SLEEP TRIBES WHAT TYPE OF SNOOZER ARE YOU?

Interrupted sleeper

José Colón, author of The Sleep Diet,

believes that getting up in the night dates back to caveman days, and the need to “wake up, scan the environment, make sure there are no tigers, and then go back to sleep”. Night-time urination is often to blame: avoid drinking too close to when you go to sleep and ditch the coffee at least eight hours before bed.

Super-early riser

Though a raft of big-name CEOS extol the virtues of a pre-5am wake-up, – and Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, is on the tennis court at 5.45am – constantly waking in the early hours can be anxiety-inducing. To give yourself the best chance of nodding off again, stay in bed, keep the room dark and avoid checking the clock. To establish a more restorative sleep pattern, try going to bed later. If you find that you’re sleepy too early, keep the lights bright to slow the release of the hormone melatonin.

Insomniac

Stress, noise, excess caffeine and uncomfortable beds are all common causes of insomnia. A third of the nation reports being afflicted by the condition, which sees difficulty in both falling and staying asleep. The NHS website advises avoiding exercise for four hours before bed, not taking naps during the day, and not using electronic devices close to bedtime.

Night owl

Much of your fundamental sleep pattern is genetic. “People are either larks or owls… [and] there’s little you can do about that,” says sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley. A study from Harvard, however, suggests that replacing household lights with red-orange tinged lights in the evening could bring sleep forward, and increased exposure to morning daylight could help to shift your body clock earlier, over time.