What is sleep hygiene?
Sleep hygiene involves a collection of behaviours and bedroom set-up strategies that can improve sleep.
This section of the learning module is quite large. There are a wide variety of strategies presented. Try the ones that appeal to you. When introducing new behaviours, try one at a time. This will make it easier to tell if a strategy is helpful or not.
Can sleep hygiene strategies help with migraine?
Yes. Researchers studying people with migraines showed that those who followed sleep hygiene instructions had fewer and less intense migraines compared to those who followed different instructions not related to sleep hygiene (sham instructions). The sleep hygiene instructions used in the study were:
- Go to bed at the same time every night (to allow for 8 hours in bed).
- Eat your evening meal at least 4 hours before bed.
- Use visualization (also called imagery) techniques to help fall asleep.
- Don’t take naps.
- Don’t read, watch TV, or listen to music in bed.
- Stop fluid intake 2 hours or more before bedtime.
The researchers focused on only 6 sleep hygiene strategies. These and several others can be explored in this section of the learning module. You will find them divided into
pre-sleep strategies (that you do close to bedtime),
daytime and early evening strategies, and
setting up your sleep space.
