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• Staying asleep

  How to sleep through the night

  To sleep through the night, make each wake short instead of trying to have none. That means a fixed wake time, a tighter sleep window, a cool dark room, nothing to look at when you surface, and nothing to drink late. Almost nobody sleeps through without surfacing; most adults wake a few times and barely notice.

• Staying asleep

  Why do I wake up at 3am?

  You wake at 3am because the second half of the night is made of lighter sleep, and by then something small is enough to break it. A hormone climbing towards morning, last night's wine wearing off, a warm room, a full bladder or a worry. Which one is yours varies, but none of them is a message.

• Falling asleep

  Can't stop thinking about work at night? How busy minds switch off

  Work follows you to bed because unfinished tasks stay open in the mind until they're written down, and bed is the first quiet of the day. The approach with the best evidence is to close them on paper before you go up. A detailed to-do list works; so does a short worry slot earlier in the evening.

• Falling asleep

  Racing thoughts at night: why your mind speeds up at bedtime

  Your mind speeds up at bedtime because bed is the first quiet it's had all day, and quiet is where unfinished things surface. Add a body clock that's still alert in the early evening, and a bed that has learned to expect thinking. The racing starts the moment the light goes off.

• Falling asleep

  How to fall asleep faster, according to the evidence

  Four habits have real trials behind them: a fixed wake-up time, bed only when you're sleepy, a warm bath earlier on and no screens in the last hour. Each works with the two systems that decide when sleep arrives. The tricks promising sleep in minutes have much thinner evidence.

• Falling asleep

  How to switch your brain off at night

  If you're here, your head has probably been loud for a while. You can't switch a brain off, but you can give it something dull to hold and remove its fuel: a list before bed, a bed you leave when you're wide awake, a clock you can't see. In the dark it has nothing else to do.

• The evening

  What time should I go to bed? Work back from your wake-up time

  Go to bed at the time that gives you seven to nine hours before the alarm, plus however long you take to fall asleep. Count back from your wake-up time rather than forward from when you feel tired. The alarm is the fixed point, and the body clock learns the morning.

• The evening

  Why your wake-up time matters more than your bedtime

  If you change one thing about your sleep, make it the time you get up, not the time you go to bed. Your wake-up time sets your body clock and starts the sleep pressure that decides when you'll feel sleepy tonight. Bedtime follows from it; it rarely works the other way round.

• The evening

  Why a bedtime ritual works better than a routine

  A bedtime ritual works better than a routine because it's built to be noticed, not just completed. A routine is a list of jobs; a ritual is the same few actions, in the same order, done with your attention on them. Research on rituals finds the attention is what settles people, and a checklist leaves it out.

• The evening

  How to wind down before bed

  Winding down before bed means giving your body an hour of lower light, less effort and nothing new to think about. That's what gives sleep a chance to start. The NHS suggests at least an hour; what you fill it with matters less than what you keep out of it.

• The evening

  How to build an evening routine that sticks

  An evening routine sticks when it starts with a cue you can't miss, not a list you have to remember. Pick one fixed time, put the phone somewhere else, and do the same two or three things in the same order. Repetition in the same setting is what turns a plan into a habit.

• Better sleep

  Fall asleep fine but can't stay asleep? Why the two problems differ

  If you fall asleep fine but can't stay asleep, the first half of your night works and the second half doesn't. Falling asleep runs on sleep pressure, which is high at bedtime and spent by 3am. Staying asleep leans on your body clock and on the room, which is why alcohol and heat show up after midnight.