Course description

Do you lie awake for ages, wake at 4 or 5am and can't get back to sleep, or wake up feeling as tired as when you went to bed? This course shows you, step by step, how sleep works and what you can change to sleep better, using the self-help approaches the NHS recommends.

It's a full course, not a list of tips. There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a practical exercise to try that day or night. You follow a fictional school business manager in Hexham through 12 weeks of her sleep diary, from nights of four and a half hours to a steady routine, with the exact times from her diary, the mistakes she made and how she fixed them. Every section has a worksheet, model answers, a cheat sheet and printable tools.

What you'll learn

• Understanding sleep: sleep stages and cycles, your body clock, how much sleep adults need, and how to keep a sleep diary.
• Your sleep now: common causes of poor sleep, reading your diary, sleep efficiency and when to talk to your GP.
• Daytime habits: a regular wake-up time, daylight and activity, caffeine, alcohol and naps.
• Your bedroom: dark, quiet and cool, your bed and pillows, phones and screens, and sharing a bed with a snorer.
• Getting to sleep: a wind-down routine, relaxation techniques, and what to do when you can't sleep or wake in the night.
• A busy mind: worry time, unhelpful thoughts about sleep, clock-watching, and low mood and anxiety.
• Real life: shift work, travel, clocks changing, late nights and staying safe when you're tired at the wheel.
• Sleep through life and sleep problems: getting older, pregnancy, menopause, pain, caring, insomnia, snoring and sleep apnoea, restless legs and what sleeping pills and remedies can and can't do.

The final project

You'll keep a sleep diary for a week, choose a few changes from the course, follow your own four-week sleep plan, then review your diary and decide what to keep. A project brief, a plan builder spreadsheet and a review sheet are included.

Who this course is for

• Adults who find it hard to get to sleep, stay asleep, or who wake too early.
• People whose sleep is disturbed by stress, shift work, a snoring partner or the menopause.
• Anyone who wants to understand their sleep and make sensible changes that last.

How the course works

Read each lesson, then try the exercise that day or night. You don't need any equipment: the printable sleep diary is enough. The course gives general guidance, not medical advice, and tells you clearly when to talk to your GP or a pharmacist. You keep lifetime access, so you can come back whenever you need a reminder.

What will I learn?

• Understand sleep stages, your body clock and how much sleep adults need
• Keep a sleep diary and work out your time in bed, time asleep and sleep efficiency
• Use a regular wake-up time, daylight, activity and sensible caffeine and alcohol habits to help you sleep
• Set up a dark, quiet, comfortable bedroom and manage phones, screens and a snoring partner
• Build a wind-down routine and use relaxation and the get-up-if-you-can't-sleep approach
• Handle a racing mind at night with worry time, a thought record and less clock-watching
• Cope with shift work, travel, clock changes, late nights and tiredness when driving
• Know when to see your GP, what insomnia treatment involves, and plan four weeks of better sleep

Frequently asked questions