ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH REST?
HOW do you know if you’re getting enough sleep — or that it’s good quality sleep? The checklist (right) has been devised for the National Sleep Foundation in the U.S. by a panel of 18 experts, including sleep doctors, neuroscientists and psychiatrists, who read and voted on 277 studies on sleep quality. To check the quality of your nightly sleep, answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the following questions:
DO YOU drift off to sleep within half an hour of going to bed?
DO YOU stay asleep all night or wake up only once (or twice for the over-65s)?
IF YOU do wake up, are you asleep again within 0 minutes (or 30 minutes for the over-65s)?
IS AT least 85 per cent of your time in bed spent sleeping? The more ‘Yes’ answers you give, the better your sleep quality is. Four ‘Nos’ and you could be in trouble.
SIGNS YOU HAVE A SLEEP PROBLEM
IF YOU feel tired and sleepy every morning, regardless of how much sleep you had the previous night, you could be suffering from a sleep disorder. The following quiz, which was devised by Dr Daniel Buysse, a professor of psychiatry and chair of sleep medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, U.S., could help you identify if you need to see your GP about your sleep.
How to score: rarely/Never (0); sometimes (1); Usually/Always (2)
1. SATISFACTION: Are you satisfied with your sleep?
2. ALERTNESS: Do you stay awake all day without dozing? .
3. TIMING: Are you asleep between 2am and 4am?
4. EFFICIENCY: Do you spend less than 0 minutes awake at night? (This includes the time it takes to fall asleep and awakenings from sleep.)
5. DURATION: Do you sleep between six and eight hours per day?