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Read articleIs Your Sleep Problem Actually a Habit Problem?
Most people blame stress, age, or bad luck for poor sleep. Research says a large share of it is habits — the schedule you keep, what you do in bed, and what you consume in the hours before it. Ten honest questions show you where you stand.
1 in 3
adults regularly sleeps less than the recommended 7 hours (CDC)
6 hours
caffeine taken even this long before bed measurably disrupts sleep (Drake et al., 2013)
13 items
in the validated Sleep Hygiene Index this self-test adapts (Mastin et al., 2006)
You can't fix what you haven't measured
Sleep advice is everywhere and most of it is noise. What actually has evidence behind it is unglamorous: consistent times, a bed that your brain associates with sleep, and cutting the late-day caffeine, alcohol, and screen sessions that quietly sabotage the night. The problem is that almost everyone believes their own habits are fine.
This self-test adapts the Sleep Hygiene Index, a validated research questionnaire, into ten yes/no statements. It won't diagnose anything — it will show you which specific behaviors are most likely working against your sleep, which is the part you can change.
How Unwire helps you sleep better
Understand the mechanics
Short, science-based learning modules explain what actually regulates sleep — circadian rhythm, sleep pressure, arousal — and which popular tips are myths.
Build a wind-down routine
Turn the findings from your self-test into small, concrete evening habits — one at a time, so they actually stick.
Track what changes
Daily check-ins show whether your sleep is responding, so you keep what works and drop what doesn't.
The 10-Question Sleep Hygiene Self-Test
Answer for a typical week — not your best night, not the one disastrous Sunday. If a statement is true more often than not, that's a yes.
- My bedtime and wake-up time shift by more than an hour between weekdays and weekends.
- I use my phone in bed after I intended to go to sleep.
- I drink coffee, energy drinks, or other caffeine in the 6 hours before bed.
- I use alcohol in the evening to relax or to help me fall asleep.
- I take naps longer than 30 minutes, or naps late in the afternoon.
- I lie awake in bed worrying, planning, or replaying the day.
- My bedroom is not consistently dark, quiet, and cool at night.
- I do intense exercise, work, or emotionally heavy conversations in the hour before bed.
- I get less than 7 hours of sleep on a typical night.
- On free days I stay in bed much longer to catch up on lost sleep.
0/10 answered
Your result
0/10
Your sleep habits are mostly solid
Little in your routine is actively working against your sleep. If you still sleep badly, the cause is less likely to be hygiene and more likely stress, an underlying condition, or simply not allowing enough time in bed — the one thing no habit tweak fixes. Keep the consistency; it's doing more for you than any gadget would.
A few habits are working against you
Your foundation is fine, but two or three behaviors are quietly taxing your nights — and they're usually the ones that feel harmless, like the late coffee or the phone in bed. Pick the single yes that happens most often and change only that for two weeks. One habit done consistently beats five attempted at once.
Your habits are undercutting your sleep
At this score, poor nights are not bad luck — several of your daily choices are stacked against your sleep, and they compound. The good news: habit-driven sleep problems respond to habit changes. Start with the schedule (same wake time daily, even weekends) before touching anything else; it's the highest-leverage fix in the research.
Your sleep is running on empty
Nearly everything the research warns about is present in your week. Don't try to fix it all at once — that fails. Anchor one wake-up time, get the phone out of the bed, and cut caffeine after mid-afternoon; those three carry most of the weight. And if your sleep has been bad for over three months regardless of habits, talk to a doctor — persistent insomnia has an effective, evidence-based treatment (CBT-I).
Educational self-assessment adapted from the Sleep Hygiene Index (Mastin, Bryson & Corwyn, 2006). Not a medical diagnosis — persistent sleep problems deserve a conversation with a doctor.
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What sleep hygiene can and cannot fix
The term "sleep hygiene" comes from clinical research: a set of behaviors — consistent schedule, limited caffeine and alcohol, a dark and quiet room, a bed reserved for sleep — that reliably correlate with better sleep quality. The Sleep Hygiene Index (Mastin, Bryson & Corwyn, 2006) is the standard questionnaire researchers use to measure them, and it's what this self-test adapts. The evidence that these behaviors matter is solid; a 2015 review in Sleep Medicine Reviews (Irish et al.) found meaningful effects for schedule regularity, stimulant timing, and the sleep environment in the general population.
Honesty requires the second half: for diagnosed chronic insomnia, sleep hygiene alone is not an effective treatment — clinical guidelines are explicit that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line approach, and hygiene education is only a supporting piece. So read your score for what it is: a map of which everyday behaviors are working against you. If you fix them and your sleep recovers, they were the problem. If months of solid habits change nothing, that's a signal to bring in a professional, not to buy another blue-light gadget.
Sleep quiz FAQ
How does the scoring work?
Each yes counts one point; ten points are possible. The bands (0-2, 3-4, 5-7, 8-10) mirror how the Sleep Hygiene Index distinguishes good from poor sleep hygiene: more yes answers means more behaviors that research links to worse sleep quality. The score measures habits, not sleep itself — a short sleeper with perfect habits and a long sleeper with terrible ones can both be surprised.
Is this a medical diagnosis?
No. It's an educational self-assessment of sleep-related behaviors. It cannot detect sleep disorders like insomnia, sleep apnea, or restless legs syndrome. If you snore heavily, wake up gasping, or have slept badly for more than three months despite reasonable habits, talk to a doctor — those need proper evaluation, and effective treatments exist.
Does screen time before bed really ruin sleep?
The honest answer is: less through "blue light" than marketing suggests, and more through behavior. The melatonin effect of evening screen light is real but modest in most studies. The bigger, better-documented problems are displacement — the phone quietly eating an hour of your sleep window — and arousal, because feeds and messages keep your brain engaged when it should be winding down. That's why the test asks whether the phone is in your bed, not whether you own one.
Why does a consistent wake-up time matter so much?
Because it anchors your circadian rhythm. Shifting your sleep window by hours on weekends produces what researchers call social jetlag — your body lives in two time zones every single week. A stable wake time (even after a bad night) is the single intervention sleep researchers most consistently recommend, ahead of anything you can buy.
Is alcohol before bed really a problem? It helps me fall asleep.
Alcohol is a sedative, so it genuinely shortens the time to fall asleep — that part is not an illusion. The cost comes later: it fragments the second half of the night, suppresses REM sleep, and worsens snoring and apnea. You trade faster sleep onset for worse sleep quality, which is why it counts as a yes on this test.
What should I do with my score?
Change one thing, not everything. Pick the yes answer that occurs most nights, replace it for two weeks, and watch what happens — that's a real experiment with a sample size that matters: you. The Unwire app is built around exactly this loop: understand the mechanism, change one habit, track whether it moves the needle.
Turn your result into a plan
Unwire turns what you just learned into small daily habits — with the science explained, one change at a time, tracked until it sticks.
Free to download • No credit card required • iOS & Android • Age 13+