Sleep well

Sleep SOS

Sometimes it’s hard to know how much sleep you need – and even harder still to spot when you haven’t had enough. When we are busy and not quite in tune with our bodies, we might not link our negative actions to a lack of sleep the night before – or the build-up of what is known as ‘sleep debt’ over an extended period. But new research points to one key signal that you may not have clocked enough hours in bed, and it all comes down to how you are walking: during a treadmill test, those who hadn’t slept sufficiently showed the uneasiest walking patterns. While we have previously known how a lack of sleep can impact mental capacity and performance, this is the first study of its kind to show how it can have a negative impact on even the seemingly easiest of physical tasks, such as walking. Yet more evidence that an early night is always a good idea!