How are you sleeping? It’s estimated that almost half the population is affected at some point due to poor sleep environments, bad habits or hormones.* And the outlook is grim; a lack of sleep is seriously bad for our health and wellbeing.
‘Almost every known ailment is linked in some way to poor sleep,’ says professor Jason Ellis, director of the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research. ‘Sleep deprivation increases our risk of developing health issues and it reduces our body’s ability to cope with them.’
Here’s how to make some positive changes for the year ahead.
If you can’t nod off…
Do you lie awake watching the hours tick by? This fall-asleep strategy will help to reduce night-time stress so you can drop off quickly and easily.
PLAN AHEAD
The foundation of any sleep routine is a regular bedtime. Our body clock likes patterns, so setting strict times for sleep and wakingwant to get up and count backwards. ‘On average, a normal amount of sleep for an adult is around seven to nine hours a night,’ says Dr Irshaad Ebrahim of The London Sleep Centre. Play around with different bedtimes until you find what works for you.
