Book a Free Assessment

Free Resources

I regularly record and publish sleep coaching resources here on my blog, and on my YouTube Channel to help and support you to start learning about overcoming insomnia and other sleep problems.

To receive notifications when new resources are published, I'd encourage you to join my e-mail community below.

Beatrix A Schmidt

Sleep Coach, Professional Speaker, creator of the Sleep Skills for Life Programme and the Author of The Sleep Deep Method®

Sleeping well consistently every night is less about your science ‘knowledge’ and more about developing practical sleep skills

Join my community to start learning how to develop your sleep skills

By submitting this form, you agree to subscribe to the newsletter and give us permission to contact you via e-mail. Please be assured your personal information will not be shared with anyone else and will be processed strictly in accordance with our privacy policy - click here 

There is no such thing as 'quick', 'easy' and 'effortless' but...

Of course, you can also learn those practical ways that you can overcome your sleep problems and insomnia too.

Since 2014, I have published many articles and videos to help you get to know your sleep better and overcome sleep problems and even insomnia. Some of the videos are recorded at previous talks or simply answering a question from my audience on a particular topic.

On this page, you will find the most recently published resource.

Image of Beatrix A Schmidt YouTube Channel Header

How to increase sleep efficiency and overcome sleep problems and insomnia

How to increase sleep efficiency and overcome sleep problems and insomnia

There are many misconceptions when it comes to your sleep quality and what you need to do to overcome insomnia and other related issues. I wanted to talk about sleep efficiency today as I think this is something you can benefit from understanding so it can really help you work towards improving your sleep.

Over the years I have been surprised by how differently people perceive sleep efficiency.

Some of those people would follow advice that unfortunately, decreased the amount of efficiency they had when it came to sleep. Even though you might understand what it is, it doesn't mean you can make it happen.

There is often that missing gap between the knowledge itself and how to transfer it into a practical approach that helps you overcome your sleep problems or even insomnia. So we're really going to look at those practicalities and how to use them to your advantage.

 

The basics of sleep efficiency

Sleep efficiency is very simply the difference between the amount of time you spend in bed, versus the amount of time that you actually spend sleeping in bed. Good sleep efficiency is 85% or better of your time in bed being asleep. 

One of the first misconceptions that I come across is that you might expect to fall asleep as soon as you are in bed. the second part of this misconception is that you think you should stay asleep until it’s time to get out of bed.

That can put a lot of pressure on you, and links to another problem I address which is sleep perfection here is a video on sleep perfection )

Focusing on your sleep efficiency being good when it’s 85% or above gives you a bit of wiggle room, which we all need to transition from daytime to nighttime in the evening and nighttime to daytime in the morning.

After all, falling asleep is a process, just like waking up is a process so can never really achieve 100% sleep efficiency!

Not allowing yourself wiggle room or being perfectionistic can be very unrealistic, especially when you're struggling with sleep problems or insomnia that have been around for long periods of time.

This is a word of warning there to make sure that you're not putting too much pressure on yourself first. 

Feeling under pressure will only make it harder for you to relax enough to fall asleep and sleep through the night peacefully.

 

A practical example of 85% sleep efficiency

Let's say you go to bed at 11 pm, and wake up at 7 am, that's your sleep timeframe in bed.

Of course, it doesn't have to be this timeframe for you, everyone is different. But whatever timeframe you have, it is important to really look at if it works for you or not. 

Looking at the 11 pm to 7 am timeframe, an 85% sleep efficiency works out as sleeping for 6 hours 50 minutes. So sleeping just under 7 hours within that 8-hour timeframe in bed. 

As you can see, that gives you the opportunity to have a bit of that wiggle room.

This example is my sleep timeframe and my sleep efficiency tends to be higher than 85%, because I have learned so many different tools and techniques that help me make that happen in a practical way.

But you don't have to put that pressure on yourself to get a high percentage upfront, just really look at where you're at and focus on growing from there. If you have been struggling with sleep problems or even insomnia, then any improvement in sleep efficiency is a good start, and you can build on your progress over time.

 

How to work out your sleep efficiency

Now that you have an idea of what percentage to aim for, how can you work it out?

You might have a guess about how much you sleep.

Some people use tech like a watch or other wearable device that tells them how they slept. But one of the best ways to really educate yourself and understand where you're at is by keeping a sleep diary. 

This way you can really start understanding on a daily basis how you are sleeping, and keep track before you forget. You can also see what differences you can make to influence your sleep, or maybe spot some of the things that hinder your progress. 

This is a practical way of getting to know your sleep in a very objective way, and not in an emotional way. When people struggle with sleep problems, they often tend to think negatively about sleep. This can mean you miss out on noticing your progress and the good things that are working for you.

If you keep a sleep diary properly you can start to spot trends, track progress and refine your efforts towards what is working best for you.

By keeping a sleep diary effectively, you'll be able to work out your current sleep efficiency and see how different nights might result in increased or decreased %. When you find that some nights are better, please take a moment to really celebrate those good parts, no matter how small an improvement that is. 

 

Manage your expectation

As I mentioned before, it's really important not to put a lot of pressure on yourself, because it can actually make things worse. The more you worry about how you will sleep, or the more you put yourself under pressure to achieve 85% or more sleep efficiency, the more you end up fighting or even criticising yourself. 

Pressure doesn’t help us to switch off and allow ourselves to sleep really well. So if you discover that your sleep efficiency is lower, just look at improving let's say 5% at first, and take it one step at a time.

And when you see improvement, look at what helped you in a practical way and continue moving forward and build on the progress you made.

Those are the basics of what sleep efficiency is and how you can use it in your goal to overcome chronic or long-term sleep problems and even insomnia.

Of course, if you have any questions then feel free to submit them through the link below.

Have a question about sleep problems and insomnia?

Submit your questions via the #askBeatrix page here 

Join my community to start learning how to develop your sleep skills

Sleeping well consistently every night is less about your science ‘knowledge’ and more about developing practical sleep skills

By submitting this form, you agree to subscribe to the newsletter and give us permission to contact you via e-mail. Please be assured your personal information will not be shared with anyone else and will be processed strictly in accordance with our privacy policy - click here