Weeks 1–2 · Baseline
Two weeks of diary, before changing anything.
The programs, in detail
Four programs of 6 to 10 weeks, each starting from two weeks of honest sleep diary.
Program 01 · Where everything starts
A steady schedule
Most people lie in bed far longer than they sleep, which teaches the body that bed is for being awake. We set one wake time, match time in bed to actual sleep, and rebuild from there. It is the least fashionable advice in sleep and the most reliable.
Weeks 3–4 · One wake time
The same alarm every day, weekends included.
Weeks 5–6 · Time in bed
Matching hours in bed to hours asleep.
Weeks 7–8 · Holding it
Keeping the schedule through a bad week.
Weeks 1–2 · The hour before
A sequence you will actually repeat.
Weeks 3–4 · The racing mind
Getting tomorrow out of your head and onto paper.
Weeks 5–6 · The room
Light, temperature, noise and the phone.
Program 02 · Winding down for real
The evening
Going from email to pillow in four minutes does not work. We build an hour that slopes downward, deal with the notebook-by-the-bed problem for a busy head, and set up a bedroom that is dark, cool and boring.
Program 03 · The two big levers
Light & caffeine
Light sets the clock and caffeine hides the evidence. We time outdoor light in the morning, dim the evening properly, and find your real caffeine cut-off, which is usually earlier than you want it to be. Alcohol gets an honest conversation too.
Weeks 1–2 · Morning light
Ten to twenty minutes outdoors, early.
Weeks 3–4 · Evening light
Dimming the house, and the screens question.
Weeks 5–6 · Caffeine and alcohol
Timing, amounts and what changes.
Weeks 1–2 · Your pattern
Mapping the rota or the travel year.
Weeks 3–5 · Anchors
Light, naps and meals placed on purpose.
Weeks 6–7 · Recovery days
Days off without wrecking the next block.
Week 8 · The plan
A written protocol for your schedule.
Program 04 · When the clock moves
Shift work & travel
Shift work and long-haul travel fight your biology, and no habit fixes that completely. What we can do is plan light, naps and meal timing around the shift, protect the sleep you can get, and recover deliberately on days off.
Want to see the pattern in your nights?
Twenty minutes on your schedule and the one change worth making first. Free.