Rest assured

Ready to make intermittent resting work for you? Dr Lederle reveals how to tune into your body’s natural rhythms

TAKE A CHRONOTYPE HOLIDAY

Permission to book your next break. Dr Lederle suggests taking a five-day trip in the UK with the goal of tuning into your natural waking and sleeping hours. Go to sleep when you feel tired and rise when you’re ready. By day five, you should know what your natural sleep timings are, and ideally you’ll start sleeping in that window every night. Better pack some peppermint tea.

TAKE THE MEQ

For a more scientific approach, take the morningnesseveningness questionnaire (it’s Google-able). There are 19 questions designed to tell you where you sit on the sliding scale of morning person (lark) and evening person (night owl).

KEEP AN ENERGY DIARY

You’ll know intuitively when your energy ebbs and flows throughout the day by way of the times you usually reach for a coffee or a snack, but start consciously tuning into your feelings and noting them down. Look out for the obvious signs, like yawning, as well as how engaged you feel in the task at hand. Keep it up for a week and see what patterns you notice. This will guide you to your own intermittent resting breaks.

MAKE IT STICK

Your body clock is like a baby – it loves routine. ‘Anything you do that’s part of a routine will help your body clock know what to expect, be that the time you do a workout or when you eat your lunch,’ says Dr Lederle. Once you’ve identified your energy peaks and troughs, schedule your breaks accordingly, and stick with it.