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A good night’s sleep isn’t just about getting 7–9 hours – it’s the quality of that rest that really counts. In this guide, we uncover the signs that your sleep quality might be lacking and share simple tips to help you improve it.
11 Min Read | By Holly James
Last Modified 6 May 2025 First Added 6 May 2025
We’ve all been there – climbing into bed after a long day, hoping for a restful night, only to wake up feeling groggy and worse than the day before.
Even if you’re getting the recommended number of hours, it’s the quality of your sleep that truly makes the difference to your health, mood, and energy levels. Recognising the signs of poor sleep quality is the first step towards more restorative nights.
In this article, we’ll help you understand what quality sleep looks like, how to spot when you’re not getting it, and the small changes you can make to improve your nightly rest – helping you drift off more peacefully and wake up feeling refreshed.
Sleep quality is all about how well you sleep, not just how long you’re in bed. It’s the difference between simply getting through the night and actually resting your body and mind.
Good-quality slumber means moving smoothly through the whole sleep cycle, including light, deep, and REM sleep, so you wake up feeling refreshed and alert. If you’re still feeling groggy, low on energy, or a little irritable despite a good night’s sleep, it could be a sign that your sleep quality needs a little extra care.
Getting good-quality sleep is essential for your overall well-being. From boosting your mood to supporting your immune system, restful sleep plays a vital role in keeping your body and mind balanced. While you drift through deep sleep, your body gets to work repairing muscles, regulating blood pressure, and recharging for the day ahead.
Without enough of this essential rest, everything from memory and concentration to emotional resilience can suffer. Over time, poor sleep can affect your health and happiness, leading to sleep deprivation and disorders, such as insomnia.
When your sleep isn’t as restorative as it should be, your body and mind often send gentle signals that something’s off. Here are a few common signs that your sleep might not be up to standard:
If you often wake up feeling tired, even after what seemed like a whole night’s kip, it could be a sign of poor sleep quality. You might not be spending enough time in the deeper, most restorative stages of sleep or waking up more than you realise during the night. These patterns are sometimes linked to conditions like sleep apnoea, which can quietly disrupt your rest. Keeping a sleep diary can be a helpful way to spot any recurring issues.
Your skin and your sleep are closely connected. When you’re not getting the quality rest your body needs, it can lead to a rise in stress hormones, which can show up on your skin in the form of breakouts or irritation.
During deep, restful sleep, your skin goes into repair mode, helping to heal and renew itself overnight. If you’ve been noticing more blemishes or dullness without changing your skincare routine, it might be a sign to take a closer look at your snooze habits.
If you’ve gained a little bit of weight even though your diet and activity levels haven’t really changed, it could be down to your sleep. Poor-quality rest can disrupt your body’s natural metabolism and lower your energy levels, making it harder to stay active during the day.
When you’re not getting enough quality sleep, it can throw your hunger hormones off balance, making it harder for your brain to recognise when you’re full. This often causes cravings for sugary or high-fat foods more often than usual. Over time, this pattern can contribute to overeating, which in turn can affect your sleep and leave you feeling even more sluggish.
Poor sleep quality directly impacts mental health. Therefore, you’re more likely to feel irritable, overwhelmed, or emotional when you’re not sleeping well. Over time, ongoing sleep disruption can contribute to mental health conditions like anxiety or low mood, so it’s important to prioritise your shut-eye sooner rather than later.
Are you finding it harder to focus or forgetting things a lot more recently? Poor-quality sleep could be playing a part. While you sleep, your brain works hard to process information and store memories, helping you feel clear-headed and focused the next day. Without enough rest, this process is disrupted, making it harder to concentrate and easier to forget things.
If you’ve started relying on that extra cup of coffee to get through the day, it could be your body’s way of telling you it’s not getting the rest it needs. While some caffeine can help perk you up, depending on it too much can disrupt your sleep and create a vicious cycle. Avoid having too much caffeine, especially in the afternoon. Sometimes, the best pick-me-up is a restful night’s sleep.
Read our expert tips on how to find the right balance between caffeine and sleep.
If you often wake up in the early morning hours and struggle to drift back off, it’s a sign that you’re not achieving good quality sleep. These wake-ups may mean you’re not spending enough time in the deeper stages of sleep, which are responsible for energy restoration. Not only can this affect the quality of your sleep, but it can also reduce the total amount of rest you get, making you extra tired in the morning.
Related article: Why do I keep waking up at 3am?
If these signs sound familiar, you might wonder what’s behind poor sleep quality. There are a few common culprits that could be affecting your rest, including:
Poor sleep hygiene can make it harder to get restful sleep and often shorten the amount of time you spend in bed. Things like irregular sleep schedules, too much screen time before bed, and caffeine late in the day can all disrupt your natural circadian rhythm.
Stress and anxiety are common causes of poor sleep quality. When your mind is preoccupied with worries, it can be challenging to wind down, causing your sleep to suffer and leaving you feeling tired during the day. This creates a cycle where poor sleep only adds to stress, making it harder to relax and doze off.
Conditions like obstructive sleep apnoea and insomnia can disrupt your ability to sleep soundly. Obstructive sleep apnoea causes repeated awakenings due to blocked airways, while insomnia leads to persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep. Over time, these issues can lead to chronic sleep deprivation and negatively affect your overall health, placing even more strain on your ability to rest.
Chronic health conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and mental health challenges can also decrease the quality of sleep you get and keep you from reaching those deeper, more restorative stages of rest. Unfortunately, poor sleep can also make these conditions harder to manage, so it’s important to speak to a medical professional to get your health under control.
If your mattress, pillows, or bedding aren’t quite right, they could be standing in the way of a good night’s sleep. An unsupportive mattress can lead to aches, pains, and frequent tossing and turning, preventing your body from fully relaxing. Similarly, the wrong pillow might leave your neck misaligned, causing stiffness or even headaches that wake you during the night. Add in bedding that’s too warm, scratchy, or made from non-breathable fabrics, and you’ve got a recipe for a poor night’s sleep.
Discover our mattress guides to help you find the perfect match for your sleep needs.
Noise, light, and even temperature can all cause sleep disturbances, leading to a restless night. These disruptions may seem minor, but they can interrupt your natural sleep cycles, cutting short the deeper, more restorative stages your body needs to recharge. Over time, frequent wake-ups not only affect the quality of your sleep but also reduce the total amount of rest you’re actually getting.
The good news is, there are ways to get better quality sleep and be on your way to a more restful night and energised mornings:
Improving your sleep hygiene involves creating a consistent routine, engaging in calming activities before bed and reducing stressors at night, letting your body know that it’s time to wind down.
Learn more about sleep hygiene and how to improve it in our handy article.
Keeping to the same bedtime and wake-up time each day is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to support better sleep. Following a consistent routine helps regulate your body’s internal clock, making it easier to fall asleep and promoting deeper, more restorative rest. To optimise your sleep, try to stick to the same schedule throughout the week, including weekends.
Use our Sleep Calculator to find the best bedtime and wake-up time for you.
Your sleep environment can significantly affect how well you rest. A cool, dark, and quiet bedroom helps signal to your body that it’s time to unwind, supporting the natural production of melatonin, the sleepy hormone. Try adding blackout curtains to block light, a white noise machine or earplugs to reduce distractions, and make sure your mattress and pillows are comfy and supportive.
Cutting back on screen time before bed is essential for maintaining good sleep hygiene. The blue light from phones, tablets, and TVs can disrupt your circadian rhythm by reducing melatonin production, making it harder to drift off. Swapping screens for calming activities like reading or stretching, and using soft lighting at least an hour before bed, can make a real difference.
If you’re feeling stressed and struggling with poor sleep, it’s likely that the two are connected. Stress can keep your mind racing and increase tension in the body, making it harder to switch off at night. Taking steps to ease stress throughout the day, especially in the run-up to bedtime, can help calm the mind and encourage the body to relax, creating the perfect conditions for a more peaceful, restorative slumber.
Mindfulness and relaxation techniques are excellent ways to improve sleep, especially for those struggling with stress and anxiety. Mindfulness encourages you to stay present, helping to quiet the worries that often arise at bedtime. Practices like deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation, where you tense and release different muscle groups, help ease tension and slow your heart rate. Making these soothing rituals part of your nightly wind-down routine can do wonders for your rest.
Discover more relaxation tips for maximum Zzzs.
What you eat during the day can have a significant impact on how well you sleep at night. A balanced diet that’s low in caffeine, sugar, and saturated fats can help regulate your blood sugar and energy levels, supporting more restful sleep. Avoiding large meals close to bedtime also gives your body a chance to digest properly, reducing the likelihood of discomfort that could keep you awake.
Moving your body during the day helps to regulate your internal clock, reduce stress hormones, and increase deep sleep. Whether it’s a brisk walk, gentle yoga, or a full workout, exercise helps your body feel naturally ready for rest by bedtime. Just be sure to avoid vigorous activity too close to sleep, as it can leave you feeling more energised than relaxed.
Getting the full recommended 7–9 hours of sleep each night is essential. This allows your body to move through 6–8 complete sleep cycles, giving you ample time in those all-important restorative stages, helping you wake up feeling refreshed and recharged, and supporting better sleep night after night.
If you’ve tried everything in the book and your sleep struggles persist or you think the cause of your poor sleep may be due to an underlying health condition, reach out to a healthcare professional.
Spotting the signs of poor sleep quality is the first step toward making positive, lasting changes. With a few simple tweaks, whether that’s creating a calming bedtime routine, fine-tuning your sleep environment, or managing stress, you can transform your nights from restless to restorative.
See all articles by Holly James
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