Sleep

Coaches sleep with quantified protocols: insomnia CBT-I, jet lag light timing, shift work anchors, caffeine and melatonin cutoffs. Use when the user cannot fall asleep or stay asleep, wakes at 3am, feels tired or unrefreshed all day, is a night owl who cannot wake early, works nights or rotating shifts, plans travel across time zones, or asks about naps, snoring, nightmares, sleep paralysis, sleeping pills, bedroom setup, a newborn or menopause wrecking sleep, or what their sleep tracker score means. Not for dream journaling or interpretation.

Operational sleep coaching: triage the complaint, run the protocol with numbers, route red flags to a clinician instead of coaching past them. Advise mode only: guide the human, never touch their medication. Diary, trip plans, and preferences persist in ~/Clawic/data/sleep/ (see setup.md on first use, memory-template.md for the file format; created only when the user starts a protocol). If you have data at an old location (~/sleep/ or ~/clawic/sleep/), move it to ~/Clawic/data/sleep/.

When To Use

• User reports trouble falling asleep, 3am waking, early waking, or daytime tiredness.
• Trip planning across time zones: build the light and melatonin schedule before departure.
• Scheduling questions touching sleep: nap timing, caffeine cutoff, workout placement, chronotype.
• Night shifts or rotating schedules: damage-control plan, not adaptation fantasies.
• Nightmares, sleep paralysis, sleepwalking, snoring partner, tracker data, or sleep during pregnancy, new parenthood, menopause, or past 65.
• Not for diagnosing sleep disorders: snoring with gasps, dream enactment, sleep attacks go to a clinician (→ Red Flags). Not for dream journaling (dreams skill).

Quick Reference

Situation	Play
Bad sleep < 3 months, tied to a stressor	Acute: hold wake time, ban naps and early bedtimes, wait it out (→ insomnia.md)
Bad sleep ≥ 3 nights/week for ≥ 3 months	Chronic insomnia (ICSD-3): run CBT-I lite (→ insomnia.md)
Loud snoring + witnessed pauses + sleepy days	Stop coaching, refer for a sleep study (→ Red Flags)
Cannot fall asleep before 2-3am but sleeps fine when free-running	Delayed phase, not insomnia — restriction is the wrong tool (→ circadian.md)
Waking 4-5am done sleeping, often age 60+	Advanced phase vs mood — screen both (→ circadian.md)
Crossing ≥ 3 zones AND ≥ 3 nights there	Adapt: compute Tmin, schedule light by direction (→ jetlag.md)
Crossing < 3 zones OR < 3 nights there	Rule of 3: stay on home time, book meetings in the overlap window
Night or rotating shifts	Anchor sleep + commute light control (→ shiftwork.md)
"Should I nap?"	10-20 min, finished ≥ 8 h before bedtime; never during an insomnia protocol (→ performance.md)
Big day after a bad night, or an unavoidable all-nighter	Damage control: nap math, caffeine timing, no-drive line (→ performance.md)
Tracker score bad, user feels fine	Trust daytime function; stage data is noise (→ trackers.md)
"What supplement helps?"	Melatonin 0.5 mg timed for phase shift; everything else is weak (→ substances.md)
Nightmares, sleep paralysis, sleepwalking, night terrors	Identify by timing and recall, treat or refer (→ parasomnias.md)
Teen, pregnant, new parent, menopause, 65+	Base protocols carry modifiers (→ populations.md)
Room too hot, bright, loud; partner snores; kids or pets in bed	Fix the environment before blaming the sleeper (→ environment.md)
Weekend "catch-up" sleep	Cap wake-time drift at 1 h; 2 h drift = social jet lag and a Monday relapse
Any other sleep complaint	Start the 7-day diary in ~/Clawic/data/sleep/diary.md; no intervention before data

Depth on demand: insomnia.md full CBT-I lite, 3am playbook, relapse plan · jetlag.md direction math, worked trip tables, pre-flight shifting · shiftwork.md anchors, rotation design, first-night survival · circadian.md night owls, larks, DSPS, light therapy · environment.md bedroom, noise, partners · substances.md every cutoff and dose · trackers.md what to read, what to ignore · parasomnias.md nightmares to sleepwalking · populations.md life stages · performance.md naps, debt, all-nighters.

Core Rules

1. Wake Anchor: one fixed wake time ±30 min, 7 days/week; bedtime floats with sleepiness. Highest-leverage single change; check that weekend wake stays within 1 h of weekday wake.
2. Judge sleep by daytime function, not hours. Adult range is 7-9 h (consensus guidelines), not a universal 8: alert on 6.5 h = that user's number; sleepy in meetings after 8 h = a problem despite the hours.
3. Triage before advice: every complaint passes the Red Flags table first. Hygiene tips given to an apnea case cost a year of misdirection.
4. Stimulus control (Bootzin): awake ~20 min by feel (no clock-checking), leave the bed, dim light, boring analog activity, return only when sleepy. Best-evidenced single insomnia technique.
5. Effort inverts in sleep: "try to sleep more" always backfires. Prescribe the opposite: later bedtime, restricted window, worry scheduled earlier in the evening.
6. Time substances by half-life, not by feel: caffeine last dose ≥ 8 h before bed, alcohol last drink ≥ 3 h, melatonin 0.5 mg taken 5 h before target bedtime when the goal is shifting the clock.
7. Light steers the clock and direction depends on timing: light after Tmin advances the clock, before Tmin delays it. Tmin = habitual wake minus 2.5 h (wake 07:00 → Tmin 04:30). Backwards application makes jet lag worse.
8. One intervention per week, measured against the diary. Stacked changes make results unattributable; the diary is ground truth, not memory of the night.

Red Flags

Signal	Suspicion	Action
Loud snoring + witnessed breathing pauses or gasp-awakenings + daytime sleepiness	Obstructive sleep apnea	Refer for a sleep study before any protocol
Dozing while driving, or sleep intruding mid-conversation	Severe sleepiness (Epworth-range > 10)	Refer promptly; advise against driving drowsy now
Acting out dreams: punching, kicking, leaping, mostly age 50+	REM behavior disorder	Neurologist referral, not urgent but not optional
Evening leg discomfort with urge to move, relieved by movement	Restless legs	Clinician; low ferritin is the common driver
Sudden sleep attacks, knees buckling with laughter	Narcolepsy/cataplexy	Sleep specialist
Insomnia + hopeless 3am thoughts, mood collapse	Depression presenting as insomnia	Treat mood as primary; escalate per user's care setup
New snoring or gasping in pregnancy, morning headaches, rising blood pressure	Pregnancy apnea / preeclampsia risk	Prompt obstetric review, not sleep coaching
Night waking driven by pain, reflux, or breathlessness	Medical driver wearing an insomnia mask	Treat the driver first; sleep protocols wait

Anything in this table suspends the protocols in this skill: route to a clinician.

Output Gates

• Did this complaint pass the Red Flags table before any protocol advice?
• Does every melatonin mention carry both dose and clock time (0.5 mg, 5 h before target bedtime for phase shifts)?
• Is prescribed TIB clamped to the floor in insomnia.md and the bedtime phrased as "not before"?
• Are jet lag light windows derived from Tmin converted to destination clock, not from local sunrise?
• Am I prescribing exactly one new intervention this week, with the diary as the measure?
• If the user is a teen, pregnant, postpartum, menopausal, 65+, or on shifts, did I apply the modifiers in populations.md / shiftwork.md?

Configuration

User-dependent variables. Defaults apply until the user states a preference; store them in ~/Clawic/data/sleep/config.yaml.

Variable	Type	Default	Effect
wake_anchor	time (HH:MM)	none	Seeds every derivation: Tmin = wake_anchor − 2.5 h, earliest bedtime, nap cutoff; unset → derive from a 7-day diary
time_format	12h | 24h	24h	Formats every schedule, worked example, and trip-plan table
units	metric | imperial	metric	Bedroom temperature guidance (16-19 °C vs 60-67 °F) and any other physical figure
tracker	text (device name)	none	Tailors trackers.md guidance to the metrics that device reports; none → coach from the diary only

Preference areas to record as the user reveals them:

• schedule — work pattern (office hours, shifts, on-call, freelance), fixed commitments; affects anchor placement and every protocol window
• household — partner schedule, kids, pets, room sharing; affects environment.md plays and stimulus-control feasibility
• substances — what the user actually uses (caffeine dose and timing, alcohol, THC, prescriptions); affects which cutoffs get surfaced first
• risk posture — how aggressively to titrate restriction, how firmly to repeat referrals; affects insomnia.md titration and Red Flags delivery
• reporting — plan format (per-day table vs prose), diary check-in cadence; affects artifacts written to ~/Clawic/data/sleep/

Traps

Trap	Why it fails	Do instead
Sleeping in after a bad night	Dilutes sleep pressure, delays the clock, seeds the next bad night	Same wake time; earlier sleepiness tonight is the repayment
Earlier bedtime to get more sleep	More time awake in bed conditions bed = frustration	Later bedtime until SE ≥ 90%, then extend by 15 min steps
Weekend catch-up ≥ 2 h	Social jet lag (Roenneberg): Sunday-night insomnia, Monday impairment	Cap drift at 1 h; 20-min Saturday nap if needed
Hygiene tips for chronic insomnia	Hygiene alone shows near-zero effect on chronic cases; it is prevention	CBT-I components: restriction + stimulus control
Nightcap for sleep	Onset improves, second half fragments	≥ 3 h alcohol buffer; treat latency with restriction
10 mg melatonin at lights-out for jet lag	Wrong dose and wrong hour; sedation misread as adaptation	0.5 mg, 5 h before target bedtime, eastward only
Morning sunlight on arrival in Europe from the US	Lands before body-clock Tmin, delays the clock, worsens the lag	Sunglasses until converted Tmin, bright light 2-3 h after
Coaching a loud snorer on bedtime routine	Misses apnea; months lost while AHI stays high	Red Flags first, referral before protocol
Treating a night owl teen as an insomniac	Delayed phase + early school start is a clock problem; restriction adds deprivation	Phase-advance protocol (circadian.md), not restriction
"Relax and clear your mind"	Sleep-effort paradox: monitoring for sleep prevents it	Stimulus control; paradoxical intention for high performers
Adjudicating tracker deep-sleep deficits	Stage data is noise at consumer accuracy	Re-anchor on daytime function and the diary

Where Experts Disagree

• Blue light: photobiology shows real melatonin delay; behavioral trials show content arousal dominates in adults. Teens and severe insomniacs get strict screen cutoffs; average adults get engagement rules (no feeds in bed), not amber glasses.
• Napping: performance school prescribes it, insomnia school bans it. Sleeps well → nap freely within the ≥ 8 h cutoff; in protocol → no naps until discharged.
• Melatonin for plain insomnia: trials average ~7 min faster onset; strong effects only for circadian problems. Circadian use yes, nightly-forever use no.
• Chronotype: performance school schedules life around it, clinical school retrains it. Shift the clock only when the phase conflicts with obligations the user cannot move; otherwise move the obligations (circadian.md).

Related Skills

More Clawic skills, get them at https://clawic.com/skills/sleep (install if the user confirms):

• fitness — when the lever is training load, overtraining, or workout timing rather than the night itself
• fasting — when late eating windows or fasting schedules collide with the sleep window
• plan — when the fix is calendar surgery, moving deep work to the user's alert hours instead of fixing sleep
• dreams — dream journaling and pattern exploration; nightmare treatment stays here

Feedback

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Part of Clawic, the verified skill library. Get this skill: https://clawic.com/skills/sleep.