Much more than just a period of downtime sandwiched in between your busy days, sleep is vital to your health, happiness, productivity and even safety. Sleep is, indeed, that good for you.

These snooze tips may help you get the rest you need. And if getting enough restful slumber is often a nightmare, consider talking to your doctor about your sleep troubles.

Stay on schedule. Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day (weekends too) may help with insomnia.

Ditch the screens. Blue light from digital screens causes your body to release less of the sleep hormone melatonin, making it harder to snooze. Advice? Unplug phones, tablets and other gadgets close to bedtime.

Try this when tossing and turning. If you can’t fall asleep after about 30 minutes, don’t lie there. Get up and do something relaxing (like reading) until you’re ready to try sleeping again.

Avoid the sleep thief in a cup near bedtime. Caffeine blocks a natural sleep chemical called adenosine. It can take eight hours for this effect to wear off after consuming caffeine.

Understand sleep chemistry. When it gets dark, your body releases the hormone melatonin, which tells your body it’s time to sleep. At sunrise, your body makes the stress hormone cortisol, which helps you wake up.

Go for cool, dark and quiet. This describes a good sleep environment.

Turn back the mealtime clock. For sound sleep, avoid large meals one hour before bedtime. Gotta snack? Keep it light.

Nap wisely. While napping is sometimes helpful, long, frequent or poorly timed naps can disrupt sleep later on. If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, shorten your naps to 20 minutes, take fewer naps or have them earlier in the afternoon.

Nix the nightcap. Although it may induce sleepiness, alcohol can wake you up later in the night.

Aim for seven to eight hours of shuteye. That’s the minimum amount of nightly sleep most adults need to feel refreshed and alert.

Don’t get into a sleep debt. Skimping on sleep to get more done? Don’t. Sleep loss adds up—and catches up to you. If you miss your bedtime by two hours each night, after a week, you’ll owe 14 hours of sleep!

Elevate your mood. You could be sleep-deprived if you’re regularly feeling cranky. Being tired also makes it easier to misread other people’s emotions, which could cause some misunderstandings. Being well-rested can put you in a better mood.

Change your bedtime. Do you quickly nod off while reading or watching TV? If so, try hitting the pillow earlier.

Searching for a solution? Sleep on it. Have you noticed how some problems seem easier in the morning? It’s no coincidence. While you’re sleeping, your brain is preparing new neural pathways. This overnight brain boost helps you learn and remember things for the next day.

Take a trip to dreamland. Vivid dreaming typically occurs during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, one of two sleep types (non-REM sleep is the other) that we cycle in and out of three to five times per night. Getting enough of both sleep types helps you feel alert.

Sources: American Academy of Sleep Medicine; National Institutes of Health; UpToDate