Avoid nightcaps and phones to get sleep

Quarter of us drink to doze off in shocking figures

A QUARTER of us rely on an alcoholic drink before bed in order to get to sleep at night, according to a new survey.

And experts have branded smartphones ‘a disaster’ when it comes to ruining our sleep patterns.

Research carried out on 1,000 people in Ireland revealed that 46 per cent of us feel we are not getting enough sleep and one in four of us use alcohol as a means to get some shut eye.

In new RTÉ documentary Awake, The Science of Sleep, which airs tonight, Irish Daily Mail columnist Dr Pixie McKenna reveals the health concerns that can arise from not getting enough sleep include an increased risk of developing cancer, obesity, mental illness and serious accidents.

Four out of ten Irish people get six hours or less sleep on an average weekday while Irish women are more likely than men to struggle with snoozing, according to the research carried out by Amarach.

Experts also believe that using smartphones in bed at night are causing major disruption to sleep patterns. Professor Walter McNicholas, Irish Consultant Respiratory Physician and President European Sleep Research Society, said: ‘The smartphone is a disaster.’ The survey also showed that almost 50 per cent of Irish people worry that sleep patterns are negatively affecting their health. With sleep deprivation being referred to as a ‘silent epidemic’ in Ireland.

Dr John Garvey from St. Vincent’s Sleep Clinic said the blue light emitting from smartphones and iPads are disrupting our natural body clocks.

‘Exposure to blue light is the thing that affects our circadian rhythm the most, so you can actually disrupt your normal body clock.

‘People are using their phones in bed. They view it as an extension of their living room and use it instead of their TV. We call it poor sleep hygiene.

‘It’s affects the ability to fall asleep easily and stay asleep, so people wake up in the middle of the night and turn to Netflix or Facebook and that potentially worsens their problem.

‘In clinical practice we always talked about reducing caffeine intake before 4pm in the afternoon, exercising during the day and asking people to stop using their smartphone in bed, but is now the advice we give on sleep hygiene in clinical practice.’

Dr McKenna said: ‘If you don’t sleep for at least six hours a night, you’re 12 per cent more likely to die early.

‘It’s been said poor sleep kills. Sleeplessness is now seen as a major public health problem’.