I went from 5 to 7 hours of sleep using the '7:1 rule' — but only after a doctor made a key change to my routine

(Image credit: Future)

For me, decent sleep is hard to come by. I wake most mornings feeling like I haven’t slept enough and vow to make a change. And yet, more often than not, I clock around five hours of broken sleep a night. Juggling work, life and parenthood means my to-do list never ends and sleep-disrupting nighttime anxiety is the result.However, with multiple studies pointing towards the poor health outcomes associated with people who sleep less than six hours a night, I’m making a concerted effort to sort out my sleep. I’ve started with the 7:1 sleep rule, where the aim is to get seven hours of sleep per night and go to bed within the same one hour window.At first, I found it difficult to stick to until a doctor suggested a simple routine switch: stop obsessing over bedtime and anchor my wake time instead. Once I made this shift, I went from sleeping five hours a night to seven — and now I feel like I’ve finally cracked the code to sleeping better and for longer. Here's what happened...Key takeaways: At a glance The 7:1 sleep rule recommends regularly getting at least seven hours of sleep a night, and going to bed within the same one-hour window at least five nights a week.At first I found the 7:1 sleep rule hard to stick to, until sleep doctors told me to focus on my wake time – and not both my bedtime and wake time.Once my wake time was anchored and I had a consistent schedule, my sleep duration has increased from five hours a night to seven.What is the 7:1 sleep rule?