These Are The 8 Habits You'll Want To Avoid Before Bed To Improve Your Sleep, Per Doctors And Research

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Whether you’re telling yourself, “just one more,” as you hit the next episode button on Netflix, or you’re stuck in a doomscrolling sesh on TikTok, it can be difficult to shake bad sleep habits—but it’s critical for your sleep health.

“Sleep is an essential part of your overall health and wellbeing, [and] it impacts everything from memory consolidation and immune system strength to cardiovascular health,” says James Rowley, MD, director of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center. In fact, a 2025 study in SLEEP Advances looked at the association between insufficient sleep (which the study defines as less than seven hours of sleep nightly) for adults and life expectancy. It monitored participants’ sleep habits starting in 2019, and found that sleep insufficiency is negatively correlated with life expectancy.

But no one’s bedtime routine is perfect. Ahead, sleep doctors explain the habits that you should avoid before bed to improve your shuteye.

1. Limit your use of lights.

Our brains’ process of releasing melatonin, a key hormone for sleep, is inhibited by lights—including from light bulbs and your phone or television—says Jose Colon, MD, a sleep medicine physician at Lee Health. “Bright light tells your brain it’s daytime, while dimming the lights signals to your body that it’s time for rest,” he adds.

There’s some good research on this topic: A 2024 study in SLEEP looked at the sleep habits of nearly 50,000 people and found that those who reported sleeping with a TV on slept for a shorter duration and had a more inconsistent sleep and wake time.

You can limit screen time by taking up other activities before bed, of course. Sleep docs like to recommend reading, but you can also do some journaling or take a warm shower, says Roger Washington, MD, medical director and founder of the Sleep To Live Well Foundation.

Blue light glasses may not be the best solution, either. A small 2021 study in Sleep Health had healthy adults wear either blue light glasses or clear glasses for a week from 6 p.m. until bedtime. It found that blue light-blocking glasses did not objectively improve sleep time or quality.

2. Don’t engage with stimulating content.

Another reason to quit doomscrolling, watching TV, or looking at emails before bed? Regardless of whether you’re consuming positive content such as a funny show, or negative content such as a devastating news report, this content triggers emotions and arouses (or stimulates) your mind, says Pakkay Ngai, MD, the medical director for the Sleep-Wake Center at Palisades Medical Center.

“Emotional arousal raises the heart rate and keeps the brain’s salience network active, delaying sleep onset,” adds Monika Mathur, MD, a neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. Basically, this means that your brain stays active and alert instead of winding down.

However, if you are going to whip out a screen before bed, it’s best to find something calming to look at. Dr. Colon says for him, that’s watching elephants on National Geographic.

Your body needs to be cool to fall asleep, and when you exercise, you’re raising your body’s temperature. So, for optimal sleep, working out in the morning is better so your body has enough time to regulate its temperature, says Dr. Colon.

Some forms of exercise are worse than others for sleep, too. For instance, high-intensity exercise—like HIIT, sprint intervals, and heavy resistance training—”pushes the body toward performance mode” because it elevates your heart rate and awakens your body’s alertness system, says Dr. Washington.

So you might want to save those types of workouts for morning and afternoon sessions, or opt for a gentler workout like yoga at night. It can release chemicals that “elicit feelings of safety, softness, and yielding,” Dr. Washington adds.

But if you can only fit your workout in after work, just make sure you don’t exercise any closer than two hours before bed, says Dr. Mathur. Actually, research indicates that you may want to exercise more like four hours or more before bed.

A 2025 study in Nature Communications looked at the relationship between strenuous evening exercise (high-intensity and long in duration) and sleep in nearly 15,000 active individuals over one year using data from WHOOP trackers. Later exercise timing—or exercise ending four hours or less before bed—and higher exercise strain was associated with delayed sleep onset, shorter sleep duration, and lower sleep quality.

4. Try not to drink coffee after 2 p.m.

The caffeine in coffee “masks signals of sleep need by blocking adenosine,” a chemical in the brain that helps you feel sleepy, says Dr. Washington, “and alters sleep quality and next-day functioning.” Therefore, you won’t feel sleepy and are more likely to stay up later. Your ability to sleep well is “affected by caffeine even when people say they don’t feel it,” he adds.

Plus, a 2023 review in Sleep Medicine Reviews looked at studies on the association between caffeine and sleep. It found that caffeine consumption less than 8.8 hours before bedtime reduced total sleep by 45 minutes and sleep efficiency by 7 percent.

5. Do your best not to stress out.

“Chronic stress is a major cause of poor sleep, creating a vicious cycle where high cortisol levels disrupt sleep, and lack of sleep increases stress,” says Dr. Ngai. Increased cortisol disrupts you from both falling asleep and working through every sleep stage throughout the night, adds Dr. Mathur.

If you’re stressed at bedtime, you can journal what’s bothering you so you don’t have to worry about it while you sleep, then you can deal with it the next day, says Dr. Colon. Also, try slow, deep breathing. This can help you relax and unwind before hitting the pillow, Dr. Ngai adds.

If you find that you are unable to fall asleep after 20 minutes, Dr. Ngai recommends getting out of bed and doing a relaxing activity in low light—like reading a book, continuing journaling, or coloring—until you feel tired.

6. Try not to eat close to bedtime.

It’s best to avoid eating anything, but especially a large meal, two to three hours before bed. “Digesting a heavy meal requires significant energy, which can raise your body temperature and prevent you from entering deep, restorative sleep stages,” says Dr. Ngai. Doing so can help you avoid acid reflux, which can contribute to a poor night’s sleep.

7. Don’t keep your bedroom hot.

If it’s cold outside, it might be tempting to turn up your thermostat. However, your body needs to be cool to sleep: Exposure to heat increases the likelihood of waking during the night, according to an older review in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology. That heat can also decrease slow wave (or deep sleep) and rapid eye movement sleep.

Ideally, your bedroom should be kept between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. “This drop in temperature is closely linked to the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes you feel sleepy,” explains Dr. Ngai. A cool room is therefore conducive to a “deeper, more restorative sleep,” he adds.

8. Avoid going to bed angry.

Trying to doze off while you’re mad can not only mess with your relationships, but also with restorative sleep. “Going to bed angry keeps the brain in a problem‑solving and vigilance mode,” Washington explains. Anger may drive those adrenaline-like chemicals to keep you in a state of alertness, readiness, and attentiveness, which can make it harder to fall and stay asleep.

If you want to revamp your sleep habits in hopes of better Zs, just try one or two of these habit tweaks at first, and see how you feel. You can always make more changes as you go along. Better sleep, ahead!

Meet the experts: James Rowley, MD, is the director of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center. Jose Colon, MD, is a sleep medicine physician at Lee Health. Roger Washington, MD, is the medical director and founder of the Sleep To Live Well Foundation. Pakkay Ngai, MD, is the medical director for the Sleep-Wake Center at Palisades Medical Center. Monika Mathur, MD, is a neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California.