If you've ditched the nighttime habits that typically ruin sleep — from alcohol to heavy meals and evening exercise — but are still waking up at night, you may be wondering exactly what's going wrong.
Well, those 3 a.m. wakeups may actually be down to your nighttime routine; the period of time you spend winding down before bed.
A good bedtime routine "helps you sleep straight through by training your body clock so you feel sleepy and stay asleep at the same time each night," Dr. Saema Tahir a sleep and pulmonary specialist says.
However, there are a few mistakes you could be making in yours without realizing they're having a detrimental effect on your sleep.
Here, we've spoken to Dr. Tahir, and Dr. Aric Prather, sleep scientist and expert at UCSF and BetterSleep to explore what they are, and how ditching them helps you stay asleep all night.
4 nighttime routine habits waking you up at night
If you want to sleep through the night, most of us are already familiar with common sleep-destroying habits, such as drinking alcohol or consuming caffeine too late in the day, eating a large, heavy meal.
However, there are other, unexpected mistakes in your nighttime routine that might be keeping you awake at night...
1. Completing one final 'productive' task
Even if your nighttime routine is otherwise gold-standard, you may have allowed a few 'productive' tasks to slip in as the day winds down.
"People have a tendency to squeeze in one more task, to 'complete; the day, but we need an adequate wind down routine to transition to sleep.
"Using that mental energy, which is sometimes paired with stress and anxiety, certainly can delay sleep onset," says Dr. Prather.
In terms of impacting nighttime awakenings, stress and anxiety can increase your baseline cortisol levels, so that when the hormone naturally starts to rise at 3am, levels are high enough to trigger a wakeup.
And, while it can seem like spending the lead-up to bedtime ticking off a few unfinished work tasks could help you sleep more easily, as Dr. Prather points out, "sending that last email" can be counterproductive.
"The content revs your brain up and stressful thoughts linger, dings can nudge you awake later, and the screen light tricks your brain into thinking it's daytime, so you fall asleep later and sleep more lightly."
2. Drinking too much bedtime tea
While a cup of chamomile tea or a Sleepy Girl Mocktail can be a great part of a nighttime routine, your sleep-inducing drinks might actually be negatively impacting your night's rest.
Dr. Tahir explains that "a lot of water right before bed" can "cause one to have to urinate at night often," and research has shown that too much fluid intake can cause nightime wakeups and nocturia (the technical term for needing to pee during the night).
One study found that participants who drank more than 500ml of liquid in the two hours before bedtime experienced lower sleep efficiency, more nighttime wakeups and 100% of them experienced nocturia.
With the growing focus on optimizing sleep, some people have complicated, intensive routines. This can put a lot of pressure on the sleeper when things don’t go to plan
Dr. Aric Prather, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, San Francisco
The good news is that this same study found that comparatively, those who drank a moderate (250ml-500ml) or low (less than 250ml) volume of liquid in the two hours before bedtime experienced fewer nighttime awakenings, had higher sleep efficiency and a lower percentage experienced nocturia, with "no significant sleep impairment" between these two groups.
So, you don't need to ditch your fruit tea, tumeric milk or mushroom tea altogether, just be mindful of the volume and even consider, as urologist Dr. Daniel Sadowski previously told us, limiting fluids altogether in the four hours before bedtime.
3. Winding down with the wrong things
"So often, people want some 'me' time before bed, but the activities they engage in may be too activating," Dr. Prather explains.
It might feel relaxing to spend a bit of time online or watching TV, and you may even have justified including it in your nighttime routine, especially if you're not staying up until 2 a.m. scrolling your phone.
"Sure, catching up on the news can be important or checking in your favorite social media feed, but that reward or anxiety, or stress that content can produce, can be detrimental to sleep," Dr. Prather says.
Dr. Ola Otulana previously explained that phone use in particular is mentally stimulating, which can delay the production of melatonin and disrupt your circadian rhythm, leading to restless sleep.
Timing is everything, and the best option is to limit these kind of stimulating activities to before you start your bedtime winddown.
“Turn off news and social media at least an hour before bed,” Dr. Otulana recommended. It's science-backed advice, as one study found that every hour spent on your phone before bed increased the chance of insomia by 59%.
4. Overoptimizing your nighttime routine
Prioritizing your nighttime routine is great, but the growing number of TikTok sleep trends and focus on sleepmaxxing (aiming to perfect sleep by focusing on often elaborate bedtime routines, hacks and sleep tracking) means some of us may be overengineering our pre-bed regimen.
"With the growing focus on optimizing sleep, some people have complicated, intensive routines. This can put a lot of pressure on the sleeper when things don’t go to plan," says Dr. Prather.
In fact, becoming overly focused on the 'perfect' sleep can even lead to orthosomnia, which researchers describe as "obsessive pursuit of optimal sleep metrics based on fitness tracker or mobile phone app data."
Sleep tracking can be a helpful way to understand how you're sleeping and look at ways to improve it, which may even involve adjusting your bedtime routine.
However, as Dr. Prather points out, you don't have to take your windown rituals to the extreme.
"Our bodies crave predictability, and they don’t require elaborate protocols. What often works is to keep it simple, do relaxing things, and do them consistently," he says.
What to do before bed to sleep through the night
A great nighttime routine doesn't have to include dozens of steps — these are simple ways to help you wind down and sleep well.
Ensure your bedroom is sleep-friendly before bed
The foundation of great sleep is making sure you have the best mattress for your sleep style, but outside of that, Dr. Tahir has some other tips for how to prepare your sleep space in the lead up to bed.
"Keep the bedroom quiet, dark, and cool (around 60–68°F/15.6-20°C), since heat, light, and noise fragment sleep," she says.
If that feels a little cool, one study found that 65 to 70 F (18 to 21 °C) is the ideal temperature range for sleep. On the flip side, if you're a naturally hot sleeper, you might want to consider cooling bedding or even investing in one of the best cooling mattresses as well as keeping your bedroom cool.
Dimming the lights in your bedroom during your nighttime routine and using a light-blocking eye mask in bed can be helpful, as can sleep headphones (which you can even wear during your wind down).
Take a warm bath or shower
While the idea of getting warmer before bedttime might seem at odds with the above advice of creating a cool environment in your sleep space, it's actually surprisingly effective.
Dr. Tahir explains that a "warm bath [before bed] helps by nudging your body temperature down, the signal your body uses to drop into deep sleep."
After heating in the bath (or alternatively, the shower), our bodies experience a drop in core temperature that naturally happens before sleep, helping our brains and bodies recognize that it's time to rest.
In fact, a review of studies found that the ideal temperature for a warm bath or shower ahead of bedtime to improve sleep quality and sleep efficiency was in the range of 104 °F to 108.5 °F/40-42.5 °C and to help you fall asleep faster, it should be taken 1-2 hours before going to sleep.
Swap work for calming activities
When it comes to the best activities for a nighttime routine, Dr. Prather suggests "putting the work away, doing calming and sleep supportive activities — like reading, or doing a meditation, or spending time with loved ones (including pets!)."
"These types of positive, calming behaviors can help transition the body and brain to sleep," he explains.
One study found that reading for as little as six minutes before bed can reduce stress by 68%, while another study found that sleep quality was improved by reading a book in bed.
Sleep meditation can also be hugely beneficial, "Several studies have found that guided meditation programs can improve sleep quality and reduce insomnia symptoms," Dr. Leah Kaylor previously explained.
Alternatively, you could opt for gentle stretching, journaling or listening to relaxing music.
"Doing the same calming things nightly... lowers the stress and stimulation that jolt people awake in the middle of the night," says Dr. Tahir.
How quickly can you expect to see improvements in your sleep?
Both experts we spoke to said that making positive changes to your nighttime routine can potentially improve your rest quite quickly, but that lasting change to the quality of your sleep takes time.
"Sleep is a dynamic process, and the journey to enacting meaningful sleep changes is much the same. Establishing a bedtime routine can take some tinkering but likely something that can become anchored within a few nights" Dr. Prather says, suggesting a sleep diary to keep track of what is working well.
"Also, it’s really important to recognize that extra pressure on making sleep perfect is part of the problem," he adds.
"Bigger, lasting change usually takes a few weeks, with real improvement often showing up around the one-month mark and building from there. The key is consistency over time, not one perfect night," says Dr. Tahir.
However, as Dr. Prather explains, "If someone regularly wakes up throughout the night, consistently wakes very early, or feels exhausted despite getting enough time in bed, it's worth looking beyond their nighttime routine."
He points out that persistent sleep disruption can have many different causes, "and sometimes the answer isn't another sleep hack – it's talking to a healthcare professional or sleep specialist."
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