Americans can’t sleep. About a third of Americans struggle with some form of insomnia, something experts attribute to stress, depression, screen use before bed, and substances such as caffeine and alcohol. And getting a good night’s rest is big business, with Americans spending billions each year on supplements, sleep-tracking devices and high-end mattresses.
What actually works? The Guardian asked a range of sleep experts – two psychologists, a chiropractor and a sleep podcaster – for advice on getting a good night’s sleep and the mattresses, linens and sleep accessories they swear by.
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Our sleep experts
Drew Ackerman, creator and host of Sleep With Me podcast
Aric Prather, licensed clinical psychologist, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UC San Francisco, and author of The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest
Janet K Kennedy, PhD, clinical sleep psychologist and founder of NYC Sleep Doctor
Andrew Bang, chiropractic physician at Cleveland Clinic
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Set a consistent bedtime routine
“I have had insomnia on and off since I was a kid,” said Drew Ackerman, creator and host of the popular Sleep With Me podcast. “The way I manage it now is just having a solid bedtime routine. It gives me something nice to look forward to instead of [bedtime] being something to dread.”
Ackerman said he likes to journal ($29.95), meditate, stretch out with a foam roller ($14.68) and read fiction at night. He likes the Insight Timer app (free or $60 a year for the premium version) for its broad selection of meditations.
Andrew Bang, an Ohio-based chiropractor who works with the Cleveland Clinic’s sleep clinic, said he encourages patients to do yoga or light stretching before bed. “We want you to go to bed as loose as possible so you don’t stiffen and tighten up during your sleep,” he said.
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Keep your bedroom quiet and dark, and avoid blue light
“I really stress that the bedroom should be like an oasis,” said Janet Kennedy, a sleep therapist. “It’s a place where you feel like you get to go at the end of the night.”
Kennedy said she uses a Yogasleep Dohm sound machine ($54.99), popular in therapists offices, and the Manta sleep mask ($39). “It stays put, it doesn’t put pressure on your eyes, and it is truly comfortable,” she said, adding: “It’s also really helpful for sleeping with a partner who doesn’t have the exact same schedule as you.”
Aric Prather, a sleep psychologist at UC San Francisco and author of The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest ($15), likes the Ozlo Sleepbuds ($299), which were created by a team of former Bose engineers. “They definitely drown out the noise, especially if you don’t have control over your environment,” he said.
He said he and wife also use a Hatch sunrise alarm clock ($169.99). “My wife loves it because it’s on her side. It mimics sunlight, birds chirping and crickets at night.”
“I definitely avoid blue lights and overhead [lights] at night,” said Ackerman, who lights his bedroom with the warm-hued Wind Down bulbs from Brilli ($39.98 for six).
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There’s no perfect mattress – just pick one with a good return policy
“You spend a third of your life laying down, so a bad mattress can aggravate [injuries] or create new ones,” Bang said, adding that medium-firm is typically the most recommended firmness – “although there’s no industry standard”.
One other reason to start with a mattress on the firmer side? “You can’t take softness away,” he said. “If a mattress feels too firm, you can always add a mattress topper [$295].”
The only way to know if a mattress is right for you is to sleep on it for a month, he said. “Look for a mattress company that has a good return policy,” he said. “Because no matter what mattress you’re getting, you need about 30 days for your body to adapt to what is new.”
Prather, who sleeps on a Simmons Beautyrest Classic ($1,219.99 for a queen bed), suggested looking into mattresses with cooling properties. “Core body temperature has to drop as we go into sleep, and some of these mattresses can help with that,” he said.
Ackerman, who in a past life sold mattresses on Craigslist, uses the Helix Dusk ($1,099 for a queen), which the company provided him, but said that no mattress is a panacea to insomnia. “It’s just one piece of the puzzle,” he said.
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Treat yourself to nice, cooling linens and consider weighted blankets
“I’m a huge proponent of an old-fashioned, crisp, cotton percale sheet,” said Kennedy, who said her favorite sheets are a discontinued Martha Stewart for Macy’s set. “I haven’t found a replacement yet, partly because they last a long time!” she said. “It makes me feel like I’m sleeping at my grandma’s house.” She also uses the Ice Cube pillow ($89.99) from Pillow Cube, which specializes in support for side sleepers, and an enormous blanket ($126.65) from Big Blanket Co. (“It actually fits over a king-size bed whereas a lot of king-size blankets are skimpy.”)
Ackerman, also a fan of crisp, cotton sheets, likes the weighted comforter ($308) from Baloo Living. “It feels like you have a ton of blankets on you but it’s still cool,” he said. “It’s like you’ve been tucked in.”
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There is some benefit to sleep trackers – unless they stress you out
“As a sleep scientist, I am always interested in new technologies that emerge to measure sleep,” said Prather, an early adopter of the Oura ring, a popular sleep tracker.
Ackerman said he currently uses the Apple Watch (starting at $249) sleep tracker. “It is good for finding patterns,” he said, “over a longer term to be like, ‘What’s really going on here?’ versus just reacting to it after one night.”
Bang said they can provide helpful clues to people struggling with poor sleep, adding that there are several low-priced apps on the market, including Sleep Cycle and SleepScore. “The downside is that these aren’t as sensitive and may not give the whole picture,” he said, adding that devices such as Whoop (starting at $149), the Oura Ring ($349) and even most smart watches can give more specific personalized data. “The gold standard is to get a sleep study that would be prescribed by a medical physician.”
“I typically caution against Oura rings for people who are anxious about sleep,” said Kennedy. She said while they can help some users recognize correlations between, say, drinking too much and getting a bad night’s sleep, in other cases “if you’re trying to hack your sleep, it creates a lot of frustration and anxiety,” she said.
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Danielle Renwick is senior editor, US partnerships at the Guardian.
