Free sleep diary template
A one-week sleep diary to print, or a blank CSV for a spreadsheet. It asks for the same things bedlog logs, so the paper and the app line up.
Name / week of: ______________________________
| Datethe evening | Bedtimeinto bed | Wake timegot up | Rested1 (not at all) to 5 (very) | Screens offtime, and a note | Caffeinetime and what | 1tick | 2tick | 3tick | 4tick | 5tick | Notesanything else |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Evening routine — tick the numbered column if you did it that evening; leave it blank if you did not.
- Screens away 30 minutes before bed
- Lights dimmed in the last hour
- A wind-down activity (reading, stretching, a bath)
- Bedroom cool and dark
- No alcohol this evening
Swap in your own routine items if these are not the ones you are trying. Rate each morning for the night before it.
bedlog.lp-data.cloud/sleep-diary-template · A habit diary, not medical advice.
How to use it
Fill in one row each night. In the evening, write the date, any caffeine you had with the time, when the screens went off, and tick the routine items you did. In the morning, add the time you went to bed, the time you got up, and how rested you feel from 1 to 5. A note is optional, but it helps later: a late dinner, a noisy night, a stressful day.
Keep going for at least two weeks. One week shows you what a normal week looks like. It is not enough to compare anything, because ordinary nights vary a lot on their own.
Change one habit at a time. When sleep is bad it is tempting to change everything at once — no coffee after lunch, phone out of the bedroom, an earlier bedtime. If you then sleep better, you do not know which change did it; if you do not, you do not know which one to drop. Pick one thing, do it on some nights and not others, and keep everything else as it was.
Compare mornings with and without it. Take the nights you did the habit and work out the average rating the next morning. Do the same for the nights you did not. Only compare once you have at least 3 nights on each side; with fewer, one bad night decides the answer. bedlog's Patterns view uses the same rule. A difference is a lead worth following, not a proof: other things change from night to night too, which is what the notes column is for.
Then try the next one. Keep the habits that go with better mornings, drop the ones that make no difference, and move on to the next thing you want to test.
If you would rather use a spreadsheet, the blank CSV has the same columns as bedlog's export: date, bedtime, wake time, rating, screens off, screen note, caffeine, one column per routine item, and notes. Write yesor no in the routine columns.
Skip the paper
Prefer not to do the maths by hand? bedlog keeps this diary for you and shows the patterns. No account needed.