MICHAEL MOSLEY’S FAST WAY TO A GREAT NIGHT’S SLEEP

How to win the snore war

ThERE’S no doubt that a great night’s sleep is the best possible way to boost your immunity and fight off infections.

So, in these troubled times, it can be doubly infuriating if you’re being kept awake by snoring — either yours or the person you share a bed with.

But luckily, my brilliant new insomniabeating plan, could provide the answer.

All this week the Daily Mail has been serialising my latest book, Fast Asleep, with exclusive four-page pull-outs which detail the powerful sleep-inducing benefits of ‘sleep fasting’, a low-carb Mediterranean diet and great sleep hygiene.

And I’ve saved the best news for last — because one of the key elements of my plan is a foolproof way to reduce snoring and boost the quality of your sleep.

Most people who snore find themselves in a Catch-22 situation where snoring causes fragmented sleep, which then disrupts appetite hormones and blood sugar levels, making weight gain almost inevitable. But weight gain also increases the risk and intensity of snoring. My plan can reverse this vicious cycle.

I come from a long line of snorers. My father used to snore really, really loudly, like someone sawing logs. It was loud enough to be heard on the other side of the house.

I, too, used to snore at an incredible volume; in fact, my wife said that when we lived in London, I snored so loudly that I drowned out the sound of the metal beer barrels being delivered to the pub opposite first thing in the morning.

Now, it might sound harsh, but the main reason most people snore is that they are overweight. If you are a woman with a neck size over 16 inches, or a man with a neck size over 17 inches, you are almost certainly a snorer.

The uncomfortable truth is, as we get older and fatter, we snore more. That’s because our throat gets narrower, our throat muscles get weaker and our uvula, which is that finger-like bit of tissue that hangs down at the back of our throat, gets floppier.

All these changes mean that when we breathe in, the air can’t move freely through our nose and throat and into our lungs.

Instead, the incoming air makes the surrounding tissues vibrate, which produces that horrendous snoring noise.

This will disrupt your sleep and your partner’s sleep as well. There is now a lot of evidence that people who sleep less than seven hours a night are more likely to become overweight or obese and develop type 2 diabetes than those who sleep well. one reason is that sleep deprivation alters your appetite hormones, making you more likely to feel hungry and less likely to feel full. It certainly makes you more likely to crave sweet foods.

It’s not just that your blood sugar levels soar and your hunger hormones go into overdrive when you’re tired; the areas of your brain associated with reward also become more active. In other words, you become much more motivated than normal to seek out unhealthy foods such as crisps and chocolate.

In fact, a study at King’s College London found that sleepdeprived people consume, on average, an extra 385 calories per day, which is equivalent to a large slice of cake.

once you start to store away those extra calories as fat around your gut and neck, you will be in difficulty. An important Swedish study of middle-aged women found the differences in sleep quality and quantity among the overweight was striking.

women in the normal weight range slept 25 minutes more per night, got 20 per cent more brainrestoring deep sleep and 22 per cent more emotionally calming REM sleep than women with a waist larger than 33inches.

So, what can you do about it? well, when I was an overweight diabetic, I slept terribly, at least in part because I snored so much.

And the reason I used to snore so loudly was because I used to have a 17-inch neck. when I put