PUT YOUR STRESS TO BED

After 20 nightmare years, I can now sleep like a baby

Debbie Peters, 44, is a health co-ordinator. she is married to Jonathan, 46, a retail manager and they live in Fulham, West London. SINCE the age of about 20, I’ve had issues with my sleep. I’m a very light sleeper so the slightest thing can wake me.

But the biggest problem of all is not being able to get to sleep — and that started around five years ago. I honestly can’t think what triggered it.

I’m in a very happy marriage, I like my job. I don’t smoke and my diet is good. I don’t eat takeaways and have plenty of fish, chicken and vegetables, with the occasional treat.

I exercise five days a week, only drink around four units of alcohol a week and there are no young children in the house.

Perhaps my only vice is coffee. I have four cups a day, my last at around 4pm.

Admittedly, the past six months have been particularly stressful on a personal level: my mother was diagnosed with cancer in September, and we had a tragedy in the family when my cousin’s 21-year- old son died while studying at university.

So we’ve had a lot of stress lately and I think my sleep has been slightly worse as a result.

That said, I’m an overthinker, anyway. I wouldn’t say I worry, but I go to bed at 10pm, turn the lights out and lie there in the dark thinking about the day.

I don’t read books or look at a screen during that time because I think that will make it even harder to get to sleep. When I do eventually fall asleep, I’ll wake up at the slightest sound and be awake for a while with Jonathan fast asleep next to me. It’s odd, but I always know when I’m going to wake up because I dream that I’m awake — and then I do wake up.

After only a few days of keeping my sleep diary, I noticed the pattern emerging. I’m not sure whether writing my worries down has helped, but I do like the feeling I’m doing something proactive each day to help with the following night’s sleep.

I’ve also liked writing down the fact that I’ve been dreaming, because that reassures me that I’ve had some sleep, even when I feel I haven’t.

I’ve also implemented some of Professor Ellis’s advice into my sleep routine. I now turn the TV off half an hour before we go to bed and Jonathan and I will simply chat together instead.

It’s been lovely, and I’m sure that not having the stimulation of the television has helped me drift off more easily.

I’ve also taken Professor Ellis’s advice about removing iPads and phones from the bedroom. Even though I never used to look at them when I woke in the night, I’d charge them up in the bedroom.

I’m very much a shower person, but I’ve started having a long, warm bath on some evenings.

I have cut back on coffee, too, and have even been trying to have caffeine-free days. I find that makes make me feel awful during the day but laying off the coffee definitely improves my sleep at night. I drift off faster and wake up a lot less.

It’s still early days, but I have had a couple of much better nights recently — so I’d say it is definitely working.

The average couple bicker 167 times a year in bed