A 2020 study by the health charity Nuffield Health showed that increasing numbers of us are struggling with insomnia. Researchers found that out of the 8000 adults surveyed, 1 in 10 people were getting only 2-4 hours sleep per night with younger adults getting the least sleep overall.
Improving your sleep quality
Sleep allows your brain to rest, boosting memory, IQ, concentration and mood. Many of us don’t always prioritise sleep even though it can have a big impact on many areas of health.
What’s the right amount of sleep?
We all need different amounts of sleep – whilst most of us need an average of 8 hours, some need more and others survive on 6-7 hours or less.
What do we mean by good sleep?
A good night’s sleep is:
- The correct amount of sleep for your age (as we get older less sleep is needed)
- Falling asleep within 30 minutes of going to bed
- Sleeping straight through
- Falling asleep again within 20 minutes if you do wake up
- Feeling restored, energised and rested after a night’s sleep
When we’re asleep, we sleep in cycles throughout the night (around 90 minutes between cycles). Deep sleep takes place at the start of night, which is a time of repair and restoration for your body. REM sleeping occurs later and is important for consolidating memories, processing emotions and dreaming. As you come out of a cycle your body needs to shift and wakes slightly. It is perfectly normal to wake up between cycles as long as you’re falling back to sleep within 10-15 minutes. Everything in between is a light stage of sleep.
How do we get good sleep?
Good quality sleep plays an important part in our physical and mental wellbeing, however, with busy lives, family commitments and shift work, in addition to other factors such as stress and menopause, how do we ensure we get good quality sleep?
Listen to Dr Hannah Dakin's podcast on how to improve our sleep quality
Useful sleep resources
- The Sleep Charity - extensive information for all ages aimed at supporting good sleep. Includes advice on sleep hygiene, sleep environment, shift work and sleep disorders
- National Sleep Helpline - confidential helpline providing support from trained sleep advisors (call 03303 530541 Mon, Tues, Thurs 7pm-9pm and Mon, Weds 9am to 11am. Please note the service does not operate on bank holidays)
- Sleepio - a free six-week clinically proven self-help online programme to improve your sleep
Getting back on track with S.L.E.E.P. advice
So many things can impact on our quality of sleep – daytime naps, caffeine, alcohol, smoking, light from screens and phones along with sleep anxiety around lack of sleep. Get your sleep pattern back on track with this SLEEP advice.
S – stress
L – light
E – eat
E – environment
P – physical activity
Stress – it can be difficult to reduce stress levels but there are some easy things we can do. Think about taking some gentle exercise, for example stretching or yoga; take a warm bath and practice meditation (there are a range of different meditation practices available for free on Youtube).
Light – the levels of light absorbed through the day impact on the hormones that your body releases. It's important to get outside and get some sunlight. That can be more difficult in the winter when there are lower levels of, however, a light box can be very beneficial (gives level of daylight if you were outside at midnight – gives vitamin and D and light to balance out hormones); anytime you can get out during the day in sunlight is beneficial.
Dark in bedroom, ideally taking technology out of the bedroom and limiting screentime.
Eat – nutrition is important and studies have shown that the Mediterranean diet can help with sleep. You should avoid diets high in fat and sugar; moderate alcohol intake and reduce caffeine consumption. Generally, if you have your last caffeinated drink at 2pm to 3pm you're likely to get a much better quality of sleep. Try also to have your dinner earlier in the evening to give your body plenty of time to digest your meal.
Environment – a good sleep environment can be very beneficial - calm spaces leads to calm minds. Try to keep your room temperature cooler at around 18C and reduce any light in the bedroom.
Associate your bed with sleeping (not eating, studying or watching television in), declutter where you can and make your bedroom a relaxing space to be in.
Physical activity – any physical activity helps, whether it's a walk earlier in the day or some light yoga before bed. Activity helps sleep by improving mood and reducing stress levels.
Whilst exercise is very beneficial, don't do it too late. An energetic evening gym session can keep you awake for longer.
