“I am in bed for 9 hours every night, but I still feel exhausted.”

“I get plenty of sleep, 8 hours at least, so why don’t I feel rested?”

If you’ve ever said something like this, you’re not alone. Many people I work with assume that time in bed equals sleep quality. They’re tracking their hours religiously, confused about why they’re still tired despite “getting enough sleep.”

The missing piece? Sleep efficiency.

This single metric can explain why someone sleeping 6 high-quality hours feels more rested than someone lying in bed for 9 hours. Understanding your sleep efficiency and knowing how to measure and improve it, can transform not just how you sleep, but how you feel during the day. Let me show you what this means and why it matters so much.

What is Sleep Efficiency?

Sleep efficiency is the percentage of time you’re actually asleep compared to the total time you spend in bed trying to sleep.

Here’s the basic sleep efficiency formula:

Sleep Efficiency = (Total Sleep Time ÷ Time in Bed) × 100

For example:

• You’re in bed from 10:30 PM to 6:30 AM (8 hours in bed)
• But you took 45 minutes to fall asleep, woke up for 30 minutes during the night, and spent 15 minutes awake before getting up
• Your actual sleep time: 8 hours – 1.5 hours awake = 6.5 hours
• Your sleep efficiency: (6.5 ÷ 8) × 100 = 81%

Sleep efficiency meaning goes beyond just a number; it reveals the quality of your sleep and how consolidated it is. A person with 85% sleep efficiency sleeping 6 hours is likely getting more restorative rest than someone with 70% efficiency sleeping 8 hours.

Use our sleep efficiency calculator to measure your sleep efficiency!

Why Sleep Efficiency Matters More Than Duration?

I worked with Jennifer, who came to me exhausted despite “sleeping 8-9 hours every night.” When we tracked her sleep efficiency, we discovered she was actually only sleeping about 5.5 hours, the rest was spent tossing, turning, checking the clock, and worrying about not sleeping. Her sleep efficiency was hovering around 65%.

“I thought I was supposed to spend more time in bed to get more sleep,” she told me. “I had no idea that lying there awake was actually making things worse.”

This is what makes sleep efficiency such a powerful metric: it shows you the truth about your sleep quality, not just your sleep opportunity.

Here’s why sleep efficiency matters more than duration:

1. Consolidated sleep is restorative sleep

When your sleep is fragmented with multiple awakenings and long periods of sleep, your brain can’t move properly through sleep cycles. You miss out on the deep sleep and REM sleep that actually restore your body and mind.

2. Time in bed creates sleep pressure

The longer you spend in bed awake, the more your brain learns to associate your bed with wakefulness rather than sleep. This conditioned arousal is one of the main factors that maintains chronic insomnia.

3. Sleep efficiency predicts sleep quality

Research consistently shows that sleep efficiency correlates more strongly with how people feel during the day than total sleep time does. A shorter, more efficient sleep leaves you feeling more refreshed than a longer, fragmented one.

What’s a Normal Sleep Efficiency Range?

Understanding where you fall on the sleep efficiency spectrum helps you know whether you need to make changes.

Healthy sleep efficiency: 85% or higher

This is considered good sleep efficiency. At this level, you’re spending most of your time in bed actually sleeping, with minimal time awake.

Borderline sleep efficiency: 80-84%
This is acceptable but could be better. There’s room for improvement, especially if you’re feeling tired during the day.

Poor sleep efficiency: Below 80%

This suggests significant time spent awake in bed, which often maintains insomnia patterns. If your sleep efficiency is consistently below 80%, working on sleep consolidation can make a dramatic difference.

Important note: It’s normal for sleep efficiency to dip occasionally due to stress, illness, or life circumstances. We’re looking at patterns over time, not individual nights.

For context: newborns have sleep efficiency around 65-70% because they wake frequently, and this is completely normal for their developmental stage. But for adults, consistently low sleep efficiency indicates that your sleep patterns need attention.

How Does Sleep Efficiency Connect to Insomnia?

If you’re struggling with insomnia, low sleep efficiency is likely part of the picture. Here’s what commonly happens:

You have trouble sleeping, so you go to bed earlier to “catch up.” Or you stay in bed longer in the morning, hoping for more rest. Both strategies seem logical, but they actually decrease your sleep efficiency by increasing time in bed while your actual sleep time stays the same.

This creates a frustrating cycle:

Low sleep efficiency → more time in bed trying to “get enough sleep” → even lower sleep efficiency → stronger association between bed and wakefulness → more insomnia

One of the main tools we use in CBT-I therapy is sleep restriction (our Facebook post for sleep restriction), which works by temporarily limiting time in bed to match your actual sleep time. This consolidates your sleep and dramatically improves sleep efficiency. Yes, you might spend slightly less time in bed initially, but you’ll spend much more of it actually sleepingand you’ll feel significantly better.

5 Ways to Improve Your Sleep Efficiency

1. Track Your Actual Sleep vs. Time in Bed

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. For one week, keep a simple sleep log:

• What time did you get into bed?
• Approximately how long did it take to fall asleep?
• How much time did you spend awake during the night (roughly)?
• What time did you get out of bed?

Calculate your sleep efficiency for each night. This data is incredibly valuable, it often reveals patterns you hadn’t noticed and shows whether your sleep efficiency is the issue.

2. Match Your Time in Bed to Your Sleep Time

If you’re consistently getting 6 hours of sleep but spending 8-9 hours in bed, your sleep efficiency is suffering. Consider temporarily reducing your time in bed to match your actual sleep time (plus 30 minutes for falling asleep).

This might sound counterintuitive, won’t you be even more tired? Initially, perhaps. But within a week or two, your sleep consolidates, your efficiency improves, and you actually feel more rested despite the same or even slightly less sleep time.

This is the principle behind sleep restriction in CBT-I, and it’s remarkably effective. However, it’s best done with guidance from a sleep therapist who can help you implement it safely.

3. Get Out of Bed If You Can’t Sleep

If you’ve been lying awake for more than 20 minutes (either at bedtime or during a night waking), get up. Go to another room and do something quietly until you feel sleepy again, then return to bed.

This stimulus control technique prevents your brain from learning that bed equals wakefulness. Every time you lie in bed awake for extended periods, you strengthen the association between bed and being alert. Getting up breaks this pattern and protects your sleep efficiency.

Some of my clients worry: “Won’t getting up make me more awake?” Sometimes briefly, yes. But staying in bed reinforcing the bed-wakefulness association makes your insomnia worse long-term. This approach is about building sustainable sleep, not forcing it in the moment.

4. Create a Consistent Sleep Schedule

Going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time every day (yes, even weekends) strengthens your circadian rhythm and builds sleep pressure at the right times. This consistency naturally improves sleep efficiency because your body knows when to expect sleep.

Many people with low sleep efficiency have erratic schedules, staying up late some nights, sleeping in when they can, napping when exhausted. While these choices make sense as attempts to catch up on sleep, they actually fragment your sleep drive and reduce efficiency.

5. Address the “Safety Behaviors” That Hurt Sleep Efficiency

Safety behaviors are things you do to try to protect your sleep that actually maintain insomnia. Common ones include:

• Going to bed before you’re actually sleepy “just in case”
• Staying in bed after waking to “get more rest”
• Canceling morning plans to “try to sleep in”
• Spending time in bed during the day to “recover”

These behaviors increase your time in bed without increasing your sleep time, tanking your sleep efficiency. With support from ACT-based therapy, you can learn to drop these unhelpful strategies and trust your body’s ability to sleep.

The Bigger Picture: Quality Over Quantity

Here’s what I want you to take away from understanding sleep efficiency: it’s not about obsessing over the numbers or achieving “perfect” sleep every night. It’s about recognizing that how you sleep matters more than how long you try to sleep.

Jennifer’s sleep efficiency went from 65% to 88% over eight weeks of working together. Did she suddenly start sleeping for 10 hours? No, she actually reduced her time in bed initially. But by consolidating her sleep and breaking the bed-wakefulness association, she went from 5.5 hours of fragmented sleep to 6.5 hours of solid sleep. The difference in how she felt was remarkable.

“I used to think I needed 9 hours,” she told me. “Now I sleep 7 hours and feel better than I have in years. And I don’t spend my nights watching the clock anymore.”

This is the power of understanding sleep efficiency. It shifts your focus from chasing hours to creating the conditions for consolidated, restorative sleep.

Your Next Step

If you suspect low sleep efficiency is contributing to your exhaustion, you don’t have to figure this out alone. Calculating and tracking sleep efficiency is straightforward, but improving it, especially if you’re dealing with chronic insomnia often requires professional guidance.

Sleep restriction and stimulus control are powerful techniques, but they work best when customized to your specific situation and implemented with support. That’s where specialized sleep therapy makes all the difference.Ready to transform your relationship with sleep? Learn more about our 6-week science-backed Gently to Sleep program, designed specially for insomnia, anxiety, and depression patients. Take your first step toward restful nights and energized days.

Contact us to schedule a free sleep consultation.