Sleep
Sleep is as important to our health as eating, drinking and breathing. It allows our bodies to repair themselves and our brains to consolidate our memories and process information.
Poor sleep is linked to physical problems such as a weakened immune system and mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Sleep Matters provides sound, evidence-based advice on how to improve the quality of your sleep. This includes simple ways to improve your 'sleep hygiene', such as adjusting the light, noise and temperature in the bedroom and changing your eating, drinking and exercise routines.
Good sleep doesn’t just mean lots of sleep - the amount that each person needs is different. The important thing is that you get good quality sleep. The following advice can help to heal your sleep problems: there are four pillars to good sleep (HEAL), these are:
- Health
- Environment
- Attitude
- Lifestyle
Health
As anyone who has tried to get to sleep with a blocked nose or headache knows, physical health problems can stop you from getting a good night’s sleep. If you are having recurring health issues and they are impacting on your sleep it is important that you speak with your GP.
Environment
The bedroom should be somewhere that you associate with sleep. If possible, it is better to watch TV, play computer games and eat in another room. Make sure you have had 30 minutes screen free before retiring to bed. Although everyone is different and has their own personal preferences, the common factors that can affect our sleep are light, noise and temperature. Too much light or noise can prevent you from falling asleep or staying asleep. Therefore, if you have sources of light and noise that you can’t control, such as from a streetlamp or neighbour’s music, you might want to use a black out blind, eye mask or ear plugs.
The temperature of the room is also important. A thicker duvet or an extra blanket can help if you regularly find yourself too cold at night; a thinner cover or opening a window can help if you’re too hot. If you are struggling to work out the best sleep environment for you then it can be useful keep a sleep diary (there’s one in the back of this guide) to keep track of the conditions that helped you get a good night’s sleep.
Attitude
Attitude Lying awake in bed, particularly before an important day, can make us worry. However, this worry then makes it harder for us to get to sleep. Progressive relaxation techniques can help you to relax and unwind at these times – a free audio guide to progressive relaxation can be downloaded from the Mental Health Foundation’s Sleep website:
Alternatively, instead of staying in bed and getting more and more frustrated, you could get up and make yourself a warm milky drink, and just go back to bed when you feel sleepier. If you continue to have sleep problems for more than a month, you could speak with your GP.
Lifestyle
There are a number of things that you can do every day to improve the quality of your sleep. You shouldn’t eat a large meal before going to bed, as you spend a lot of time digesting food before you can sleep. Eating rice, oats and dairy products can produce chemicals that increase our desire to sleep.
Food and drink containing lots of caffeine or sugar can keep you awake, so drinking less tea and coffee and eating less chocolate and other sugary foods late in the day might help you sleep better.
Although it can make you feel tired and help you get to sleep, alcohol often impairs the quality of your sleep and makes you more likely to wake up during the night, as the effects wear off, to go to the toilet or get a drink of water.
Exercising on a regular basis is thought to help us sleep as, amongst other things, it can help to reduce anxiety and relieve stress. It is important to exercise at the right time though. Exercising earlier in the day is better, as exercise increases the body’s adrenaline production, making it more difficult to sleep if done just before bedtime.