people disconnect from devices for an extended period, their nervous system begins to relax in a different way,” says Dr. Meers.

“The constant anticipation of the next message, notification, or piece of news starts to fade. Many people describe feeling calmer, more present, and less mentally ‘on.’”

How to take an 'invisible day' for better sleep

If taking an invisible day is unrealistic, Dr. Zhou suggests instead taking an "invisible hour" every night before bed.

"During this time, promise yourself that you won't turn on your work laptop, or see what your friends have posted on Tik Tok," he advises. "Instead, use this time to participate in something that you genuinely enjoy."

If you are able to take an invisible day, here's how to do it...

• Pick the date: Choose a low demand day when you’re unlikely to be needed
• Put your OOO on: Let those around you that you will be uncontactable during this time
• Establish an emergency contact method: If turning your phone off, set up an emergency contact method. This could be your partner or neighbor.
• Engage in mindful activities: Whether it’s puzzling with your kids or walking the dog, engage in activities you find relaxing

From monitoring your rest to optimizing your sleep, trackers have many benefits — but they aren't always accurate and some are just plain uncomfortable. However, the Oura Ring 4, down to $399.99 (was $499.99) at Amazon, fits like a glove and delivers some of the most accurate data of all the sleep trackers we've tested.

The glowing feedback from lead tester, Eve Davies, ensured we bumped this stylish smart ring to the top of our best sleep tracker guide. She said it presents data in "a clear, user-friendly format" and how the accompanying app provides actionable tips for improving your sleep.

I was surprised to see the Oura Ring 4 on sale at Amazon, as I predicted it wouldn't be discounted until next week's Amazon Prime Day sales. I've just received mine and I can't wait to start using it. Here's a closer look at the deal, and if you want to upgrade other aspects of your sleep, check out ur guide to the best Amazon Prime Day mattress deals ahead of this year's 4th of July mattress sales...

Accurate data to optimize your sleep

The Oura Ring 4 stands out due to its advanced technology, which adapts to your finger to maintain consistent skin contact, capturing highly accurate data on everything from heart rate variability to specific sleep stages.

To help users understand their rest, the companion app summarizes complex data into user-friendly daily Sleep and Readiness scores. It also pairs these metrics with actionable sleep advice.

While the price and required monthly subscription fee may not fit every budget (even in the sale), its comprehensive performance justifies the investment for anyone who wants to optimize their sleep.

The device provides up to six nights of battery life on a single charge and delivers reliable, scientifically grounded insights that mirror professional polysomnography testing.

Smaller budget? Try this...

I was a sleep tracker skeptic until I got my Withings Sleep Analyzer and now I check my metrics every morning. For a long time my sleep score has hovered around the low-70s, but recently I noticed my sleep score tracking upwards. The other day, I finally cracked 90. And it's all thanks to the 7:1 sleep method.

This simple rule, backed by a huge new study, prioritizes consistency over hacks and it's given my sleep the boost it needs. The best sleep trackers take in a range of metrics before giving your final score and with the 7:1 sleep rule, I'm pleasing all those data points.

It's not just my sleep tracker that's noticing the results. I'm experiencing fewer 3 a.m. wake ups, I'm getting up before my alarm and I feel fresher during the day. Here's why the 7:1 sleep rule is the sleep hack you (and your sleep tracker) will love — and how to follow it yourself.

Key takeaways

• The 7:1 sleep rule encourages you to get seven hours sleep a night, falling asleep within a consistent one hour time frame, and doing so at least five nights a week.
• This consistent sleep schedule helps regulate your circadian rhythms, so you fall asleep faster, experience less late night wake ups, and wake up fresher.
• If you're tracking your sleep, following the 7:1 rule can boost your metrics to achieve a higher sleep score.

What is the 7:1 sleep rule?

The 7:1 sleep rule was coined following a white paper created by Vitality and The London School of Economics, which found those who followed simple sleep hygiene rules could potentially increase their lifespan by four years.

The rule has several key principals: at least seven hours sleep a night, falling asleep within a consistent one hour time frame, five nights a week.

While many think of 'eight hours' as the gold-standard for good sleep, after analyzing the data of over 100,000 individuals the researchers found the time you go to bed has as big an impact on your health and wellbeing as clocking up enough hours.

"Our bodies run on an internal 24-hour clock known as the circadian rhythm," explains Dr. Betsy Greenleaf, health and longevity expert at International Pause Institute. "Think of it as your master body clock that regulates everything from hormone production and metabolism to immune function, body temperature, digestion and brain performance."

"Many people focus on getting a certain number of hours of sleep, but the timing of that sleep could be just as important," she says.

How the 7:1 sleep rule is boosting my sleep scores

I started using the 7:1 sleep rule almost by accident when my bedtimes happened to align across a week.

I stuck with the 7:1 sleep rule when I noticed I was sleeping better — and my sleep scores had skyrocketed. And not just my overall sleep score; on the whole my metrics had a boost.

"Sleep consistency is one of the most overlooked tools we have for improving our total health," explains Dr. Greenleaf.

"Sleep consistency has huge downstream effects from a hormonal standpoint," she says, noting that your sleep schedule impacts stress, blood sugar, and even the growth hormones necessary for repairing tissue.

Here are the benefits of the 7:1 sleep rule my sleep tracker has picked up on...

1. I'm falling asleep faster

Sleep latency is the time it takes you to drift off from the moment your head hits the pillow. A healthy sleep latency is around 10 to 20 minutes and the 7:1 sleep rule can help you achieve it by teaching your body the time to sleep.

"When your body knows when to expect sleep, it starts getting ready in advance," explains Dr. Greenleaf. "Melatonin [the sleepy hormone] is more predictable, cortisol [the awake hormone] rises properly in the morning, and falling asleep is easier and more efficient."

Sleep latency is something I've often struggled with but since following the 7:1 sleep rule, I'm falling asleep faster night after night. That's less time spent tossing and turning, more time spent in high quality sleep.

2. I'm waking up less at night

It's normal to wake up a few times during the night as you transition through cycles of light, deep and REM sleep. However, these fleeting disruptions can turn into longer 3 a.m. wake ups when your sleep schedule is irregular.

"One big advantage of a consistent sleep and wake schedule is that people tend to sleep more without even knowing it," explains Dr. Greenleaf. "Consistency will help you sleep better. Eight hours of broken bad sleep is not equal to eight hours of restorative sleep."

The 7:1 method regulates your circadian rhythms, which means your body and your hormones are all primed to sleep during the night. This helps you ease between the delicate sleep stages without waking you up.

3. I'm waking up fresher

I used to consider my alarm to be enemy number one as it rudely interrupted my slumber. We're on better terms lately, because my regular sleep schedule means I'm ready to go by the time my alarm chimes.

Waking up is another part of the hormone cycle your circadian rhythm regulates. When you have a consist routine, your body will start releasing the chemicals it needs to feel alert during the early hours of the morning. Think of it like a cup of coffee in your sleep.

And because you've slept with fewer interruptions, you've not only cleared away the sleep pressure that builds up during the day, you've also enjoyed the vital restoration of deep sleep.

"We often think of sleep as something that happens at night, but the truth is that good sleep starts the moment we wake up each morning and is built from the habits we repeat every day," says Dr. Greenleaf.

More ways to boost your sleep score

Your sleep score isn't the be all and end all of sleep but it's a good way to determine the quality of your rest and find areas for improvement. And it's nice to see your score tick up — who doesn't like getting a good grade in sleep?

Alongside the 7:1 sleep method, here are some other hacks you can use to boost your sleep:

• Keep to a set wake up time (even on weekends): A regular wake up time reinforces your body clock and can help you keep to the 7:1 sleep rule (waking up at the same time, gets you tired at the same time.)
• Get sunlight in the first hour after waking up: Sunlight tells your circadian rhythm it's time to be awake, so try drinking your coffee outside.
• Lower the lights before bed: Bright white lights remind your body of daytime, so opt for dim amber bulbs in the evening.
• Stop drinking coffee in the afternoon: Caffeine has a half life of around five hours, which means your 3 p.m. latte can still be in your system at bedtime.
• Stay active: Exercise creates adenosine, the hormone responsible for sleep pressure, so keeping active makes it easier to fall asleep (and bonus, it'll please your fitness tracker as well.)

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