Hack your sleep cycle: The ultimate 90-minute insomnia cure for executives 

For busy executives, switching from a demanding workday to sleep can be difficult.

Emails, meetings, deadlines and unfinished tasks can keep the mind active long after work has ended. Even after getting into bed, some people may continue thinking about work, checking their phones or planning the following day’s activities.

This can make it difficult to create a clear separation between work and rest. One practical way to create that transition is to use the final 90 minutes before bedtime as a structured wind-down period. The idea is simple. Instead of moving directly from work, social media or other stimulating activities into bed, gradually reduce activity and create conditions that are more suitable for sleep.

The 90-minute period is not a medically proven formula that cures insomnia. Rather, it provides a practical way to organise healthy sleep habits into one consistent routine. For executives with demanding schedules, the routine can also create a firm boundary between professional responsibilities and personal time.

In this article, Tribune Online explains how to use the final 90 minutes before bed to prepare the body and mind for sleep.

90 minutes before bed

Start by ending the working day. Close the laptop , put away work documents and stop checking work emails unless something genuinely requires immediate attention.

For people in senior positions, this can be difficult because there may always be another email to answer or another decision to make. However, taking unfinished work directly into bedtime can make it harder to mentally switch off.

Before stopping work, write down unfinished tasks, important reminders and the first things you need to handle the following morning.

This simple step can prevent you from repeatedly thinking about those tasks once you are in bed. For example, instead of lying awake thinking about an unfinished presentation, write down what needs to be done and when you intend to do it the following day.

The aim is not to solve every problem before bedtime. It is to give the working day a clear endpoint. This first stage is particularly useful for people whose work follows them home through their phones and laptops.

60 minutes before bed

The next step is to reduce screen use. Phones, tablets, televisions and computers can keep the mind engaged, while bright light in the evening can affect the body’s sleep-wake rhythm.

It’s recommended to use the hour before bed for quiet time and avoiding bright artificial light from devices such as televisions and computers. You do not have to follow a rigid rule that every screen must be banned exactly two hours before bedtime.

Instead, use this period to gradually move away from stimulating screen activities. Put the phone aside where possible. Stop scrolling through social media and avoid checking work messages. This is especially important for executives who may be tempted to continue monitoring business communications from bed.

A physical book or another relaxing activity can take the place of the screen. If you need to keep your phone nearby for an important call, unnecessary notifications can be silenced while allowing essential calls to come through. The objective is to reduce stimulation rather than create another stressful rule that must be followed perfectly.

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45 minutes before bed

Now prepare the bedroom. Keep the room cool, quiet and dark. The bedroom environment can make a significant difference to how comfortable it is to fall asleep and remain asleep. Excessive heat, noise and bright light can make the sleeping environment less comfortable.

There is no universal requirement to set the bedroom to exactly 18°C or 20°C. People have different temperature preferences, and there is no specific temperature that automatically forces the brain into deep or REM sleep. 

The practical goal is to avoid excessive heat and create a temperature that feels comfortable.

For people living in hot environments, good ventilation, a fan or air conditioning may help.

If outside light enters the room, curtains or blinds can reduce it. Where noise is difficult to control, earplugs or other measures may help create a quieter environment. 

The bedroom should also be separated from unnecessary work activity where possible.If the bed is regularly used as a place to answer emails, attend virtual meetings or complete office work, it can become harder to associate the bedroom with sleep.

30 minutes before bed

Take a warm bath or shower. A warm bath or shower can form part of a relaxing bedtime routine and help signal that the active part of the day is ending.

A warm bath is among the activities that can help people wind down before bed. The activity does not have to be complicated. The purpose is to move gradually away from work and stimulation and towards a calmer state.

After the shower or bath, avoid returning to work or opening the laptop again. This is also a good time to prepare everything needed for the morning. Clothes can be arranged, essential items can be placed where they will be easy to find and the next day’s schedule can be checked briefly if necessary.

However, avoid turning this into another work session. The goal is to reduce the number of decisions you will have to make after waking up, not to start planning the entire next day at bedtime.

20 minutes before bed

Avoid a heavy meal. Going to bed immediately after a large meal can cause discomfort and make it harder to settle down.

Avoid heavy or large meals within a few hours of bedtime. If you are hungry, a light snack may be more appropriate than a large meal immediately before bed. The aim is not to go to bed hungry, but to avoid being uncomfortably full.

This can be particularly relevant to executives whose schedules cause them to eat dinner late.

If a person regularly arrives home late and has little choice but to eat later, keeping the meal lighter may be more comfortable than eating a very large meal shortly before lying down.

The important point is to avoid making a heavy meal the final major activity before sleep.

Avoid alcohol

Alcohol  should not be used as a sleep aid.

Although alcohol can initially make someone feel sleepy, it can interfere with sleep quality and make waking during the night more likely.

This means that having a drink specifically to make yourself sleep may provide temporary drowsiness without producing good-quality sleep.

For someone trying to improve sleep, alcohol should not become part of the nightly bedtime routine. This is particularly important when alcohol becomes a regular response to work-related stress. Feeling sleepy after drinking is not the same as getting healthy, restorative sleep. If the objective of the 90-minute routine is to create better conditions for sleep, alcohol should not be relied upon to achieve that objective.

15 minutes before bed

The final 15 minutes should be quiet. Read a few pages of a physical book, practise slow breathing or use another relaxation technique that you find comfortable. Avoid activities that can restart mental stimulation.

For example, a heated discussion, stressful news report or intense business podcast may not involve work directly but can still keep the mind active. 

Choose something that genuinely helps you wind down. This period should also be free from unnecessary decision-making.

There is no need to use the final minutes before bed to plan major business decisions, respond to complicated messages or solve problems that can wait until morning.

5 minutes before bed

The final few minutes should be simple.

Put the phone away, turn off unnecessary lights and get into bed. Try not to keep checking the time. Repeatedly looking at the clock can make some people anxious about how much sleep they have left, particularly when they are already worried about insomnia.

Instead, allow the routine to end without putting pressure on yourself to fall asleep immediately. The objective is not to force sleep. Once the routine has been completed, give yourself the opportunity to rest without continuing to analyse whether you are falling asleep quickly enough.

If thoughts about work return, acknowledge them without immediately acting on them. The task can be written down and addressed the following day if necessary.

Keep the routine consistent

The number 90 is not magical. There is no evidence that exactly 90 minutes of preparation is required for everyone to sleep well. The value of the routine is that it creates a predictable transition from activity to rest.

A person may need slightly more or less time depending on their schedule, but keeping the same sequence can make the routine easier to follow. For example, ending work can always be followed by reducing screen use, preparing the bedroom, taking a shower, avoiding a heavy meal and spending the final minutes on a quiet activity.A consistent sleep and wake time can also support the body’s sleep-wake rhythm.