Editorial and Review Policy
Sleep is a health topic, so this page exists to let you judge how much weight to put on anything else here. It includes the parts that are not flattering.
What this site is, for the purposes of this policy
Tips for Insomnia publishes general educational information about sleep habits. It is not medical advice, it does not diagnose, and it does not treat any condition. Nothing on it is written by a named clinician, and nothing on it claims to be.
Where health statements come from
Health-adjacent statements are written from a fixed registry of 30 public health sources. A guide cannot cite anything outside that registry, because the generator is only ever given the approved list and any URL outside it is rejected before the guide is written to disk. That is what makes a fabricated citation structurally impossible here rather than merely discouraged.
Every URL in the registry was fetched and confirmed to resolve before publication.
| Organisation | Sources in the registry |
|---|---|
| American Academy of Sleep Medicine | 6 |
| NHS (United Kingdom) | 6 |
| MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine | 4 |
| National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) | 4 |
| National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH) | 2 |
| Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH) | 2 |
| National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) | 2 |
| National Institute on Aging (NIH) | 1 |
| NHS Every Mind Matters (United Kingdom) | 1 |
| National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH) | 1 |
| U.S. Food and Drug Administration | 1 |
How guides are written
Guides are drafted with AI assistance against a fixed brief — the search intent the page owns, the angle it must take, the approved links it may use, and a long set of content rules — and are then validated automatically before anything is published.
A draft is rejected and regenerated if it contains any of the following:
- A claim that anything cures, fixes or eliminates insomnia.
- Diagnostic language — telling the reader what they have.
- Any promise of a guaranteed outcome, and the phrases "instantly", "works for everyone" and "clinically proven", which this site never publishes.
- A statistic presented as data, including any proportion claim without a source.
- Advice about starting, stopping, changing or dosing any medication or supplement.
- Any external link that is not already in the verified registry.
- Advice to time how long you take to fall asleep, or to check the clock at night.
- Signs of truncation: an unterminated sentence, unbalanced emphasis, a trailing heading.
Guides that pass are then checked again as a set: one keyword must not be claimed by two pages, every internal link must resolve, and every page must have exactly one H1, a canonical, and a meta description within a usable length.
What we do not claim
No page on this site has been reviewed by a named clinician. Pages that make health-adjacent statements carry a notice saying exactly that, and list their sources. We would rather show you an honest "not independently reviewed" than a review badge that means nothing.
We also do not invent an author. There is no fictional sleep doctor, no fabricated credentials, and no stock-photograph byline. Content is published under the Tips for Insomnia Editorial Team. If a genuine medical reviewer joins this site, their real name and real credentials will appear on the pages they have actually reviewed, and on no others.
How medical claims are bounded
The rules below apply to every page, not only to the ones about health:
- We describe what is associated with better or worse sleep, not what is guaranteed to change it.
- We prefer ranges and mechanisms to universal numbers. A single caffeine cut-off or bedroom temperature stated as fact for everybody would be wrong for most people.
- Where the evidence is thin or contested, we say so rather than picking the more confident-sounding side.
- Where a topic touches breathing, dangerous sleepiness, pain, pregnancy, or a problem that has run for months, the page says plainly that a professional look is appropriate.
Freshness and corrections
Health guidance moves. Pages carry a published date and, where they have been revised, an updated date — and both are real rather than refreshed automatically to look current.
If you find an error, tell us through the contact page. A substantive correction is made to the page and noted, not silently edited away. If we cannot verify a claim to the standard above, the claim comes out rather than staying in with a hedge attached.
Funding and independence
This site is funded by one product sold at a fixed price. It takes no advertising, no sponsorship, and no affiliate income — in particular none from supplements, sleep aids or mattresses, which is where most of the money in this subject is. Nothing on the site recommends a product to buy from anybody else.
The verified source registry
Every source a guide on this site may cite:
- Healthy Sleep — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- A Good Night’s Sleep — National Institute on Aging (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Healthy Sleep Habits — American Academy of Sleep Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Healthy Sleep — American Academy of Sleep Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep and tiredness — NHS (United Kingdom) · verified 2026-09-04
- How to get to sleep — NHS (United Kingdom) · verified 2026-09-04
- How to fall asleep faster and sleep better — NHS Every Mind Matters (United Kingdom) · verified 2026-09-04
- Insomnia — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Insomnia — NHS (United Kingdom) · verified 2026-09-04
- Insomnia — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Insomnia — American Academy of Sleep Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Clinical practice guideline for the pharmacologic treatment of chronic insomnia in adults (PDF) — American Academy of Sleep Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Circadian Rhythms — National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep — National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine is Too Much? — U.S. Food and Drug Administration · verified 2026-09-04
- Caffeine — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Snoring — NHS (United Kingdom) · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep Apnea — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep apnoea — NHS (United Kingdom) · verified 2026-09-04
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea — American Academy of Sleep Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep — Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep: Condition Information — Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Tiredness and sleep problems in pregnancy — NHS (United Kingdom) · verified 2026-09-04
- Anxiety Disorders — National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- My Mental Health: Do I Need Help? — National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep Disorders — MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine · verified 2026-09-04
- Sleep Studies — National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- Narcolepsy — National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH) · verified 2026-09-04
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine — American Academy of Sleep Medicine · verified 2026-09-04