Worried You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep? Science-Backed Strategies For Busy Lives

If youve ever traded sleep for a deadline, midnight feeding, or just one more episode, you’re not alone, but mounting research shows the cost of cutting corners on rest may be higher than most people realize. The good news? Experts say you dont need to be perfect, just consistent, and you’re probably better off not stressing about it.

“Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, but the real marker isnt the number — its how you feel during the day,” says Dr. Shad Marvasti, executive director of the HonorHealth Whole Health Institute and author of “Longevity Made Simple.” “If you wake up without an alarm, maintain steady energy, think clearly, and dont rely heavily on caffeine, youre likely getting enough.”

Sleep is a powerful biological repair process that affects everything from memory and metabolism to heart health and emotional resilience, but too often, busy people treat sleep as optional.

“We protect meetings, workouts, and work deadlines, but we borrow time from sleep — and the body always collects interest,” Marvasti says, noting that many adults are unknowingly sleep deprived.

“People assume feeling tired is normal, but there are clear warning signs,” he says. These include brain fog, mood swings, sugar cravings, and even brief moments of “microsleep” — zoning out during conversations or while driving. “If someone feels emotionally reactive or unfocused despite trying to eat well and exercise, poor sleep is often the missing piece.”

Instead of viewing sleep as a luxury, Marvasti encourages busy people to see it as fuel.

“Sleep isnt passive rest; its active recovery. When people reframe sleep as fuel for focus, productivity, and emotional resilience — rather than lost time — theyre far more likely to prioritize it,” he says. “Even modest changes can deliver noticeable benefits within days.”

Dr. Tommy Wood, neuroscientist and author of “The Stimulated Mind: Future-Proof Your Brain from Dementia and Stay Sharp at Any Age” (in stores March 24), emphasizes flexibility over perfection.

“While the increased focus on sleep weve seen over the past five to eight years is really important, for many people the pendulum may have swung too far in the other direction, creating an unrealistic target that they cant achieve because of everything else they have to do,” Wood says. “The ideal amount of sleep is also not a fixed number, and our individual sleep needs change over time.”

Wood agrees that while the ideal for most people is around 7–9 hours of sleep, “the full range is probably more like 6–10 hours.” The key is how you feel during the day. And when life makes quality sleep elusive, especially for working parents or caregivers, both experts agree its not about overhauling your routine, but consistent, realistic sleep habits that improve sleep efficiency even if total time doesn’t increase.

First and foremost, it’s important to stick to a schedule, sleeping and waking at around the same time even on weekends. For those navigating unpredictable schedules, Wood recommends short naps earlier in the day that won’t interfere with nighttime sleep. 

“Some recent studies even suggest that sleep regularity may be more important than total time asleep,” Wood says, noting that “certain aspects of sleep function have a circadian component — they are maximized when they happen at a similar time each day.”

For those who need help falling asleep, it’s important to wind down before bed — dimming lights, turning off screens, and doing some gentle stretching or reading. Marvasti and Wood agree it helps to cut out caffeine by early afternoon and avoid alcohol before bed.

“Limit alcohol at night, since it disrupts deep sleep even if it helps you fall asleep initially,” Marvasti says.

“While not always problematic in their own right, its very easy to get stuck in a cycle where we rely on caffeine late into the day because were tired and then use alcohol at night to wind down before bed,” Wood says. “This creates a vicious cycle where the combination of caffeine (which can take 12+ hours to be cleared from the body) and alcohol impairs our ability to get good quality sleep, so we need more caffeine the next day. Though it might take a few days to break the cycle, if this sounds familiar try to stop drinking caffeine by mid-morning, and then let natural tiredness create sleep drive at night.”

Ironically, tracking sleep too closely can do more harm than good.

“Many of the athletes I work with have stopped using trackers because the anxiety around getting “perfect” sleep was making them sleep less well,” Wood says, adding that it’s important not to stress about it.

“How we think about our sleep often has a bigger impact on our ability to function than how well were actually sleeping,” he says. “Multiple studies have manipulated participants sleep, making them think that their sleep was either shorter or worse quality than it actually was. In both cases, individuals felt more tired or performed less well based on how they thought they had slept rather than how they had actually slept.”

Working parents of young children may be the most commonly sleep-deprived people, but not only is that phase temporary, Wood says there may be benefits that offset some of the harms caused by a lack of sleep.

“One fascinating study from the U.K. Biobank found that the more children people had, the lower their risk of dementia. This was the same for both mothers and fathers. Considering that being a parent often comes with a lot of stress and sleep loss — neither of which are great for the brain — its clear that the benefits can outweigh the potential downsides,” Wood says.

So whether youre a working parent, a night owl entrepreneur, or just trying to do it all, better sleep is possible, and you can bounce back from stretches of deprivation.

“While sleep is clearly critical for all of us,” Wood says, “its also important to remember that were incredibly resilient and can keep performing when we need to even if we havent slept as much as wed like.”