On the subject of sleep, I subscribe to the “take heed to your physique” mindset. I’m a contract author, which means I can go to mattress every time I need and get up both alone or every time my emergency alarm lastly jolts me awake (assuming I remembered to set one). There’s little consistency, and I really feel little disgrace in hitting the snooze button 5 instances. I’ve by no means actually questioned my course of—regardless that I usually fall sufferer to a presleep toss-and-turn and get up feeling sluggish. 

After speaking to Jade Wu, PhD, a board-certified behavioral sleep drugs specialist and creator of the brand new guide Hi there Sleep, I’m impressed to make my sleep habits a bit extra routine. A constant sleep-wake schedule, Dr. Wu tells SELF, is extremely essential when it comes not solely to sleeping soundly at night time, however conserving quite a lot of physique capabilities—like digestion, hormone regulation, and physique temperature—in examine. 

One easy option to get right into a groove of sleeping higher: Get up on the similar time each morning. “The explanation you wish to rise up across the similar time every single day is as a result of the physique capabilities finest when it runs constantly on a rhythm,” Dr. Wu says. Right here’s why it’s an ideal thought for thus many well being and happiness causes (no matter whether or not you truly have to)—plus make it occur when you’re getting sleepy simply fascinated about it.

Waking up on the similar time every morning can assist you sleep higher at night time—and make it simpler to get away from bed within the morning.

Your physique clock, or circadian rhythm, is the system that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. It’s closely depending on clues out of your setting, says Dr. Wu, which is why mild makes you’re feeling alert and awake, and why you begin to really feel sleepy round nightfall. The sunshine you see if you get up primarily tells your physique it’s morning, which means it’s time to get away from bed and begin your day. 

By opening your eyes like clockwork each morning, you’re primarily programming your physique for higher sleep. “Constantly having that mild cue on the similar time within the morning will go a extremely great distance in anchoring your 24-hour clock,” Dr. Wu says. Over time, your physique will robotically know when to launch melatonin—a hormone that induces sleepiness—at night time and when to cease producing it within the morning, she explains, which might make it simpler to each go to sleep at night time and get up able to go within the morning. 

Inconsistent wake-up instances can actually mess along with your physique clock.

For those who get up at completely different instances every day—and even when you hold a reasonably constant sleep schedule in the course of the week however sleep in each weekend—your mind will get confused and begin to launch melatonin at bizarre hours. It’s sort of like consistently touring to completely different time zones and getting jet-lagged, Dr. Wu explains. In case your wake-up instances are all over, it’ll possible be more durable to get night time’s sleep, she says, and you’ll have points concentrating the subsequent day.