DON’T BE A CLOCK WATCHER

IF YOU’RE taking a while to fall asleep, or you often wake in the middle of the night, do not check to see what time it is. ‘It increases anxiety and releases adrenaline which stops you sleeping,’ says Dr Petra Hawker, a sleep psychologist from the London Sleep Centre in Harley Street. ‘And worry and anxiety about falling asleep is the very thing that can stop you from sleeping.’

Dr Hawker also says that clocks that emit light should also be banned from the bedroom as their glow can disturb sleep — get yourself an old fashioned alarm clock if you need to wake up at a certain time.

And if you do wake at night, remind yourself that this is normal — and even those annoying people who tell you they always sleep well do it. No one sleeps for a solid eight hours — our sleep is naturally broken up into 90-minute cycles. ‘We all wake up during the night between sleep cycles and most of the time we barely notice it has happened, we just turn over, get comfortable and drift off again,’ says Professor Gareth Hughes, a psychotherapist at the University of Derby. ‘Remind yourself of this if you notice you’ve woken up. ‘Waking up for a couple of minutes at night isn’t the problem, it’s panicking about it that keeps you awake for long enough to make you tired the next day.’