If you work from home, you probably find that work life and personal life flow into each other, without a firm boundary between them.

This has advantages.

For example, you can integrate little breaks from work with household tasks; you can throw on a wash, clean the kitty litter or call the utility company, all without interrupting your work schedule.

Another advantage is that you don't need to go anywhere.

Gone is the hectic morning; the mad dash to put on something presentable, eat, and give family members something to eat. No need to put on another pair of pantyhose because you discovered there is a run in them, jumping in the car or dashing for the bus.

Not having to get somewhere can add extra hours to your day for more fulfilling things.

Not needing to go anywhere can also be a disadvantage.

Leaving home to go to work can provide scaffolding to the structure of your day.

There is a routine to when you get up when you eat, when you work, when you spend time with family and friends.

Without the imperative to get somewhere, a routine can easily fall apart.

It is tempting to let the patterns that bound our days drift and float aimlessly.

You may decide to sleep in until the last minute before you need to get onto a Zoom call, coffee in hand.

You may stay up all night watching Netflix because you don't have a meeting the next day until the afternoon.

In this way, working from home can mess with your sleep.

This is because our bodies need routines.

Our bodies need to orchestrate a million different processes and these need to be in sync. When we go to bed and get up at different times each day, these processes get out of whack and misaligned.

Another way that working from home can make sleep more difficult is something called "conditioning" in psychology.

Conditioning is how we associate activities, events, locations, and triggers with certain states of being.

So for example, if you associate your couch with "relaxing," sitting on your couch will make you feel more relaxed.

If you associate your bedroom with sleep, going into your bedroom and lying down on your bed makes you more likely to sleep.

When you work from home, places that you would otherwise associate with relaxation, or even sleep, now become associated with work.

If you work while sitting on your couch, it is no longer associated with a state of relaxation. If you work in your bedroom, this is no longer associated with a haven for sleep.

That means when you want to wind down and relax at the end of the day, that couch is no longer associated with a state of relaxation.

You might even grab your computer and write another email while watching your favorite show. When you go into your bedroom, if your desk is there, your body no longer knows that this place is where you go to sleep.

Working from home can also erode boundaries between work life and personal life.

These boundaries can provide a buffer between the "on" intensity required of work and the relatively more relaxed pace of personal life.

You can create the routines, conditioning, and buffers necessary for a balanced life while working from home.

I myself have worked from home most of my professional life.

I can tell you from my own experience that you can develop a rhythm that suits your own body and preferences.

You can establish your own pattern that suits your energy, alertness, hunger, need for downtime, need for breaks and time outside, need for connections with others.

And, of course, your need for sleep.

This way you can sculpt your own life to enhance your productivity, your health, and protect your sleep.

All it takes is a little self-discipline and experimentation to find a rhythm that works for you.

When you do this, you are no longer depending on the outside world to create a cookie-cutter routine for you to follow. You develop what works for you.

The key is consistency.

Develop your own consistent routine, especially when to wake up and when to fall asleep.

Determine consistent locations and times of day for various activities and your body will more likely shift into the associated state of being.

Develop buffers so that you are not blending work mode and relaxation.

This can be a wonderful opportunity to take control over your own body, your life, and your sleep.

Also Read: Why You Feel Tired All The Time — A Surprising Way to Feel Better