Whatever your goals are for 2025, whether they’re personal, professional or health related, there’s one thing that will stand all of them in good stead: prioritising sleep. After all, being well rested is a bedrock of wellbeing and resilience.
“I always compare sleep to the foundation of a house, not just a wall. And that is because your physical and mental health, your performance, your ability to deal with stress, they all depend on sleep,” says Dr Kat Lederle, sleep and circadian rhythm specialist at The London General Practice. “You can have the best diet in the world but if your sleep quality is poor, your body will struggle to make best use of the food.”
In fact, there’s little in life that doesn’t benefit from getting a decent night’s sleep. And as Lederle notes: “Sleep, and in particular deep sleep, are helpful for consolidating intentions and for realising them.”
Know your needs
As with any goal, if you want to give your sleep a new year reset, it’s a good idea to think about what’s going to work best for you. The optimal bedtime and wake time might not be the same for everybody. Whether you’re a night owl or early bird might come into this, but in reality for a lot of us it’s about our lifestyles, jobs, health and family set-ups.
“Find out what your sleep needs are – how much sleep you need and at what time. We all have our personal sleep window, during which we will get the most efficient sleep,” says Lederle.
Focus on your ‘why’
“Reflect on why you want to improve the quality of your sleep, what do you find easier to do or feel like when you have slept well?” suggest Lederle.
Motivation experts often talk about the importance of intentionality when setting goals, and the fact we tend to have much more success when we’re doing things that feel genuinely important to us (rather than just doing things because we think we ‘should’). Improving our sleep is no different – so sit down and write a list of the reasons/benefits you’ll gain from prioritising it.
Think about what is in your control
Perfection does not exist, especially when it comes to sleep, and we can all do ourselves a big favour by remembering this. It’s normal to wake briefly during the night, and while consistency is often hailed as the key to good sleep, for most of us there will be days when getting eight uninterrupted hours of slumber just won’t happen. As frustrating as this can be, to help, Lederle suggests focusing on what is in your control.
“If you’re struggling to keep a consistent bedtime, explore why you struggle. Are there things that are in your control that you could perhaps tweak? Are you going to bed too early or too late? What do you do in the evening, binge-watching or mindlessly and endlessly scrolling through social media? Is it a busy mind? Are work demands too high?
“Many parents and mums in particular juggle childcare, chores and job demands – and yes, having the feeling that there aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all is real,” she adds. “They are many different things that can get in the way of a consistent bedtime, rather than demonising any of them, let’s see why it happens and also what small changes could be made.”
Look at what’s going on during the day
Sleep isn’t just about what happens at bedtime either. If our daytimes are filled with stress and caffeine for example, that probably won’t help.
“You start preparing for your sleep the moment you wake up,” says Lederle. “So everything you do/don’t do, eat, drink, light exposure can have an effect. Including doing too much – work, exercise, projects. While we call ourselves human beings, human doing might be more apt.
“Sleep is a natural, gentle process and it needs a bit of lead-in time, so a bit of wind-down time in the evening can help. Taking mini-breaks during the day can also have a beneficial effect on sleep at night, teaching the body-mind that it is not all about doing, it does not need to always problem-solve, rest is allowed too.”
Be patient
Remember, even if you’re only nailing your sleep reset goals 50% of the time, it’s still worth it. Give it time and let those ‘bad’ nights go.
“Humans are biological organisms, they are not machines or computers where you can code a new programme, press start and then it plays,” says Lederle. “Make a step at a time, small steps are easier to do and maintain than big ones! But most importantly, do not set expectations – rather intentions.”
