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When I'm going through a period of poor sleep, going to bed feels more like snuggling up in a pit of snakes. My heart thumps and I'm overwhelmed by a sense of 'not this again.' Experts refer to this phenomenon as nighttime anxiety and it occurs when a regular lack of sleep makes you dread going to bed.
My solution is normally either forcing myself to stay up until I'm exhausted, or going to bed hours earlier than normal to catch up on sleep. Both of these approaches are wrong, according to experts. So what does work? Consistent bedtimes.
Known as the one-hour bedtime rule, this method requires you to go to bed and waking up within the same one-hour window at least five times a week. Here experts explain how this enables your circadian rhythm and sleep pressure to regulate so that you can fall asleep faster and beat nighttime anxiety.
Key takeaways: At a glance
- Nighttime anxiety describes the stress many people with sleep difficulties feel around bedtime, as your poor sleep makes going to bed into a source of stress.
- The one-hour bedtime rule encourages people to go to sleep and wake up within the same one-hour window at least five times a week. This is also the '1' part of the '7:1 sleep rule'.
- Sticking to a regular bedtime means your sleep pressure and body clock are aligned, so that you have an easier time falling asleep quickly.
- Pick a bedtime that suits your schedule and gets you the amount of sleep you need.
- Anchoring your bedtime and your wake time helps you to fall asleep quicker and stay asleep, even when you're experiencing stress and anxiety.
- It's recommended that adults get seven to nine hours sleep a night, although age, health and genetics impact the amount of sleep each individual needs.
What is the 'one-hour bedtime rule'?
Research from 2026 analyzed data collected from 105,000 participants detailing 47 million nights of sleep and found that falling asleep within a one hour time frame and sleeping for at least seven hours, a minimum of five nights a week, could potentially extend your lifespan by two to four years.
This follows a 2024 study that suggests sleep regularity could be a better indicator of mortality risk than sleep duration. In other words, the time you went to bed might be more important than how many hours you slept.
So does that mean you have to be in bed at the exact same time every night? That might be the ideal but let's be honest, life doesn't work like that. The one-hour rule gives you a more achievable way to meet this bedtime goal.
Start by picking your ideal bedtime. This is when you aim to fall asleep each night of the week. You use this to determine your sleep window, which extends 30 minutes either side of the central point.
For example, if you choose a 10.30 p.m. ideal bedtime, your one-hour sleep window is from 10-11 p.m. If you choose a 9.30 p.m. bedtime, your one-hour sleep window is from 9-10 p.m.
Your bedtime should fall within this sleep window at least five nights a week.
How a consistent bedtime helps you fall asleep faster
So how can the one-hour bedtime rule help you fall asleep faster when your mind is racing? It's all about rhythm and consistency.
I've found my anxiety spikes around bedtime, as my mind is freed from mundane thoughts to focus on every little worry. This peaked a few weeks ago, when a health issue (now sorted) became my sole focus as soon as the lights went out.
My first response was an early night, in an attempt to catch up on missed sleep. When that didn't work, I stayed up until I was exhausted — but that just added to my stress.
Then, on the advice of experts, I went back to basics and stuck to the one-hour rule. Picking my perfect bedtime, I followed a relaxing wind-down routine and climbed into bed. At first, it seemed as though my anxiety wouldn't let me go.
However, by night three my bedtime and sleep window had aligned. Even though the anxiety was still there, it seemed distant — my sleep pressure and body clock overwhelmed it, allowing me to drift off faster.
1. It regulates your circadian rhythm
The 60-minute sleep rule puts the focus on establishing a routine, and that routine quite literally teaches your body when to sleep.
"Your body clock, governed by light exposure and consistent sleep timing, has a window of maximum sleepiness that is partly fixed by your chronotype and your recent sleep history," explains Sheree-Ann Michelle, Pharmacist and Functional Medicine Health Coach at The Wellnaissance.
Your circadian rhythms, or body clock, helps create this window of sleepiness through your hormones. When you follow a routine, your internal clock learns the best times to release melatonin (to make you sleepy) and cortisol (to wake you up.)
That means during your 60-minute time frame, your body is internally prepping itself for sleep, helping offset the cortisol spike cause by anxiety.
"Going to bed significantly outside that window, even in the earlier direction, can work against the natural melatonin curve and make sleep onset harder rather than easier," says Michelle.
2. That, in turn, helps you fall asleep faster
When you've been experiencing nighttime anxiety, sleepiness sometimes seems like a lifeline, so I try to chase the feeling by getting into bed as early as possible. However, this can often exacerbate the problem.
"Large shifts in sleep timing can make it harder to fall asleep and wake up at your desired times," explains Dr. Aric Prather, sleep expert at BetterSleep.
You know that heavy-eyed, yawning feeling you get when you're ready for bed? It's called sleep pressure and it's driven by a hormone known as adenosine.
Adenosine builds the longer you're awake during the day, which is why sleep pressure is higher in the night.
And sticking to a sleep window allows that sleep pressure to peak at the same time every evening. So when you climb into bed, you're ready to give way to the pressure, dropping off quickly after the lights go out.
"Keeping a consistent wake time and allowing sleep pressure to build properly is far more effective than chasing more hours by going to bed earlier," adds Dr. Michelle.
3. It also strengthens the link between your bed and sleep
When I was experiencing a bout of nighttime anxiety earlier in the year, I climbed into bed the same way I'd enter a freezing cold bath: slowly, unwillingly and with the sense I was making a big mistake.
This was because I saw going to bed as a cue to lie awake (this is also why habits like bed rotting are bad for you.)
"One of the most important factors in consistently healthy sleep is a strong association between bed and sleeping," says Dr. Jessica Weatherford, CBT specialist at Catalyst Psychology.
The one-hour bedtime rule reinforces this association between 'sleep' and 'bed' by ensuring the only time you're tucked under the covers is during your optimum sleep window, as dictated by your hormones and circadian rhythm.
"When I'm treating clients for insomnia," says Dr. Weatherford, "one of the changes we make immediately is to reduce the amount of time they spend in bed awake, trying to force sleep."
Further sleep tips
A consistent bedtime is one of the golden rules for good sleep and by training your body clock to go to bed at a certain time, you have a good baseline in place for whatever your sleep throws at you.
However, this isn't a one night fix. These additional good habits can help ease your nighttime anxiety as you adjust to your new bedtime routine.
- Cut out caffeine: Caffeine raises cortisol levels (the awake hormone), blocks adenosine (responsible for sleep pressure) and has a half-life of around five hours. Cutting out caffeine in the afternoon allows your body clock to establish a more sleep-friendly routine.
- Try sleep meditation: Calming sleep meditations both help your body relax and distract the mind, so you're less focused on your nighttime anxiety and more open to sleep.
- Write down your worries: High cortisol levels means your brain often fills the hours spent awake in bed with every anxious thought it can. The constructive worry method encourages writing down problems and solutions, to turn to when your brain digs up all your stress.
- Follow the '15 minute rule': If you've been lying awake for more than 15 minutes, get up, leave the room and engage in a relaxing activity as sleep pressure builds. This maintains the association between bed and sleep.
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