Good sleep is the foundation of mental health, yet almost 40% of Australian adults report regularly getting inadequate sleep. Here is what actually helps.
Anchor your wake time
A consistent wake time — even on weekends — is the single most powerful lever for resetting your body clock. Bedtime can vary; wake time should not.
Get morning light
Ten minutes of daylight within an hour of waking tells the brain when ‘day’ starts, which sets the timer for melatonin release that night.
Protect the last hour
Bright screens, work emails and doom-scrolling keep the brain in alert mode. Dim the lights, put the phone in another room and do something genuinely relaxing.
Do not lie awake
If you are awake for more than 20 minutes, get up, sit somewhere dim and quiet, and return to bed when sleepy. This protects the association between bed and sleep.
Retrain the mind
When insomnia has become a pattern, the problem is often the anxiety about not sleeping. Hypnotherapy can be highly supportive here, teaching the nervous system to drop into rest and giving you a personalised recording to guide you down each night.
“Sleep is not something you do — it is something you allow. Hypnotherapy teaches the mind how to allow it.”