It's a problem for many of us, and we all need more of it! Try these tips
- Go to sleep when you’re tired It seems obvious, I know, but I regularly ignore yawns and think, “I’ll just do this first”.
- Get up at the same time each day This is more important than going to bed at a set time because it’s the time you wake up that resets your body clock to sleep that night
- Keep a sleep diary Note when you try to go to bed, when you fall asleep and what you eat and drink. - - Avoid TV and computers For at least an hour before you want to sleep. (More on this later.)
- Get out of bed if you’re awake for more than 15 minutes I’ve heard this before, but apparently you have to do something aside from TV, texting or going online. Doh.
- Make sure you’re not too hot - your body heats up during the night, so ditch the second layer. A room temperature of 15-20 degrees is ideal for inducing sleep.
- Make sure the room is dark and use earplugs if it’s noisy. Studies show unfamiliar noise during the first and last two hours of sleep can suppress immune function, even if you don’t wake up.
- Ignore worrying thoughts about not sleeping Instead, focus on the fact you’re getting some sleep – even if you don’t know it. A study by the US National Sleep Foundation found a third of the participants thought they’d slept for at least an hour less than their brain-wave activity indicated.
Modern problem?
Experts believe many cases of insomnia can be attributed to the three Ss: stress, stimulation and screens. Which pretty much sums up most people’s lives today. “Once, Thursday night shopping was a revelation – now you can do it 24/7… There’s far more stimulation,” says Dr Joffe. And long gone are the days where the only thing on TV after midnight was the test pattern. Facebooking or watching DVDs into the night won’t just overstimulate you, though – screens are sleep’s nemesis for a very scientific reason.
“TV, computers and car headlights all give our brains direct exposure to ‘blue light’,” says Osiecki.
“This specific light frequency (430-460 nm) suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone that tells our body to sleep, and disrupts our circadian rhythm.”
Melatonin is released by the pineal gland from about 9pm to 7.30am, but blue light delays or shuts it down, making it harder to fall asleep. “Even light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on mobiles and digital alarm clocks disrupt sleep,” says Osiecki. Hence the strict ban on screens – big and small – before bed.
As for stress, if you’ve ever nodded off in front of the TV (or at the movies, or at your mother-in-law’s dinner table), only to find yourself completely awake when you go to bed, that’s a classic sign of stress-related insomnia, says Dr Bartlett.
“Women tend to upload everyone’s problems all day,” explains Dr Mansberg. “So when you stop and get into bed, your body and brain will decide to process it, and go ‘I forgot to call so-and-so...’” She says the old advice of taking paper and pen to bed still stands. The key is to actually action those night-time niggles you write down, “Then you’ll be able to relax.”
One thing that can banish both stress and insomnia is, you guessed it, exercise. “It’s vital for nixing depression and sleep issues,” says Dr Mansberg. “Traditionally, we’ve said to do it before 2pm so you don’t get an endorphin rush that keeps you up, but after work is better than not doing it at all.” Get out for a morning jog and you’ll be ticking off another important sleep tip – getting early morning light. Sunlight in the AM sets our sleep clock to doze off that evening, Dr Bartlett tells me. Light needs to pass through your eyes for your brain to register it. I decide to add a brisk morning walk to my “sleep hygiene” homework.
Sleeping on it
Of course, we can get by on little sleep – it’s just not pleasant. “Our survival needs are met in the first 90 minutes [of sleep], and our core needs after four to six hours,” says Dr Bartlett. A full sleep cycle takes about 90 minutes and it’s ideal to have five cycles a night – and that’s what I’m gunning for: the elusive eight hours. Yet researchers still don’t fully understand why getting proper sleep is so important. What they do know is that without any sleep we’d die. The University of Chicago, US, conducted a study in which rats were kept awake. After two weeks, none were left alive – that’s less time than it would take them to starve to death. Humans can last a bit longer: the lengthiest recorded period of being awake is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes. The poor subject, 17-year-old American Randy Gardner, suffered hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses. Not fun.
Where research has made headway is into how the different types of sleep can benefit us – in particular, the stage we’ve all heard of, REM (Rapid Eye Movement). “We know lot more about the biochemistry of our brain,” says Dr Joffe. “And the findings are that dreaming and REM sleep are crucial to the development of memory consolidation.” This makes forgetfulness and absent mindedness one of the first symptoms of sleep loss, as REM makes up about 25 per cent of our total sleep time. If you’re getting eight hours, that is. You have longer phases of REM during the later sleep cycles of the night (see diagram on p69), so people who only have, say, five hours’ sleep are missing out big time.
So don’t be fooled into thinking you’re someone who can run well on a short night. A study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, US, found that participants who thought they get by well on six or fewer hours have cognitive deficits, they were just too sleep-deprived to know it. Touché.
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