Welcome back to The Six-Week Wellbeing Plan. We’ve covered learning, diet and movement so far, and this week I want to tackle something I know Starts at 60 has written about before, and for good reason: sleep. Rather than going over the same ground again, I want to focus on a handful of specific, practical habits that genuinely make a difference, several of which I suspect you haven’t seen covered here before.

I’ll admit upfront I’m not the best-qualified person to lecture anyone on this. I’ve had my share of restless nights over the years, and I still don’t always get it right. So consider this less “expert advice from on high” and more “here’s what the research actually says, and what I’m trying to do about it myself.”

Why your sleep patterns are genuinely changing, not just your imagination

It’s a common belief that older people simply need less sleep, and it’s true that many of us report sleeping fewer hours than we did decades ago. Part of this comes down to genuine biological change: your body’s circadian rhythm shifts with age, often leading to earlier wake times, and the production of melatonin, the hormone that governs your sleep-wake cycle, naturally declines over time. That decline is part of why insomnia becomes more common as we get older, not a personal failing or something you’re doing wrong.

The specific habits worth building

Mind your meal timing. When you eat matters almost as much as what you eat. A heavy meal within two to four hours of bedtime forces your body to spend energy on digestion right when it should be winding down, which can genuinely disturb your rest. If dinner’s been getting later and later, this is worth revisiting.

Reconsider your evening drinks. Caffeine late in the afternoon is an obvious one to avoid, but alcohol deserves a closer look too. A glass of wine might help you fall asleep faster, but it significantly reduces the quality of that sleep, so it’s worth steering clear for at least three hours before bed if you can.

There’s also a genuinely interesting piece of research worth knowing about here: tart cherry juice. A study out of Louisiana State University found that drinking Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day helped older adults with insomnia increase their total sleep time by close to 90 minutes, likely thanks to a combination of naturally occurring melatonin and tryptophan in the cherries. It’s promising enough that researchers in the US are currently running a further, more detailed trial specifically in older adults with insomnia, so this is genuinely an area of live, current research rather than old folklore.

Don’t dismiss the power nap. Plenty of us feel like giving in to an afternoon nap is somehow admitting defeat. The research suggests the opposite. Regular napping has been linked to a larger brain volume being maintained for longer, effectively delaying brain ageing by an estimated three to six years. A short nap isn’t laziness. It’s maintenance.

Get your bedroom conditions right. A cool room genuinely helps, so crack a window if the weather allows. And it’s worth being honest with yourself about screens – aim to switch off at least an hour before bed. I’ll confess I’ve never been much of a bedtime reader, so I’ve started leaning on audiobooks and podcasts instead, which seems to do the trick just as well without the glow of a screen.

Why it actually matters this much

There’s a genuinely fascinating reason sleep matters so much for brain health specifically. Throughout the day, waste products build up in the brain, and it’s largely during sleep that this debris gets cleared out. Skip enough quality rest, and you can end up functioning in something close to a mildly concussed state, making everyday concentration noticeably harder.

Good sleep does the opposite: it strengthens neural connections, helps consolidate memories, and supports clearer, more creative thinking. It’s genuinely why “sleeping on” a new skill or piece of information, something we talked about back in week one, actually helps you retain it.

The flow-on effects reach further still. Poor sleep is linked to higher blood pressure and blood sugar, and it suppresses immune function too – one study found people getting fewer than seven hours were almost three times more likely to catch a cold than those getting seven or more. A large study of middle-aged and older adults found seven hours specifically to be the sweet spot for processing speed, attention and memory, with both too little and too much sleep reducing cognitive performance. Most guidance still points to seven to eight hours as the general target for our age group, while acknowledging individual needs genuinely do vary.

Three tips to make it stick

Lay the groundwork during the day, not just at bedtime. Diet, exercise, and avoiding stimulants too close to bed all genuinely feed into how well you sleep that night.
Don’t force it. If you’re lying awake, get up and do something calm, like reading or quiet music, rather than staring at the ceiling willing yourself to drift off.

Watch your Mindset. It’s common to overestimate how much sleep you actually need, and anxiety about not sleeping enough can become its own vicious cycle. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do is simply stop keeping score.

Next Saturday, we’ll bring The Six-Week Wellbeing Plan to its final two instalments. In the meantime, if tonight’s the night you finally try that afternoon nap without the guilt, consider this your permission slip.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is of a general nature and FYI only, because it doesn’t take into account your personal health requirements or existing medical conditions. That means it’s not personalised health advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a health-related decision, you should work out if the info is appropriate for your situation and get professional medical advice.