NIGHT NIGHT... HOW TO SLEEP TIGHT

Nearly half of us are currently having problems sleeping, with worry or anxiety largely to blame. It’s time to find the way back to dreamland

Advice for anyone struggling to doze off

If insomnia hasn’t affected you over the past year, you’re one of the lucky ones, because for many of us, a good night’s sleep has become something we can only dream of. A survey of 3,000 people by the Sleep School, which offers science-based insomnia advice, found that 43% of participants said their sleep had worsened since the start of the pandemic.

‘A busy mind is the most commonly reported factor preventing us from falling asleep,’ says Dr Guy Meadows, director of the Sleep School and author of The Sleep Book. And it’s a vicious circle: the less you sleep, the more anxious you are likely to become. If you’re stressed, you’re in a state of high alert, so you can’t relax enough to drift off. ‘We also know that there’s an intimate relationship between poor mental health and sleep, and it’s widely recognised that people’s mental health has declined over the period of the pandemic,’ says Dr Meadows.

Women, particularly those with children under 18, seem to have suffered the most. Research by Southampton University’s Centre for Population Change found that they were almost twice as likely to lose sleep because of worry than they were before the pandemic. If your mind is racing with concerns about Covid, children, elderly relatives and the state of the world, it’s not surprising that sleep suffers.

Alongside the ramping up of all these worries is the impact that repeated lockdowns have had on our daily routine. Your sleep cycle is governed by an internal body clock, which operates on a 24-hour cycle known as the circadian rhythm. ‘Lockdown has shifted our routines, and routine is paramount to sleep regulation and to the functioning of our internal body clocks,’ explains Dr Meadows. ‘Light and dark give us the most powerful signals for waking and sleeping but everyday actions, such as getting up, eating, working and exercise, are also important for regulation, and lockdown has changed a lot of that. Many of us have lost the anchor of the daily commute and we might be going to bed later, getting up later and eating at different times.’

Changes to routine can also result in a kind of ‘social jet lag’ he says, with people experiencing nausea, brain fog and lethargy as well as insomnia. Add to this the fact that many of us are spending hours every day in front of screens and you have the perfect recipe for tossing and turning into the small hours.

If your mind is racing, it’s not surprising your sleep is suffering

A good night’s sleep leaves you refreshed and ready for the day ahead