How long do you sleep?
The pressures of daily life often feed into a lack of sleep, as people find stress makes it more difficult to get a good night's rest. In a recent survey, almost half the 4,000 questioned said they didn?t get enough sleep. Most of us are concerned about the impact our busy lives are having on health through stress, sleep deprivation, lack of time for exercise, and so on.
While it is difficult to say whether we are sleeping less now than they we used to, it seems clear that we are a more tired society.
So what is normal?
On average, adults sleep seven and a half hours each night. Eight or more would be better. Some sleep ten or more. A few people say they feel fine on four hours a night - although it?s not a good idea to sleep so little night after night.
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation can produce all kinds of outcomes. According to Harvard Medical School?s Dr Charles Czeisler, one of the world?s leading authorities on sleep, staying awake longer than 18 consecutive hours can affect your reaction speed, short-term and long-term memory, ability to focus, decision-making capacity, cognitive speed and spatial orientation.
It can also lead to high blood pressure and obesity. Its effects on driver fatigue are also well known, with drowsy drivers said to be responsible for a fifth of all road accidents, many of them fatal.
Dr Czeisler says: ?If you get at least eight hours of sleep a night, your level of alertness should remain stable throughout the day. But, if you have a sleep disorder or get less than that for several days, you start building a sleep deficit that makes it more difficult for the brain to function.?
He argues strongly against the contemporary work and social culture which ?glorifies sleeplessness in the way we once glorified people who could hold their liquor.?
What kind of sleep?
The depth of your sleep varies throughout the night, and cycles of deep and light sleep are continuously repeated in waves.
It is normal occasionally to wake at the ?top? of one of these cycles when you are in the lightest phase of sleep, and to fall into deeper sleep quite soon as the cycle continues.
One hour of sleep before midnight is worth just one hour of sleep ? neither more nor less. There is no truth in the old wives? tale exhorting us to get to bed early!
The occasional night of poor sleep may make us feel tired the next day but has little effect on performance. So there is no need to worry about sleeping badly the night before an important meeting or interview, for example. You should be okay ? just this once. However, generally speaking, you should be trying for around eight hours a night.
Problems with sleep
About one in five people think they have a sleep problem, and sleeping badly can make you feel irritable and unable to cope. There are three main kinds of problem: difficulty falling asleep, wakefulness during the night and waking too early in the morning.
For many people, the problem is not that they sleep too little but they think they are not getting enough sleep. If this becomes a worry then it can become a vicious circle ? it interferes with sleep and leaves you feeling exhausted next day.
Ask yourself:
Do you regularly feel tired throughout the day?
Does sleepiness interfere with your daily activities?
If the answer to one or both is yes, then you may have a sleep problem, but luckily for the vast majority of us it can be easily solved.
What can help?
One way to help with sleep problems is to keep active ? see our Positive Mentality articles in October. The following gives some other possible problems and solutions to them:
If the need to urinate is disturbing your sleep:
Keep your overall drinking to between two and three litres a day but limit yourself to half a pint after 4pm, drinking the rest before then
Drink nothing for two hours before going to bed
Urinate just before retiring
Do not drink alcohol or coffee within three hours of going to bed
If you take diuretic medication, check with your doctor if you still need them and do not take them in the evening.
If noise is waking you:
Try using ear plugs, talk to your partner about their snoring or sleep in separate rooms.
Establish a regular routine:
Do not snooze in front of the TV
A relaxing bedtime routine gives your mind time to settle for the night and helps leave behind the worries and excitements of the day.
Your last meal should not be too large nor too late
Avoid diuretics and too much alcohol in the evening, and cut down on stimulants such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate and tobacco.
Lying awake worrying:
Control your thoughts ? try not to think about problems in bed
Spend five minutes before you settle down making a note of things that are on your mind. Getting them out of your head and down on paper ready to deal with later really can help
If you wake during the night with something on your mind, jot it down so that you know you won?t forget to deal with it in the morning.
Waking early:
Waking at least an hour before your usual time without being able to get back to sleep, and feeling very miserable, can be a sign of depression. Think about whether you should consult your doctor.
If you can?t drop off to sleep:
Make sure you are comfortable, not too hot or cold, thirsty ? or
is your room stuffy?
Do something to break the cycle ? you could read for a bit, listen to the radio, get up and go to the bathroom, or have a sip of water
Relax and use counting games to help you switch off.
Some facts about sleeping pills
Sleeping pills are addictive and may also make you feel drowsy during the day. If you are not already taking them, do not let yourself develop a new habit.
An occasional sleeping pill, taken on your doctor?s advice, might be useful in the short term. If you do regularly take sleeping pills then you could talk to your doctor about ways to gradually reduce or come off them.
While it is difficult to say whether we are sleeping less now than they we used to, it seems clear that we are a more tired society.
So what is normal?
On average, adults sleep seven and a half hours each night. Eight or more would be better. Some sleep ten or more. A few people say they feel fine on four hours a night - although it?s not a good idea to sleep so little night after night.
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation can produce all kinds of outcomes. According to Harvard Medical School?s Dr Charles Czeisler, one of the world?s leading authorities on sleep, staying awake longer than 18 consecutive hours can affect your reaction speed, short-term and long-term memory, ability to focus, decision-making capacity, cognitive speed and spatial orientation.
It can also lead to high blood pressure and obesity. Its effects on driver fatigue are also well known, with drowsy drivers said to be responsible for a fifth of all road accidents, many of them fatal.
Dr Czeisler says: ?If you get at least eight hours of sleep a night, your level of alertness should remain stable throughout the day. But, if you have a sleep disorder or get less than that for several days, you start building a sleep deficit that makes it more difficult for the brain to function.?
He argues strongly against the contemporary work and social culture which ?glorifies sleeplessness in the way we once glorified people who could hold their liquor.?
What kind of sleep?
The depth of your sleep varies throughout the night, and cycles of deep and light sleep are continuously repeated in waves.
It is normal occasionally to wake at the ?top? of one of these cycles when you are in the lightest phase of sleep, and to fall into deeper sleep quite soon as the cycle continues.
One hour of sleep before midnight is worth just one hour of sleep ? neither more nor less. There is no truth in the old wives? tale exhorting us to get to bed early!
The occasional night of poor sleep may make us feel tired the next day but has little effect on performance. So there is no need to worry about sleeping badly the night before an important meeting or interview, for example. You should be okay ? just this once. However, generally speaking, you should be trying for around eight hours a night.
Problems with sleep
About one in five people think they have a sleep problem, and sleeping badly can make you feel irritable and unable to cope. There are three main kinds of problem: difficulty falling asleep, wakefulness during the night and waking too early in the morning.
For many people, the problem is not that they sleep too little but they think they are not getting enough sleep. If this becomes a worry then it can become a vicious circle ? it interferes with sleep and leaves you feeling exhausted next day.
Ask yourself:
Do you regularly feel tired throughout the day?
Does sleepiness interfere with your daily activities?
If the answer to one or both is yes, then you may have a sleep problem, but luckily for the vast majority of us it can be easily solved.
What can help?
One way to help with sleep problems is to keep active ? see our Positive Mentality articles in October. The following gives some other possible problems and solutions to them:
If the need to urinate is disturbing your sleep:
Keep your overall drinking to between two and three litres a day but limit yourself to half a pint after 4pm, drinking the rest before then
Drink nothing for two hours before going to bed
Urinate just before retiring
Do not drink alcohol or coffee within three hours of going to bed
If you take diuretic medication, check with your doctor if you still need them and do not take them in the evening.
If noise is waking you:
Try using ear plugs, talk to your partner about their snoring or sleep in separate rooms.
Establish a regular routine:
Do not snooze in front of the TV
A relaxing bedtime routine gives your mind time to settle for the night and helps leave behind the worries and excitements of the day.
Your last meal should not be too large nor too late
Avoid diuretics and too much alcohol in the evening, and cut down on stimulants such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate and tobacco.
Lying awake worrying:
Control your thoughts ? try not to think about problems in bed
Spend five minutes before you settle down making a note of things that are on your mind. Getting them out of your head and down on paper ready to deal with later really can help
If you wake during the night with something on your mind, jot it down so that you know you won?t forget to deal with it in the morning.
Waking early:
Waking at least an hour before your usual time without being able to get back to sleep, and feeling very miserable, can be a sign of depression. Think about whether you should consult your doctor.
If you can?t drop off to sleep:
Make sure you are comfortable, not too hot or cold, thirsty ? or
is your room stuffy?
Do something to break the cycle ? you could read for a bit, listen to the radio, get up and go to the bathroom, or have a sip of water
Relax and use counting games to help you switch off.
Some facts about sleeping pills
Sleeping pills are addictive and may also make you feel drowsy during the day. If you are not already taking them, do not let yourself develop a new habit.
An occasional sleeping pill, taken on your doctor?s advice, might be useful in the short term. If you do regularly take sleeping pills then you could talk to your doctor about ways to gradually reduce or come off them.