Sleep Handbook

Sleep Handbook is an independent guide to one problem: being tired but unable to sleep. It is written for anyone who is exhausted and still lying awake. It explains why tiredness and sleepiness are two different signals, the numbers worth running on yourself, and it gives away a free seven-night sleep diary and tracker.

The guides

• Start hereWhy Am I Tired but Can't Sleep? The main guide: what is actually happening, the numbers to run on yourself, and the contradictions in the standard advice.
• Wired but Tired Exhausted and switched on at the same time — why arousal is a lock rather than energy, and what lowers it.
• Why Do I Wake Up at 3AM? Why the back half of the night behaves differently, why sleep hygiene does not touch it, and what to do in the first twenty minutes.
• Waking Up Too Early Why the night ends before it should, why going to bed earlier moves the morning earlier, and how to tell a shifted clock from a night that is being cut short.
• Why Do I Feel Worse After More Sleep? Why the hour you add at the end of the night is not the hour you lost, and how to tell a short-lived fog from one that lasts all day.
• Why Am I So Tired in the Morning (and Fine by Evening)? Three clocks are low when you wake. Why the first hour is the worst, why feeling fine at night is a measurement, and what the time your fog lifts tells you.
• Why Do I Sleep Better Away From Home? Your own bed predicts waking because of what has happened in it. Four reasons a hotel beats home, and how to find out which one is yours.
• Tired and Feeling Numb? When exhaustion comes with no interest in anything, and the point where it stops being a sleep problem.
• Tired but Not Sleepy Why fatigue and sleepiness are two different signals, and what to do when the sleepy feeling will not show up.
• How to Stop Trying to Sleep Why effort makes it worse, how to stop clock-watching, and what to do in the moment.
• Can You Forget How to Sleep? Why the ability is never actually lost, why it can start abruptly after an illness, and why the same fix helps one person and hurts another.
• Why Does Exercise Keep Me Awake? Why a hard session can block sleep instead of helping it, and what to change if evenings are your only time.
• Will a New Mattress Fix My Sleep? A bed can change four physical things and none of the psychological ones. The free tests to run first, and why the first month on a new one is often worse.
• Should We Sleep in Separate Beds? Five things change on the first night, and only four of them are problems. A four-week test with three numbers a night, and the cheaper fixes to spend first.
• Why Doesn't Melatonin Work? It sets the clock; it does not switch sleep on. Why the hour matters more than the dose, what the label actually contains, and the order to check.
• Why Do I Sleep Worse When My Partner Is Away? An empty bed removes four signals at once, and the back half of the night breaks first. How to tell a trained habit from a fear, and whether sleeping in another room helps.
• Do Weighted Blankets Help You Sleep? A large effect on how a night feels, and none on what the wrist monitor recorded. Why 14 kg is no better than 7 kg, and a one-week test that costs nothing.
• Does White Noise Help You Sleep? It does not make you sleepy; it shrinks the jump in sound that wakes you. Why it works in a noisy room, does nothing in a quiet one, and becomes the thing that wakes you when the timer ends.
• Does Alcohol Help You Sleep? It buys the first half of the night and charges it to the second. Why two drinks is the worst trade, and why the morning rating is the one to trust.
• Does Caffeine Still Affect You at Bedtime? A six-hour cutoff is not a safety margin: half of a 400 mg dose can still be there at bedtime. Why clearance is personal, and how to find your own cutoff.

What this site is

Sleep Handbook is a small, single-purpose reference, not a magazine and not a blog. The content is assembled from multiple independent sources and first-hand accounts, and where published guidance contradicts itself the disagreement is shown rather than smoothed over. The diary and the spreadsheet tracker are free to print or download, with no sign-up and no email required.

Read more about Sleep Handbook, see how to contact us, or read the privacy policy.