Sleep is "one of the most talked about and the most misunderstood pillars of health and performance," according to Fiona Brennan, clinical hypnotherapist at The Positive Habit.
Speaking on The Anton Savage Show, Brennan said even disrupted periods like Christmas can be an opportunity to improve sleep.
"My message about sleep is one that is very uplifting and positive," she said.
"It can be any time of the year that you can really make huge, significant improvements to your sleep."
Brennan encouraged listeners to rethink how they approach rest.
"You have a relationship with sleep. And this is like your very, very best friend," she explained.
"Do you look after them? Do you prioritize them? Do you make sure they have what they need? Or do you expect everything from them and then get annoyed when they don't deliver?"
This time of year, she noted, routines are easily disrupted by "late nights, routines going completely out of whack, a lot of family stresses, emotional dysregulation."
While many people fall asleep easily due to exhaustion, staying asleep is often the challenge.
She highlighted the importance of REM sleep for emotional processing.
"When we go to sleep and we enter into REM sleep, the emotional areas of our brain, such as the amygdala, are still active."
Crucially, she explained, "the neurochemicals such as neuroadrenaline are almost completely switched off," allowing people to "process difficult emotions without the stress response being triggered."
As a result, "you're so much more able to cope with whatever comes your way," something many people recognise when comparing a good night's sleep to "a ragged, disrupted night."
One of the most practical steps people can take is prioritising the hour before bed.
"The wind down is actually so important to staying asleep," Brennan said, as it helps cortisol levels settle.
She advised avoiding stressful conversations and decisions, calling bedtime "a really bad time" for them.
"What you want is that you're going into the parasympathetic, which is the rest and digest," she explained.
"You want everything to start to calm down."
While acknowledging that different life stages bring different sleep challenges, from babies to menopause to grief, Brennan's message was optimistic.
"There's so much we can do. It's so easily fixed, if you like," she said.
"It's one of those problems in life, which you can fix through lifestyle, through your mindset, through your relationship to it."