Particularly since the pandemic, we’ve turned the bed into a kitchen, office and movie theater, confusing our brains about what our beds are really for, says Dr. Matthew Walker, a world-leading sleep researcher and author of Why We Sleep. He suggests keeping the bedroom cool, around about 64°F, to allow for good sleep, and dimming the lights to allow the release of melatonin, the hormone that helps to time the healthy onset of sleep. Try turning half of the lights off in your home in the last hour before bed and you’ll be surprised how soporific and sleepy you become when shrouded in darkness, he adds.

Take a 20-minute nap between midday and 3pm – it benefits learning and memory, and can even reduce some level of anxiety, says Dr. Walker. Any longer, like 45–60 minutes, will cause sleep inertia, which is essentially a sleep hangover where the brain is pulled back out of a deep sleep state, and it can take almost an hour to get back up to speed so you might feel worse (if you suffer from insomnia, avoid naps if you can because they deplete the adenosine fueling your sleep drive).

Keep your feet on the ground and stay sitting upright, if you can. Don’t recline on the sofa if there’s a risk you’ll fall asleep, suggests Dr. Maja Schaedel, a Clinical Psychologist specializing in insomnia, sleep difficulties and trauma, and co-founder of The Good Sleep Clinic (goodsleep.clinic).

Set yourself an alarm for ‘go to bed’ time to help to keep your sleep on track, suggests Dr. Guy Meadows, co-founder and Clinical Lead at London’s Sleep School (sleepschool.org). Only hit the snooze button once – each time the alarm goes off, heart-rate stress chemicals increase, so use an alarm just that one time in the morning to wake you up, says Dr. Walker, but don’t repeatedly hit the snooze button because it repeatedly assaults your cardiovascular system.

If you wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to go back to sleep after about 15 or 20 minutes – and if there’s a risk you’ll start to become more agitated by lying in bed and not sleeping – Dr. Schaedel suggests getting up and going into another room, reading a book or listening to music, and then trying bed again when you’re feeling more relaxed. Alternatively, prop up a pillow so you’re sitting upright in bed, turn on a low lamp on and read a book for a while.

Waking up at the same time, being physically active and getting plenty of natural light (even if it means just being by a window) all makes a difference, says Dr. Sophie Bostock – The Sleep Scientist (thesleepscientist.com). A familiar bedtime routine, the kind of thing you do for children, is good for adults, as well, because the brain absolutely loves predictability and feels very reassured when you’re doing things in the same order.

Sleep is not like the bank, where you can accumulate a debt and hope to pay it off later, says Dr. Walker. We never get back sleep that has been lost. It is better to get consistent sleep than suffer ‘social jetlag’ by binging sleep at weekends. Tracking your sleep can do more harm than good, says Dr. Meadows. While it brings benefits of better understanding our relationship with caffeine and alcohol consumption, exercise levels and stress, spending too much time focusing on sleep is not a good thing. There is now a new sleep disorder, courtesy of our trackers, called orthosomnia (heightened sleeping anxiety due to obsessive tracking).

Alcohol disrupts the flow of natural sleep and blocks REM dream sleep, which is essential for emotional and mental health. Technology at night is cognitively stimulating for the brain, so try to switch off use of devices an hour before bedtime.

Having a bath, or even just a foot bath, helps us sleep faster and deeper, says Dr. Bostock. When you’re surrounded by warm water, the body automatically sends more blood flow to your extremities, warming the periphery so when you get out of the bath, you experience a rapid cooling effect, helping to lower your core body temperature.

Dr. Schaedel recommends a progressive muscle-relaxing exercise – where you go through your whole body, squeezing and tensing your muscles and then relaxing them – because if you relax your body, it helps you to relax your mind, she says. If your body starts to feel relaxed, it tricks your mind into thinking that everything’s safe to go to sleep.

Fiona McCarthy is a leading international lifestyle journalist, author and contributing editor. Follow her on @thechicshopper