Nov. 20, 2025 — As winter creeps in and the days get shorter, it’s easy to feel thrown off — especially when darker mornings and early sunsets mess with your internal clock. But if you’re trying to sleep better right now, experts say the most important changes don’t happen at night — they happen first thing in the morning. Read on for two simple steps to set yourself up for better sleep after sundown.
1. Set your alarm seven days a week.
Why it works: You need to set your body clock. As luxurious as it feels to sleep in, it may make it harder for you to fall asleep at night. “The most important thing is waking up the same time each day,” says Jeffrey Durmer, MD, PhD, a sleep medicine doctor. “That’s because of the chemical process and the brain's activation of its circadian rhythm.”
Science says: If you wake up at roughly the same time every day, your circadian cycle cues your body when it’s ready for sleep. That said, your natural bedtime can vary based on how strenuous your day was. But that cycle will help you get the sleep you need.
“This is a recommendation based on the science of circadian neurobiology,” Durmer says. Plenty of research — both with people and mathematical modeling — makes it clear, he says: “Wake times predict sleep onset times, not the reverse.”
Hype vs. reality: You’ve heard it from sleep apps, major medical groups, and influencers: Go to bed at the same time every night. (Search #bedtimeroutine on TikTok for some eye-openers.) But that advice “is a big fallacy, because sleep is a very dynamic process,” Durmer says. “Your body and your brain react to the day’s events, and sleep is something that reflects that.”
So go to bed when you feel sleepy — tune in to your body’s signals, since electric lights and distractions like TV and social media make it easy to miss them. If you hit the hay when you’re not feeling it just because it’s bedtime, lying awake in bed may contribute to insomnia.
2. Embrace that morning light
Why it works: Morning light — sun or artificial — tells your brain to wake up. As soon as your alarm goes off, open the blinds and turn on the lights. “What starts wakefulness is actually light, mainly,” Durmer says. “It inactivates sleep and promotes activity in the brain. That creates the beginning of your day.”
Science says: As light hits your retinas, it triggers your brain to produce energizing hormones and suppress melatonin, which jump-starts your next 24-hour wake/sleep cycle.
If you can, step outside — sunlight helps your body produce vitamin D, which plays a key role in helping you sleep. “I tell a lot of my patients not to wear sunglasses in the morning at all,” Durmer said. “Drive into work without your sunglasses, open the windows, let the light in.”
This will pay off at night. In a study published last year, people who got a regular dose of morning sunlight reported falling asleep faster — and staying asleep longer — than those who didn’t. And a review of 10 studies on insomnia found that exposure to bright artificial light in the morning led to better nighttime sleep.
Buy a bright light, if necessary, says sleep psychologist Deirdre Conroy, PhD, clinical director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the University of Michigan Health Sleep Disorders Center. “There are many products out there. Turn it on inside your home, and sit in front of that. What it’s doing is, it’s regulating your circadian rhythm.”
Don’t forget: In the evening, however, bright light can backfire. The same melatonin suppression it produces in the morning can happen at night. “When you’re exposed to bright light before your typical sleep episode, that can disrupt your circadian rhythm,” Conroy says.
About two hours before you want to hit the hay, dim the lights, turn off the TV, and turn on the “night” setting on your phone — it’ll screen out the blue light that disrupts melatonin, Conroy says.
