December 03, 2025
3 min read
Key takeaways:
- Behavioral changes, like stopping caffeine intake in the afternoon, can improve sleep.
- But the approach to picking behavioral change goals is important.
DALLAS — Behavioral changes, and the approach to choosing these goals, can be instrumental in improving sleep, according to a speaker at the American College of Lifestyle of Medicine’s annual meeting.
Insufficient sleep remains a public health issue in the United States, with one in three American adults not getting enough rest or sleep every day, according to the CDC.
Behavioral changes, like stopping caffeine intake in the afternoon, can improve sleep. Image: Adobe Stock
Dayna Lee-Baggley, PhD, a registered psychologist at Saint Mary’s University in Canada, noted during her presentation that improving sleep hygiene is often recommended to patients with poor sleep “but very rarely do we get the actual instructions for how to do it.”
Choosing a behavioral change
Lee-Baggley explained that people should pick a behavioral change goal for sleep improvement that they are “90% sure they can do, because success breeds success.”
“When we set up goals that people can’t achieve, they feel like they’re failing at it and they just give up,” Lee-Baggley said. “That’s human nature. Pick something you’re almost sure you can do and work your way up for that.”
She recommended picking a “do instead” goal, where people establish what they will do instead of something they are trying to stop, rather than focusing on just the act of stopping.
“We often pick ‘don’t do’ goals,” she explained. “This is a well-established effect called the fat suppression effect. The more you try to not think about something, the more you think about it.”
Lee-Baggley pointed out that sleep has many “do instead” goals.
For example, “I’m going to stop drinking caffeine. [So], what are you going to do instead of that caffeine?” she said. “You want to get to that step; that’s a more effective behavior change.”
It is important to track one’s progress of goals “to remind yourself you are making a change,” and to prepare for setbacks.
“They question really isn’t if you will fall off the wagon. The question is how quickly you can get back on,” Lee-Baggley said. “Things are going to interfere with your habits … It’s called life. How quickly you can get back to your routine is a much more important skill than trying to stop yourself completely.”
Behavioral changes for sleep improvement
Certain behavioral changes may work more effectively for certain sleep issues, Lee-Baggley said.
For example, for people who have difficulty falling asleep, “there are many factors throughout your day that are going to influence how tired you are once you get to bedtime,” she said.
Among these factors include sleep drive, circadian rhythm, caffeine and alcohol intake, getting up at the same time daily, medications and physical activity.
“Things like napping or lying in bed can reduce our sleep drive,” Lee-Baggley said.
She noted a 90% goal for waking up at the same time each day could consist of waking up 30 minutes earlier for one week.
“A 90% might not be like, ‘I wake up sometimes at 9 or sometimes at 10, and now I’m going to start waking up at 6 a.m.,’” she explained. “One thing you can do is move it backward by 30 minutes. If you’re getting up at 10, let’s just try and get up at 9:30. And then after a week of that … you can slowly move yourself back to a regular wake-up time.”
Meanwhile, a “do instead” goal may include drinking lemonade in the afternoon as opposed to caffeine.
Lee-Baggley also discussed the importance of setting up a good sleep environment — like using a comfortable mattress, sleep mask, weighted blanket, white noise and ear plugs — and establishing a wind-down routine, which could include a shower or bath, mindfulness apps and a relaxing activity.
“These are all about preparing your body for sleep, and people can try different things,” she said. “It takes a while for those pairings to work in your brain, so these are not things that change overnight. You want to keep doing them often for a couple weeks before your brain starts to pair those two things and you notice improvement in your sleep.”
Sources/Disclosures
References:
Disclosures:
Healio could not determine relevant financial disclosures at the time of publication.
Ask a clinical question and tap into Healio AI’s knowledge base.
- PubMed, enrolling/recruiting trials, guidelines
- Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news
- Healio’s exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data
