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It is no secret that sleeping is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Mountains of research over the past decade demonstrate, time and again, that a decent night’s rest is essential for everything from cognitive function to heart health, mood and more. Not getting good sleep or enough of it is associated with an increased risk of , type 2 diabetes, stroke, and hypertension, not to mention the hit to your .

For many of us, however, getting good sleep is often easier said than done. And much of the advice out there is probably familiar by now, if a little too generic: sleep for 8 hours, avoid bright light and anything stressful before bed, and so on.

In reality, life is messier. For a start, we don’t all need the same amount of sleep – our age, sex, personal habits and tolerances all influence what we individually need. We also all have different lifestyles, including work and travel, which might see us needing to adjust our sleep schedules on a regular basis. Getting good sleep is about more than just clocking up time spent in bed – but we also aren’t great judges of the quality of the sleep we, a consequence of being unconscious when doing the thing we are trying to assess.

All of this means that following prescriptive messages about sleeping more can feel frustrating. The good news, as we explore in this special issue devoted to the subject, is that new research is revealing the benefits of a more holistic approach – some of the most important things you can do to improve your sleep don’t happen in bed, no matter how comfortable that bed might be.

Your sleep is affected by what happens during the rest of the day, such as what and when you eat, as well as your gut microbiome and hormonal production. Your personal chronotype – not only when you prefer to sleep, but also when you’re most active during the day – plays a role in the quality and quantity of the sleep you get, too.

What we need, then, is a 24-hour perspective on sleep. None of this changes how crucial our unconscious hours are, but it does give us fresh opportunities to improve them well before we lay down our heads.

Explore key questions about sleep in our latest special series:

Why sleep quality is so important – and so difficult to measure

Sleeping a solid 8 hours isn't the whole story and the quality of your sleep might matter more. But what does sleep quality mean and how can we measure it?

Why your chronotype is key to figuring out how much sleep you need

Is 8 hours of sleep really the right amount for you? Understanding your personal chronotype could be a better way to approach how much time you should spend in bed

The surprising relationship between your microbiome and sleeping well

Research is revealing the complex relationship between sleep and the gut microbiome, raising the prospect that eating better during the day might help you get a better night’s rest

How best to catch up on rest and pay off your sleep debt

If you've missed out on sleep, it is possible to catch up. But is it better to try to do it all in one go or spread out over time – and is it really so bad to sleep in at the weekend?

How to shift your circadian clock to beat your jet lag

It is possible to speed up how quickly you get over jet lag – but calculating the right way to do it based on flight times, time zones and light exposure can be tricky

What nine sleep researchers do to get their best night's rest

From carefully timing meals and bedtime to turning down the lights and banning screens in bed, here's what the scientists who study sleep do to optimise their slumber

A better understanding of our hormones and sleep could improve both

The hormonal changes of puberty, the menstrual cycle and menopause can all affect our sleep, but there are also subtler ways that hormones and sleep interact