Sleep diary template
Download the free sleep diary template
Download free resource
Enter your email below to access this resource.
By entering your email address, you are opting-in to receive emails from SimplePractice on its various products, solutions, and/or offerings. Unsubscribe anytime.
A sleep diary template is a valuable tool to help therapists explain healthy sleep hygiene habits to clients.
This article gives clinicians a brief overview of healthy sleeping habits, the benefits of using a sleep log template, and examples of how to use sleep diary worksheets with clients and patients.
You can also download a free printable sleep diary template to save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use in your practice.
What is sleep hygiene?
Sleep hygiene is a term used to describe a person’s sleep environment and behaviors.
Poor sleep hygiene is associated with low quality sleep, as well as how rested a person feels upon waking up in the morning, daytime sleepiness, and negative mental health.
Good sleep hygiene, however, is the practice of consistent healthy sleeping habits that create the conditions for good quality sleep.
Sleep hygiene practices might involve:
- Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule: Sleep and wake up at the same time, so you get at least seven hours of sleep nightly.
- Creating a comfortable sleep environment: This can involve ensuring your bedroom is quiet, dimly lit, clean, and comfortably cool, and your bed is comfortable.
- Adopting behaviors that support sleep, such as:
- Limiting caffeine and alcohol intake before bed.
- Avoiding electronic devices at least an hour before going to bed.
- Engaging in relaxing pre-sleep routines, like mindfulness meditation or taking a hot bath or shower.
- Avoiding large meals before bed.
- Keeping TVs and other electronic devices out of the bedroom.
- Having healthy lifestyle habits, including regular exercise and eating healthily.
Good sleep hygiene helps improve overall sleep quality, reduces insomnia, and supports mental and physical health—which is why tracking sleep using a sleep log template can be especially useful.
How to spot poor sleep hygiene
Signs of poor sleep hygiene include:
- Staying on your phone late at night until you fall asleep
- Experiencing difficulty getting to sleep
- Trouble staying asleep and waking several times during the night
- Daytime sleepiness
- Inconsistent sleep patterns, like going to bed at different times or staying up late and getting limited sleep
Benefits of using a sleep diary template
A sleep diary template is a tool used to track sleep patterns and habits, such as:
- Sleeping schedule
- Sleep quality
- Duration
- Patterns
- Consistency
- Mood and energy levels
- Daytime activity
- Sleeping habits
Using a sleep diary template can also provide helpful information for your primary care provider, and may indicate whether you need to investigate if you have a sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome, or insomnia.
There are several physical and mental health benefits of healthy sleeping habits, including:
- Improved immunity
- Increased attention span and memory
- Reduced stress
- Enhanced heart health and metabolism
- Improved mood
- Lowered risk of chronic conditions, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and high blood and pressure
- Reduced risk of motor-vehicle-related crashes, injuries, and death
How to use a sleep log template
Using the sleep diary template, clients should include the following information:
- The time you went to bed and the time you woke up
- How well you slept: Note whether you were restful or restless, if you woke up during the night, or couldn’t get to sleep
- Total hours asleep
- How long it took you to get to sleep
- How many times you woke up during the night
- Daytime activity: Food habits, naps, exercise, caffeine, and alcohol intake
- Nighttime activities before going to bed, such as reading, relaxing activities, scrolling social media, or watching TV
- Mood and energy levels: How you feel upon waking and throughout the day. For example, did you feel sleepy during the day and take a nap?
It’s important to remember that building healthy sleep habits using a sleep diary template won’t happen overnight, so encourage clients to make gradual changes.
For example, you might want to suggest they start with creating the right sleep environment first. Then, the next week, start using the sleep log template.
The following week, they could work on improving sleep hygiene based on the patterns they find in their sleep diary template, and the week after, implement fixed bedtimes and wake-up times.
Next month, they could work on implementing a new sleep routine, like stopping phone or TV use 30 minutes before bedtime and trying a relaxing activity before bed, like a meditation or a stress-relieving bath.
The healthy sleeping habits listed above and sleep log template are included in the free, downloadable sleep diary template that you can download at the top of this article.
Sources
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). About sleep.
- Suni, E. (2024). Mastering sleep hygiene: Your path to quality sleep. The Sleep foundation.
- Irish, L. A., Kline, C. E., Gunn, H. E., Buysse, D. J., & Hall, M. H. (2015). The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: A review of empirical evidence. Sleep medicine reviews.
How SimplePractice streamlines running your practice
SimplePractice is HIPAA-compliant practice management software with everything you need to run your practice built into the platform—from booking and scheduling to insurance and client billing.
If you’ve been considering switching to an EHR system, SimplePractice empowers you to streamline appointment bookings, reminders, and rescheduling and simplify the billing and coding process—so you get more time for the things that matter most to you.
Try SimplePractice free for 30 days. No credit card required.