Field notes · Sleep and recovery · The guide
How to sleep better as a busy dad
Every dad I coach says he needs more sleep. Most of them are right. But the fix is rarely just going to bed earlier. It is protecting the sleep you already get, and making it count.
Dai Manuel · Coach Moose · Vancouver
How much you actually need
Canada's guidelines recommend seven to nine hours a night for adults up to 64. Large surveys keep finding that more than a third of adults do not get it. If you are regularly on five or six and feel fine, you have probably just forgotten what fine feels like.
Fix the wake time first
The single most useful thing is a consistent wake time, seven days a week, within about half an hour. Your body clock runs on the morning, not the evening. Sleeping in on Saturday feels good and then makes Sunday night worse.
Get outside in daylight within an hour of waking, even for five minutes. It sets the clock for the whole day.
Build a real wind-down
Thirty minutes before bed, the screens go away and the lights go down. Read something on paper. This is where the ten minutes of reading from the Whole Life Fitness framework fits most men best.
Work email is the worst thing you can look at before bed. It hands your brain an unsolved problem at exactly the moment you are asking it to stop solving problems.
The room
Cool, dark and quiet. Most sleep guidance suggests a cool bedroom, blackout blinds or an eye mask, and earplugs if your house is loud. Charge your phone outside the room if you can. If you cannot, face down and out of reach.
Caffeine and alcohol
Caffeine has a long tail. A coffee at 3pm is still partly in your system at bedtime. Keep it to the morning. Alcohol helps you fall asleep and then wrecks the second half of the night, which is its own article.
When it is not a habit problem
If you snore loudly, wake gasping, or your partner has noticed you stop breathing, talk to your doctor about sleep apnoea. It is common in men over forty, especially with weight around the neck, and it is treatable. If you have had trouble sleeping most nights for months, ask about CBT for insomnia, which is the recommended first treatment.
Common questions
- How many hours of sleep does a man over 40 need?
- Canadian guidelines recommend seven to nine hours a night for adults aged 18 to 64, with a regular bedtime and wake time.
- What is the fastest way to improve sleep?
- Keep the same wake time every day, get morning daylight, cut caffeine after midday, drink less alcohol, and put screens away thirty minutes before bed.
- Should I see a doctor about snoring?
- Yes, if the snoring is loud, you wake gasping or feel exhausted despite enough time in bed. These can be signs of sleep apnoea, which is common in men over 40 and treatable.
This is coaching, not medical advice. If something here sounds like you, talk to your doctor.
Sources
- Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults, sleep recommendations. Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology.
- Insufficient sleep among adults. CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
- Management of chronic insomnia disorder in adults. American College of Physicians clinical guideline, 2016.