SLEEP ON IT

No longer an afterthought in the game of reaching peak health, those hours spent head-on-pillow are the target of cutting-edge scientific research and countless snooze-improving tinctures and tech, all in the name of helping you get a better night’s kip.

We’ve wised up on the science of nodding off. Sweet dreams

Transport Cher Horowitz from those ubiquitous Clueless memes into 2019 and she’d probably say something like, ‘Sleep is the new veganism.’ And, you know what, she’d have a point.

‘People are increasingly considering sleep as an extension of their health, as important as exercise and nutrition,’ explains Jessica Smith, creative researcher at trend forecasting agency The Future Laboratory. Indeed, 2019 saw a 116% hike in Pinterest searches for ‘sleep optimisation’. The reason zeds are a pretty big deal around here? Everyone’s so damn poor at getting them. Data from the Sleep Council suggests that one in three Brits sleep poorly ‘most nights’ – bemusing when you consider that the human body at the most basic level is designed to do it – and with expert predictions suggesting that the sleep and rest industry will be worth £482 million by the end of the year, the response seems to have been to throw a whole load of GBP at the problem.

But while you might be tracking your hours in REM phase alongside your VO² max and protein-to-carbohydrate ratio, you’re probably less likely to know what you’re aiming for or, let’s be honest, why you’re even doing it in the first place.

Happily, the knowledge chasm around sleep is closing, with

15% more studies on the topic published now than five years ago. And, in further good news, we’ve worked our way through them so you don’t have to. We treat you right.

Over the next few pages, you’ll find key sleep insights, distilled and packaged in a way that you can action, expert advice on the aids that are worth sampling (and the ones best swerved) and the sleep-better-now solutions that everyone’s talking about. Time to grab yourself a (camomile) brew and school up on bedding down.