Over the last few years, I’ve learned that “good sleep” isn’t just one thing. It’s a mix of a few different variables that stack together. The two big buckets I think about are sleep quality (how well you sleep) and sleep timing/consistency (when you sleep and how steady that schedule is).
Sleep quality is heavily influenced by lifestyle habits—things like what you do leading up to bedtime, meal timing, and exercise timing. But when it comes to fixing a messed-up sleep schedule, the biggest lever for me hasn’t been forcing a rigid bedtime and wake time every single day of the year. It’s been aligning my sleep with the sun.
That might sound a little weird at first, but here’s how I explain it: most modern schedules are built around man-made time blocks. Work starts at a certain hour. School starts at a certain hour. Activities happen at certain hours. And those times barely change throughout the year. Meanwhile, the actual light and dark cycle changes a lot depending on the season.
Where I live in Florida, the difference is obvious. In the winter, after daylight savings time changes, it can get dark around 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. In the summer, it might not get dark until 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. That’s roughly a four-hour swing—yet daily life still expects you to run on basically the same clock all year.
In theory, if you want to feel and function your best, your sleep schedule should adapt with the natural light and dark cycle. That means paying attention to when the sun comes up and when it goes down where you live, and letting that guide your sleep timing instead of only letting your calendar guide it.
Practically, what I try to do is adjust around the edges—especially through daylight savings shifts. I’ll wake up a bit earlier or let myself sleep a bit later so that I’m getting up close to sunrise, ideally just before it. Then I’ll get outside first thing and get that low-angle morning sunlight. For me, that morning light is the biggest factor. It sets the tone for the rest of the day and helps my body know what time it is.
Bedtime becomes more flexible, too. Right now I’m usually in bed around 10:00 p.m., but I don’t treat that like a permanent rule. In the summer I can push it a little later, and in the winter I’ll move it a little earlier. The goal is to better match when it gets dark and to make sure I’m giving myself enough time in bed to actually get a full night of sleep.
This is the key shift: it’s not just about following a fixed schedule because of work, school, or activities. It’s about syncing your sleep with sunrise and sunset as much as your life realistically allows. Ideally, you’re asleep during darkness and awake during daylight.
I’ve noticed this more as I’ve gotten older. When I was younger—especially in college—my sleep schedule was all over the place. Sleeping until noon didn’t feel like a big deal back then. But now, if I sleep until 10:00 a.m., that’s often three or more hours after sunrise, and it just feels off. Even if I get eight hours, I’ll still feel groggy.
To me, that grogginess is feedback. It’s your body saying there’s an optimal window for sleep, and it’s heavily dictated by the sun. When you anchor your sleep schedule to that natural rhythm, sleep starts to feel more normal. Waking up gets easier. Your days feel smoother. And once it starts working, it’s easier to keep doing—like a virtuous cycle that reinforces itself.