How to Sleep Like a Caveman: Top Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep

March 14th 2025 is World Sleep Day, dedicated to highlighting the importance of good sleep. In this edited extract from his new book How To Sleep Like A Caveman, published by William Collins, Dr Merijn van de Laar shares tips that you can try this World Sleep Day and beyond. Let's find out more!

Don’t believe everything you read or hear about sleep. Many things you think you know about sleep are probably incorrect, stemming from research data not being placed in the correct context, or unscientifically substantiated cultural trends. Flashy, clickbaity, ‘newsworthy’ media reports can further reduce the reliability of information about sleep that reaches us.

Let go of the 8-hour rule. It is common to sleep between 5 hours 20 minutes and just over 7 hours, as objectively measured by actigraphy. To this you should add about 23 minutes because, generally, we tend to overestimate our own sleep. This means that an average good length of subjective sleep is between just under 6 hours and almost 7½ hours. However, this varies person to person – so you need to experiment to find your personal optimum sleep length.

Use a sleep diary to record your subjective sleep pattern. This will give you an idea of how you think you are sleeping and allow you to compare it to how you feel. Don’t watch the clock while you are in bed, because it might lead to more restlessness. Instead, fill the diary in every morning for 3 weeks based on your perception of sleep.

Discover your personal sleep needs. If you sleep fairly continuously but feel like you are getting too little sleep, you can extend your total bed time a bit. If you continue to have restful nights and function better during the day or even feel less sleepy, you know you’re on the right track with your longer total bed times. If you are in bed a relatively long time and experience a lot of fragmented sleep while not feeling rested during the day, you might be oversleeping, in which case, shortening total bed time might help you feel more alert and rested.

Examine your attitude towards lying awake at night. Realise that it is normal for us to lie awake at night. We have forgotten how to lie awake because, in industrialised countries, we are faced with higher sleep pressure due to shorter total bed time. Stress causes us to have more restless nights. This can manifest itself in lying awake more in terms of duration, but also in lying awake more restlessly. Don’t ask yourself why you don’t sleep, but rather examine why you lie awake so restlessly.

Reduce stress. To reduce daytime or nocturnal stress, use mindfulness or relaxation exercises, but also look at structural stressors in your life and remember that you often have a choice in how you allow those things to become a predator of your night.

Keep regular bedtimes. The basis of our sleep is a strong circadian rhythm. Strongly varying the time at which you go to bed is not supportive, so keep a regular rhythm in bedtimes.

Follow the rules of nature. Reconnect with nature and use natural light during the day and less (artificial) light in the evening. Create an ambient temperature drop in the evening. Even thinking about nature can help you achieve better relaxation. Use your body in a natural way by doing exercise and walking (preferably in nature).

Respect your personal circadian rhythm. Skip the 6 a.m. exercise class if it does not fit with your natural circadian rhythm. Try to find out what your biologically determined day–night rhythm is and try to follow it as much as possible.

To hear more from Dr Merijn van de Laar, check out his new book, How To Sleep Like A Caveman.