Perfect your wind-down routine

IF YOU go to bed with your head buzzing and your stomach still trying to digest the snack you just ate, you will find it harder to get to sleep. A proper wind-down routine begins several hours before you go to bed...

6-7pm: Eat your evening meal

IdeallY, you will have finished your last meal of the day at least three hours before you go to bed — ideally 8pm at the latest.

That is what I was recently advised by dr Satchin Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute in the u.S. and a world expert in chronobiology and circadian clock research.

This ensures the digestive process doesn’t interfere with your core body temperature, which should be starting to fall as bedtime approaches, driven by your circadian clock. This fall helps to trigger sleep, but late-night eating raises body temperature.

When a late-night snack hits your stomach, your gut has to spring into action to digest it. This increase in gut activity means your core body temperature will remain high, just when you want it to go down.

Have an alcoholic drink if you must, but only with your evening meal — no later. Try to average no more than a glass a day and try sticking to red wine, which studies have shown is better for you than white.

9.30pm: Try a soothing soak in the bath

INSTead of relaxing with a beer or a glass of wine in front of the TV, you are better off having a warm bath (with a few drops of an essential oil, such as lavender, if you like the smell).

for maximum sleep-inducing effect, run a bath an hour before bedtime and allow yourself a ten-minute soak. The warm water raises your body temperature, increasing the circulation of blood to your skin, hands and feet.

When you get out of the bath, your body will continue to radiate heat but your core temperature will slowly drop over the course of an hour, helping to trigger changes in the brain which induce sleep.

Jumping into a hot shower for a couple of minutes just before bedtime won’t have the same sleep-inducing effect.

10.30pm: Countdown to bedtime

Take out your sleep diary (you can download an empty page at

www.fast-asleep.com) and make a note of the important factors that should contribute to good quality sleep.

Note the time you last ate or drank anything, the last time you had a cup of coffee or tea, whether and how many alcoholic drinks you had that day. This is a good time to reflect on the day and the impact your improving sleep might have, so jot down how tired you felt during the day (on a scale of 1-5), whether you had an afternoon slump and if you made time for exercise.

You can also log whether you’ve been increasing your intake of fibre-rich foods and trying new and different fermented foods. Very soon you should start to see improvements, and it’s good to record your progress as you go along.

11pm: Lights out

If You’re not following a pattern of sleep restriction (as outlined in yesterday’s paper), aim whenever possible to go to bed at the same time every evening. Before midnight is best.

after a lovely, calming pre-bed routine, you should fall asleep easily and wake up refreshed in the morning.