Work-From-Home Sleep Routine: Keep Your Body Clock on Track

A work-from-home sleep routine sounds like it should be easy. No commute, no early train, and the desk is ten steps from the bed. But without the structure an office gives you, bedtimes drift, mornings blur into the working day and the bedroom slowly becomes a second office. This guide covers what happens to sleep when you work from home, how to set a fixed wake time, keeping work out of the bedroom, light and movement, napping, and a simple daily plan.

The short answer: working from home often gives you more sleep, but it also makes your sleep later and looser. Pick a fixed wake-up time and keep it every weekday, even though no one is checking. Get outside for daylight early in the day, and don't work from your bed. Build a short "fake commute" at each end of the day so your brain knows when work starts and stops. If you nap, keep it short and early in the afternoon.

What working from home does to your sleep

The commute was doing a job you probably didn't notice. It forced a wake-up time, got you outside in morning light and drew a line under the working day. Take it away and your sleep tends to move.

The clearest picture comes from the COVID-19 stay-at-home period. A US study of university students compared sleep before and during stay-at-home orders. On weekdays, time in bed spent asleep rose by about 30 minutes, but sleep timing also shifted later by about 50 minutes, with wake times moving about an hour later. The gap between weekday and weekend sleep shrank too (source).

Many remote workers recognise this: more sleep, but later. The risk is rolling from bed to laptop at 9:02 with no light, no movement and a groggy first hour, and finding early meetings or office days much harder.

Set a fixed wake-up time, even with no commute

Your body clock runs on a cycle slightly longer than 24 hours, about 24.1 hours according to the Sleep Health Foundation. Light is the main signal that keeps it lined up with the real day (source). Without a regular wake-up and regular morning light, it tends to drift later.

The fix is the same one that works for everyone else: a fixed wake-up time.

1. Pick a time you can keep five days a week. Not the time your first meeting starts. Leave yourself 45 to 60 minutes before you open the laptop.
2. Keep weekends within about an hour. A big weekend sleep-in is what creates social jet lag and a rough Monday.
3. Let bedtime follow. Count back seven to nine hours from your wake time.
4. Get up when the alarm goes. Snoozing at home is easier than ever because nothing forces you out. See how to stop hitting snooze.

Keep work out of the bedroom

The Sleep Health Foundation says the bedroom should be used for sleeping and intimacy only. Using your bed for study, TV or phone calls weakens the link between bed and sleep and can make it harder to fall asleep (source). Working from bed is the same problem, plus emails.

In a small place or a share house, you can still draw lines:

• Work at a table, never on the bed.
• Pack it away. Close the laptop and put it out of sight at the end of the day, especially if your desk is in the bedroom.
• Keep work notifications off your phone after hours, or at least out of the bedroom.

The fake commute: start and end the day on purpose

A fake commute is a short routine that does what the real one did: gets you outside and switched on, then switches you off.

Time	Morning version	Evening version
10 to 20 minutes	Walk around the block before you log on	Walk after you log off
Light	Get outside in daylight, no sunglasses if it's comfortable	Dim the house lights as evening goes on
Signal	Get dressed for the day, even casually	Change clothes, close the laptop, put it away
Food and drink	Breakfast and coffee away from the desk	Dinner away from the desk
Screens	Read news after the walk, not in bed	Screens off 1 to 2 hours before bed where you can

The Sleep Health Foundation notes that natural daylight during the day, especially in the morning, helps sleep at night, and recommends turning screens off one to two hours before bed. Morning light is the piece remote workers miss most. For more on the morning side, see a morning routine that sticks. If a partner still commutes, see couples with different sleep schedules.

Napping when the bed is right there

Working from home makes a nap tempting, and a short one can help. The Sleep Health Foundation says 15 to 30 minutes is best, ideally in the early afternoon around 2 to 3pm. Longer naps can leave you groggy, and late naps can push back your sleep at night (source).

• Set an alarm for 20 to 25 minutes, so you wake before deep sleep sets in. See how long a power nap should be.
• Skip it if you're struggling to sleep at night. Too much daytime napping can undermine your sleep at night.
• Don't nap after about 3pm. Dozing in front of the TV in the evening counts as a nap too.

When to see your GP

If you're getting enough hours but still wake exhausted, can't fall asleep most nights, snore loudly or feel sleepy during the day despite a good routine, talk to your GP. If working alone at home is affecting your mood, raise that too. This guide is general information, not medical advice.

Where the Sovune Nudge fits

We make the Sovune Nudge, a vibrating alarm wristband, so we're not neutral. For remote workers the useful part is a wake-up you feel rather than hear, without a phone on the bedside table pulling you into email before you're out of bed.

• No app, no phone, no pairing. Alarms are set on the band itself, so your phone can stay in another room.
• Wakes you with vibration on your wrist, starting as a gentle tap and building through three intensity levels.
• Each alarm runs for a full minute, and you can switch it off sooner.
• Three separate alarms, for example one for your weekday wake-up and one for a short afternoon nap.
• Silent, so a partner on a later schedule can keep sleeping.

It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Quick answers

Is it bad to work from bed? For sleep, yes. The Sleep Health Foundation recommends keeping the bedroom for sleep and intimacy only, because other activities weaken the link between bed and sleep.

Do I still need an alarm if I work from home? Most people do. Without a commute, wake times drift later, and a fixed alarm is the simplest way to keep your body clock steady.

What is a fake commute? A short walk or routine at the start and end of the workday that replaces the real commute, getting you outside in daylight and marking when work starts and stops.

Is it OK to nap when working from home? A short nap of 15 to 30 minutes in the early afternoon is fine for most people. Avoid long or late naps, especially if you struggle to sleep at night.

For every type of silent alarm compared, see our complete guide to vibrating alarms in Australia.

See the Sovune Nudge →