How to Sleep Better Without Medication: A Complete Natural Guide

# How to Sleep Better Without Medication: A Complete Natural Guide

It's 11:47 PM. You've been lying in bed for over an hour, watching the ceiling shift between shadows. Tomorrow is important — a meeting, a deadline, a kid's recital — and your brain won't stop reminding you how badly you need to sleep right now.

So you reach for the bottle on your nightstand. Maybe it's melatonin. Maybe it's a prescription your doctor wrote after a five-minute conversation. Maybe it's an over-the-counter antihistamine you've been using "just for tonight" for the past three months.

You swallow the pill, and twenty minutes later, something that vaguely resembles sleep arrives. It works — kind of. Enough that you do it again tomorrow. And the night after that.

If this is you, you're not weak. You're not doing anything wrong. You're doing what millions of people do every single night because nobody taught them the alternative.

This guide is that alternative.

Not a lecture about why medication is bad. Not a guilt trip. Just a clear, evidence-based walkthrough of natural approaches that address why you can't sleep — not just the symptom of being awake.

By the end, you'll have a complete drug-free sleep protocol you can start tonight.

Why People Reach for Medication

Let's be honest about why sleep medication is so popular: it works fast.

When you're desperate for sleep, you don't want a lifestyle overhaul. You want unconsciousness. And pharmaceutical companies understand this better than anyone.

The sleep aid market was valued at over $78 billion in 2024 (Grand View Research, 2024). That's not because everyone genuinely needs medication. It's because the marketing is exceptional and the alternatives aren't widely taught.

Here's what typically happens:

The doctor default. You mention poor sleep at a routine appointment. Your doctor — who has about twelve minutes with you and a waiting room full of patients — writes a prescription. It's not malice. It's efficiency. Behavioral sleep interventions take weeks to explain and months to implement. A prescription takes thirty seconds.

The supplement trap. You walk into a pharmacy and see an entire aisle of "natural" sleep aids: melatonin gummies, valerian root, CBD capsules, magnesium blends with proprietary names. They feel safer than prescription drugs, so you grab one. Then two. Then you're stacking three supplements and still not sleeping well.

The normalization. Everyone you know takes something. Your partner uses melatonin. Your coworker swears by Ambien. Your mom has taken Benadryl every night for a decade. It starts to feel like sleep medication is just... what adults do.

None of this makes you a failure. It makes you someone navigating a system that profits from your sleeplessness rather than solving it.

But there's a problem with all of these approaches — and it shows up the moment you try to stop.

The Rebound Effect: What Happens When You Stop

If you've ever tried to quit a sleep aid cold turkey, you know the experience: the first night without it is worse than anything that drove you to medication in the first place.

This is called rebound insomnia, and it's one of the most misunderstood aspects of sleep medication. It's not proof that you "need" the drug. It's proof that your body adapted to it.

Here's how it works with the most common sleep aids:

Melatonin: The "Harmless" Supplement

Melatonin is a hormone your body produces naturally. When you take it as a supplement — especially at the doses sold in most stores (5-10mg, sometimes even higher) — you're flooding your system with 10 to 50 times the amount your pineal gland would normally release.

Your body responds predictably: it downregulates its own melatonin production. Why bother manufacturing something that's already abundant?

Over time, you need the supplement to reach baseline. Without it, your natural melatonin signal is too weak to trigger drowsiness on its own. This isn't technically "addiction," but it's dependency — and it's remarkably common.

A 2022 study in JAMA found that melatonin use among U.S. adults had increased more than fivefold from 1999 to 2018, with many users taking doses far exceeding what research supports as effective (typically 0.3-0.5mg). We cover the full science — and how to taper off safely — in our deep dive on melatonin dependency.

Prescription Sleep Aids: Tolerance and Withdrawal

Benzodiazepines (Valium, Ativan, Klonopin) and Z-drugs (Ambien, Lunesta) work by enhancing GABA activity in the brain, essentially dampening your nervous system into something resembling sleep.

The problem: your brain compensates. It reduces its own GABA receptor sensitivity, meaning you need more of the drug to get the same effect. This is tolerance, and it can develop within weeks.

Withdrawal from these medications — especially benzodiazepines — can be genuinely dangerous and should always be done under medical supervision. Symptoms can include severe rebound insomnia, anxiety, and in rare cases, seizures (Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018).

Important: If you're currently on prescription sleep medication, do not stop abruptly. Work with your doctor on a tapering plan. This guide is about building natural sleep skills alongside — and eventually instead of — medication, not about quitting anything overnight.

Antihistamines: The Hidden Habit

Diphenhydramine (Benadryl, ZzzQuil) and doxylamine (Unisom) are the sleep aids people forget to mention because they're "just allergy medicine." But regular use leads to tolerance within days, and long-term use has been associated with increased risk of cognitive decline (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015).

The drowsiness you feel from antihistamines isn't natural sleep architecture. It's sedation. Your brain still isn't cycling through sleep stages the way it would without the drug.

The Core Problem

Every medication-based approach shares the same fundamental flaw: it treats wakefulness as the problem rather than addressing what's keeping you awake.

You can't drug your way into healthy sleep any more than you can caffeine your way into genuine energy. At some point, you have to work with your biology instead of overriding it.

That's what the rest of this guide is about.

Natural Alternative #1: Sound Frequencies and Brainwave Entrainment

Your brain produces electrical patterns — brainwaves — that correspond to different states of consciousness. When you're alert, you're in beta (14-30 Hz). When you're drowsy, you shift to alpha (8-13 Hz). Deep sleep lives in delta (0.5-4 Hz).

Here's what makes this relevant: your brain has a tendency to synchronize with external rhythmic stimuli. This is called entrainment, and it's one of the most well-researched natural approaches to sleep.

When you listen to sound frequencies designed to match delta or theta brainwave patterns, your brain gradually follows along. It's not instant — it typically takes 10 to 20 minutes — but it's remarkably reliable.

A 2019 study in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that participants exposed to binaural beats in the delta frequency range showed increased slow-wave sleep activity and reported improved sleep quality compared to controls.

How to Use Sound for Sleep

Binaural beats work by playing slightly different frequencies in each ear (e.g., 200 Hz in one ear, 203 Hz in the other). Your brain perceives the 3 Hz difference and begins to entrain toward that frequency — in this case, deep delta.

Isochronal tones pulse at the target frequency and don't require headphones, making them more practical for bedtime use.

Sound baths and singing bowls create complex harmonic overtones that naturally fall within sleep-promoting frequency ranges. They've been used for centuries, and modern research is beginning to validate what practitioners have long known.

We've written a comprehensive guide to this entire subject: The Complete Guide to Sound Healing for Sleep. It covers everything from the science of brainwave entrainment to specific techniques you can try tonight, including the differences between delta waves, 432Hz and 528Hz frequencies, and whether eight-hour sleep music actually works better than white noise.

Quick start: Tonight, try a delta-wave track (aim for 1-3 Hz binaural beats) played at low volume through comfortable headphones or a pillow speaker. Give it at least 15 minutes before judging. Your brain needs time to entrain.

Natural Alternative #2: Breathwork

If sound works by changing your brainwave state from the outside in, breathwork does it from the inside out — by directly shifting your nervous system from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) to parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) dominance.

This isn't metaphorical. When you deliberately slow and extend your exhale, you stimulate the vagus nerve, which triggers a cascade of physiological changes: heart rate drops, blood pressure decreases, muscle tension releases, and cortisol production slows (Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2018).

The reason you can't sleep isn't usually that you've forgotten how. It's that your nervous system is stuck in alert mode. Breathwork is the most direct way to flip that switch.

The 4-4-6 Breathing Technique

This is one of the simplest and most effective patterns for sleep:

• Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
• Hold for 4 seconds
• Exhale slowly through your mouth for 6 seconds

Repeat for 5-10 minutes.

The extended exhale is the key. It's what activates the parasympathetic response. Many people make the mistake of focusing on deep inhales — which actually increases sympathetic activation. For sleep, it's all about the exhale.

The Physiological Sigh

If you need something faster — say you're lying in bed with your heart racing after a stressful thought spiral — try the physiological sigh.

Discovered by Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman's lab, it's the fastest known voluntary method to reduce physiological arousal:

• Take a double inhale through your nose (one regular breath followed immediately by a short, sharp top-up breath)
• Follow with a long, slow exhale through your mouth

One to three cycles is often enough to feel a noticeable shift.

The double inhale reinflates the alveoli in your lungs (which collapse slightly when you're stressed), maximizing the surface area for carbon dioxide offload on the exhale. The result is an almost immediate reduction in heart rate and arousal.

We go deeper into the science and practice in The Physiological Sigh: Stanford's Fastest Calm-Down Technique.

When Breathwork Meets Anxiety

For many people, the reason sleep medication feels necessary is sleep anxiety — the fear of not sleeping, which creates the very arousal that prevents sleep. It's an insomnia-anxiety cycle that medication masks but never breaks.

Breathwork breaks it because it gives you something to do besides worry. Instead of lying there monitoring your wakefulness — "Am I asleep yet? Why not? What's wrong with me?" — you're engaged in a physical task with a clear physiological outcome.

If you deal with anxiety specifically around bedtime, combining breathwork with a body scan meditation can be especially effective. The breathwork calms the nervous system while the body scan redirects attention away from anxious thoughts and into physical sensation.

Natural Alternative #3: Light and Circadian Rhythm

Your body doesn't decide when to sleep based on what time your clock says. It decides based on light.

Specifically, specialized cells in your retina (called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, or ipRGCs) detect the blue-spectrum wavelengths in daylight and use that information to calibrate your circadian clock — a roughly 24-hour cycle that governs when you feel alert and when you feel drowsy.

When this system works well, melatonin (the real kind, made by your body) begins rising about 2 hours before your natural bedtime, peaks in the middle of the night, and drops off by morning.

When it doesn't work well — usually because of modern lighting — that melatonin signal gets delayed, suppressed, or flattened entirely.

Morning Light: The Most Underrated Sleep Tool

Getting bright light exposure within the first 30-60 minutes of waking is arguably the single most impactful thing you can do for your sleep — and it doesn't cost anything.

Morning light exposure:

• Anchors your circadian clock to a consistent schedule
• Triggers the cortisol awakening response (which you want in the morning)
• Sets a timer for melatonin release roughly 14-16 hours later
• Improves mood and daytime alertness, which reduces the need for stimulants

How much? Aim for 10-20 minutes of outdoor light within an hour of waking. Cloudy days still work — overcast outdoor light (around 10,000 lux) is roughly 20 times brighter than typical indoor lighting (around 500 lux).

Can you use a light therapy box? Yes, particularly in winter or if you wake before sunrise. Look for a 10,000 lux full-spectrum light (not blue light specifically) and use it for 20-30 minutes in the morning.

The Blue Light Problem (It's Not What You Think)

Blue light from screens gets a lot of attention, and while it does suppress melatonin, the magnitude of the effect is often overstated.

The bigger issue isn't the wavelength — it's the timing and the behavior.

Scrolling your phone at 11 PM isn't just exposing your eyes to blue light. It's:

• Stimulating your brain with novel content (dopamine)
• Triggering emotional responses (cortisol)
• Delaying the boredom your brain needs to transition into sleep
• Creating decision fatigue (what to watch, read, click next)

This is why blue-light glasses often disappoint. They address one small variable while ignoring the larger behavioral pattern.

The Digital Sunset

A more effective approach is what we call a digital sunset routine: a structured wind-down that reduces light exposure and cognitive stimulation in the 60-90 minutes before bed.

The basic framework:

• 90 minutes before bed: Dim overhead lights. Switch to warm, low lamps. Reduce screen brightness or activate night mode.
• 60 minutes before bed: Stop consuming new information (no news, no social media, no work email). Switch to passive activities: reading physical books, gentle stretching, conversation.
• 30 minutes before bed: Screens off entirely. Begin your pre-sleep routine (breathwork, sound, etc.).

This isn't about perfection. Missing a night won't ruin your sleep. But consistency over weeks retrains your brain to associate dimming light with approaching sleep — exactly the way humans slept for thousands of years before electricity.

Natural Alternative #4: Temperature

Your body temperature follows a circadian rhythm that's tightly linked to sleep. Core temperature peaks in the late afternoon and begins dropping in the evening. Sleep onset is triggered in part by this decline — your body needs to cool down by about 1-2°F (0.5-1°C) to initiate sleep.

This is why a warm bedroom makes falling asleep harder. It's also why a surprising trick — taking a warm bath — actually helps.

The Warm Bath Paradox

It seems counterintuitive: if your body needs to cool down for sleep, why would warming up help?

Because a warm bath (or shower) causes vasodilation — your blood vessels expand, rushing warm blood to your skin's surface. When you step out of the bath, that heat radiates away quickly, causing a rapid drop in core body temperature.

This drop mimics and amplifies the natural temperature decline that signals sleep to your brain.

A meta-analysis published in Sleep Medicine Reviews (2019) found that a warm bath taken 1-2 hours before bed improved both sleep onset latency (how quickly you fall asleep) and subjective sleep quality. The optimal water temperature was 104-109°F (40-43°C), and the sweet spot for timing was about 90 minutes before bed.

Optimal Bedroom Temperature

Research consistently points to a bedroom temperature of 60-67°F (15.5-19.5°C) as ideal for sleep (Sleep Foundation, Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 2012).

This is colder than most people keep their homes.

If 65°F sounds uncomfortable, remember: it's about core body temperature, not surface comfort. You can (and should) use blankets, socks, or a warm comforter. The key is that the air you breathe is cool, allowing your core temperature to drop even while your skin surface stays comfortable.

Other temperature strategies that work:

• Cooling mattress pads or toppers — these regulate bed surface temperature throughout the night
• Breathable bedding — natural fibers (cotton, linen, wool) regulate moisture better than synthetics
• Socks to bed — warming your feet causes vasodilation in the extremities, which paradoxically helps your core cool down faster (Physiology & Behavior, 2007)
• Separate blankets for couples — different people run at different temperatures; shared blankets force compromise

We break down all of this in detail — including seasonal adjustments and budget-friendly cooling strategies — in Best Bedroom Temperature for Sleep.

Natural Alternative #5: Nutrition and Supplements

Let's separate what works from what's marketing.

The supplement industry loves sleep because desperation sells. When you're exhausted, a pill that promises rest feels worth any price. But most "sleep supplements" are either underdosed, poorly absorbed, or solving a problem you don't have.

Here's what the evidence actually supports:

Magnesium: The One That Works

Magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic processes in your body, including the regulation of GABA receptors (the same system targeted by benzodiazepines) and melatonin production.

An estimated 50% of Americans are deficient in magnesium (Open Heart, 2018), largely due to soil depletion, processed food consumption, and stress (which burns through magnesium quickly).

Supplementing magnesium has been shown to:

• Improve sleep quality in older adults with insomnia (Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 2012)
• Reduce cortisol levels (Magnesium Research, 2010)
• Decrease symptoms of restless leg syndrome, a common sleep disruptor (Sleep, 2002)

Which form matters. Magnesium comes in many forms, and they're not equal:

• Magnesium glycinate — best for sleep; the glycine component is itself calming
• Magnesium threonate — crosses the blood-brain barrier; may support cognitive function
• Magnesium citrate — well-absorbed but can cause digestive issues
• Magnesium oxide — poorly absorbed; primarily a laxative

Dosage: 200-400mg of elemental magnesium taken 30-60 minutes before bed. Start at the lower end.

We cover the full science — forms, dosing, timing, and who should avoid it — in Magnesium for Sleep: The Complete Guide.

Tryptophan and Serotonin Pathway

Tryptophan is an amino acid that your body converts into serotonin, which is then converted into melatonin. It's found in turkey (yes, the Thanksgiving myth has a kernel of truth), eggs, cheese, nuts, and seeds.

Supplemental L-tryptophan (1-2g before bed) has shown modest benefits for sleep onset in some studies (Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2002). However, for most people, eating a dinner that includes tryptophan-rich foods alongside complex carbohydrates (which help tryptophan cross the blood-brain barrier) is sufficient.

What's Mostly Marketing

Valerian root: Frequently recommended, but the evidence is weak and inconsistent. A Cochrane review (2015) found no significant difference between valerian and placebo for insomnia. It might help some individuals, but the research doesn't support broad recommendations.

CBD: The hype has outpaced the science. While some studies suggest CBD may reduce anxiety (which could indirectly improve sleep), direct evidence for sleep improvement is limited and complicated by dosing inconsistency and the lack of regulatory standardization (Current Psychiatry Reports, 2017).

Lavender: Aromatherapy with lavender has some modest evidence for reducing pre-sleep anxiety (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2015), but it's more of a ritual/relaxation cue than a pharmacological intervention. If it helps you wind down, great — but it's not treating insomnia.

GABA supplements: Oral GABA doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier efficiently. While some newer forms (PharmaGABA) show mild anxiolytic effects, the evidence for direct sleep improvement is thin.

The Nutrition Basics

Before any supplement, get the fundamentals right:

• Caffeine cutoff: No caffeine after 2 PM (or earlier if you're a slow metabolizer — about 50% of people are). Caffeine's half-life is 5-6 hours, meaning half is still in your system that many hours after consumption (Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2017).
• Alcohol truth: Alcohol makes you drowsy but fragments sleep architecture, suppresses REM, and worsens sleep apnea. Even moderate drinking (2 drinks) reduces sleep quality by 24% (JMIR Mental Health, 2018). If you're using alcohol to sleep, you're trading consciousness for something that isn't really rest.
• Meal timing: A heavy meal within 2 hours of bed can increase core body temperature and cause digestive discomfort. A light snack containing tryptophan and complex carbs (e.g., banana with almond butter, small bowl of oatmeal) is fine.
• Hydration balance: Drink enough to avoid waking up thirsty, but not so much that you're making 3 AM bathroom trips. Front-load your water intake earlier in the day.

Building Your Drug-Free Sleep Protocol

You don't need to do everything in this guide. You need to build a system that's consistent enough for your body to trust.

Sleep is fundamentally about trust — your body needs to believe that it's safe, that the environment is right, and that sleep will come. Every night you follow through on the same routine, that trust deepens.

Here's how to build your protocol:

Step 1: Choose Your Anchor Habits (Pick 3)

Start with three non-negotiable habits from the alternatives above:

Morning anchor:

• 15 minutes of outdoor light within 1 hour of waking

Evening anchor (pick one):

• Digital sunset beginning 60 minutes before bed
• Warm bath/shower 90 minutes before bed
• Bedroom temperature set to 65°F / 18°C

Pre-sleep anchor (pick one):

• 10 minutes of 4-4-6 breathwork in bed
• Delta-wave sound track at low volume
• Body scan meditation

Three habits. That's it to start. Don't overwhelm yourself with a 15-step routine you'll abandon by day four.

Step 2: Set Your Sleep Window

Choose a consistent wake time — yes, wake time, not bedtime. Your wake time is the anchor for your entire circadian rhythm.

Pick a time you can maintain 7 days a week (including weekends). Consistency matters more than the specific hour. A 6:30 AM wake time you keep every day beats a "perfect" 6 AM target you hit Monday through Friday and abandon on weekends.

Then count back 8 hours. That's the start of your sleep window — the time you get into bed. If you're not sleepy at that time, don't force it. Read, breathe, listen to sound. But stay off screens.

Step 3: The 21-Day Commitment

Your body needs time to recalibrate. If you've been using sleep medication for weeks or months, your natural sleep drive and circadian rhythm need to rebuild.

Commit to your protocol for 21 consecutive nights.

What to expect:

• Days 1-5: Potentially rough, especially if you're tapering off medication. Sleep may be fragmented. This is normal. Your body is recalibrating.
• Days 6-14: You'll start noticing earlier drowsiness cues, slightly faster sleep onset, and more consistent wake times. The system is taking hold.
• Days 15-21: Sleep architecture begins normalizing. You may notice dreams becoming more vivid (a sign of restored REM cycles). Morning alertness improves.

Critical rule: Don't judge the entire protocol by night one. Or night three. Or night seven. Sleep isn't like flipping a switch — it's like fitness. The compound effect takes time, but it builds on itself.

Step 4: Iterate and Expand

After 21 days, assess what's working:

• Falling asleep faster? Keep your pre-sleep anchor.
• Waking up less during the night? Your temperature and light adjustments are working.
• Still struggling? Add another element — maybe magnesium, or a more structured sleep hygiene checklist.

Some people find their ideal protocol in three weeks. Others take two months. Both are fine. You're building a skill, not taking a pill.

Your Protocol Template

Here's a sample night using multiple elements from this guide:

| Time | Action |

|------|--------|

| 7:00 AM | Wake at consistent time. 15 min outdoor light walk. |

| 2:00 PM | Last caffeine. |

| 8:30 PM | Dim lights. Begin digital sunset. |

| 9:00 PM | Warm shower or bath (104°F / 40°C). |

| 9:30 PM | Light reading or gentle stretching. Set bedroom to 65°F. |

| 9:45 PM | Get into bed. Start delta-wave sound track. |

| 9:50 PM | 5-10 minutes of 4-4-6 breathing. |

| ~10:00 PM | Allow sleep to arrive. Don't chase it. |

Adjust times to your schedule. The pattern matters more than the specific hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I really sleep well without any medication or supplements?

Yes. Your body evolved to sleep without pharmaceutical assistance. For the vast majority of human history — roughly 200,000 years — every human who ever lived fell asleep without a pill. The biological machinery is still there. It may need recalibration if you've been relying on medication, but it hasn't disappeared. The approaches in this guide work with that machinery rather than overriding it.

How long does it take for natural sleep methods to work?

Most people notice improvements within 1-2 weeks of consistent practice, with significant changes by 3-4 weeks. However, this varies based on how long you've been experiencing poor sleep, whether you're tapering off medication, and how consistently you follow your protocol. Breathwork and temperature changes often produce the fastest results (sometimes the first night), while circadian rhythm adjustments typically take 5-7 days to show effects.

Is melatonin safe to take long-term?

Melatonin is generally considered safe for short-term use (a few weeks), but long-term daily use is less well-studied and may lead to dependency and reduced natural production. If you do use melatonin, research suggests that much lower doses (0.3-0.5mg) are more effective than the 5-10mg doses commonly sold, and timing matters more than dosage — take it 2-3 hours before your target bedtime, not right as you get into bed.

What if I have a diagnosed sleep disorder like sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome?

This guide addresses behavioral and environmental approaches to sleep improvement and is most relevant for people with general insomnia or poor sleep habits. If you have a diagnosed sleep disorder, work with your healthcare provider on treatment. That said, many of these strategies — particularly temperature optimization, breathwork, and circadian rhythm management — are beneficial alongside medical treatment. They're complementary, not competitive.

Can I combine these natural approaches with my current medication?

Absolutely, and in fact that's often the best approach. Rather than quitting medication abruptly (which we specifically advise against), you can build natural sleep habits while still using your current aid. Over time, as your natural sleep skills strengthen, you and your doctor can discuss a gradual taper. Think of it as building a bridge — you construct the new supports before removing the old ones.

What about sleep anxiety — the fear of not being able to sleep?

Sleep anxiety is one of the most common drivers of chronic insomnia and often the reason people become dependent on medication in the first place. The breathwork and sound techniques in this guide help, but if racing thoughts at bedtime, 3 AM wake-ups with panic, or a persistent dread of bedtime are your primary issues, we've written an entire hub on the subject: Sleep Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Fear of Sleeplessness.

You Don't Need a Pill. You Need a System.

Here's the uncomfortable truth about sleep medication: it doesn't teach you anything.

Every night you take a pill, you outsource the work of sleeping to a chemical. Your body never learns to do it on its own. And when the pill stops working — which it eventually does for almost everyone — you're left with the same broken system you started with, plus a layer of dependency on top.

Natural sleep isn't about willpower or discipline. It's about creating the conditions where sleep becomes inevitable.

Cool room. Dim lights. Calm nervous system. Consistent timing. That's not a complex protocol. It's what every human body has needed since the beginning of the species.

The tools in this guide — sound frequencies, breathwork, light management, temperature optimization, and targeted nutrition — aren't alternatives to sleep. They're the prerequisites for it. They're the things modern life has disrupted and that you now get to deliberately restore.

Start with three habits. Follow them for 21 nights. Let your body remember what it already knows how to do.

The pill bottle can stay in the cabinet.

Your body doesn't need it. It just needs you to build the system.

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Ready to start? Download our free [sleep hygiene checklist](/blog/sleep-hygiene-checklist) for a printable version of the protocol in this guide. And if you're currently working on reducing your melatonin use, read our guide to [melatonin dependency and how to taper safely](/blog/melatonin-dependency).