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guides · sleep · 4 min read

Sleep

key points

  • The Australian guideline for adults is 7 to 9 hours a night, with reasonably consistent timing.
  • How regular your sleep is matters almost as much as how long it is.
  • Light in the evening and darkness overnight help set your body clock.
  • Ongoing insomnia is best treated with CBT-I, not a sleeping tablet.
  • Loud snoring with pauses in breathing is worth raising with your GP, not guessing about.

The Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults recommend 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night, with reasonably consistent sleep and wake times. That is the number I want you to remember, not any of the app or overseas figures floating around, which sometimes quote 7 to 8. Both too little and too much sleep are linked with worse health outcomes, so the aim is a steady, adequate amount, not as little as you can get away with.

Why does regularity matter so much?

A large UK Biobank study of nearly 61,000 adults found that people with the most regular sleep and wake times had substantially lower death rates over follow-up than people with the least regular patterns, even after adjusting for how long they slept. In other words, going to bed and waking at similar times each day is doing real work of its own, separate from clocking up enough hours. If you only change one habit from this page, a steady wake-up time, weekends included, is the one I would pick.

Light exposure plays into the same system. Bright light in the morning and dim light in the evening help keep your body clock anchored to a consistent rhythm; a very bright bedroom overnight has been linked with worse health outcomes in the same UK Biobank data. Simple, practical version: get outside light early in the day, and dim the lights and screens for the hour or so before bed.

What about insomnia and sleeping tablets?

If poor sleep has become a pattern rather than an occasional bad night, the first-line, evidence-based treatment is CBT-I: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia. It works by resetting the habits and thoughts that keep insomnia going, and unlike medication its benefits tend to last after treatment finishes. The Sleep Health Foundation has free CBT-I resources, and it is a very reasonable thing to raise with your GP rather than trying to sort out alone.

What I would steer you away from: benzodiazepines and other "sleeping tablets" as a long-term fix, and alcohol as a sleep aid. Both come with real downsides, including a higher risk of falls, and alcohol in particular tends to fragment the second half of the night even though it can make falling asleep feel easier. And a quick note on melatonin: in Australia it needs a doctor's input, it is not the same over-the-counter product available overseas, so it is not something to dose yourself with based on advice written for another country.

When should I actually see someone?

Loud snoring, or a partner noticing pauses in your breathing overnight, is a reason to see your GP rather than something to self-diagnose from a symptom list. Sleep apnoea is common, manageable, and worth checking properly rather than guessing about from home.

try this week

  • Pick one wake-up time and hold it, weekends included.
  • Get some daylight within an hour of waking.
  • Dim lights and screens for the last hour before bed.
  • If poor sleep has been a pattern for weeks, mention CBT-I to your GP.

And if you have been reading for a while and none of this is shifting things, book in. Some sleep problems need a proper look, not another article.

Where the figures above come from

All accessed 27 August 2026. General information only, based on Australian and peer-reviewed sources.

Dr Ahmed Al-Obaidi

Dr Ahmed Al-Obaidi · FRACGP

General information only, not personal medical advice. Talk to your own GP about what suits you.

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