ON THE NO-ZZZZZS LIST

ANNA CHANCELLOR TOYAH WILLCOX CAT DEELEY ELLIE GOULDING JENNIFER ANISTON MADONNA

says, ‘I used to suffer from terrible insomnia, to the point where I’d get a glimpse of what it must be like to have a mental illness – a disconnected mind. Magnesium did the trick. I take two tablets at night and wake up at 8.30am, thrilled by a good night’s sleep.’ suffered with insomnia for more than 40 years. A few years ago she discovered acupuncture. ‘I have a very active brain and a tendency to worry, and that – coupled with my 24-hour hectic lifestyle, which makes it harder for most people to sleep – resulted in it being near impossible for me.’ She had acupuncture in June 2013 and ‘afterwards, I was immediately sleeping six or seven hours a night. I had less joint pain, my skin looked great and I was so much brighter and full of energy.’ pulled out of the London play Linda in 2015, describing her sleeplessness as ‘a gorilla sitting on my chest’. She said, ‘I didn’t understand the debilitating consequence of having no sleep. It becomes a tsunami. I was in a void. Letting go was the hardest part but it was work or my sanity.’ gets about four hours’ sleep a night. ‘I wish I could find a cure for insomnia, as I suffer from it chronically. I’ve tried everything from sleeping pills to camomile tea to alcohol, and nothing has worked. My mind races all the time. The one thing that helps me is keeping a notepad next to my bed to jot down thoughts – I know it’s not terribly sexy, but it’s useful.’ reportedly cancelled a series of tour dates in 2016 due to insomnia. An insider said, ‘Ellie’s body clock is out of sync and she has found herself lying awake in bed most nights unable to get to sleep. All the travelling through random time zones has messed with her system. She just can’t get to sleep at night, and even when she’s back in England the insomnia is sapping her energy.’ revealed two years ago that ‘sleep is a tough one for me’. She then described her brain as ‘the committee in my head’ and said, ‘if I wake up at three in the morning I just start having conversations and they won’t shut up and then I can’t get back to sleep. I do have three animals and a human being in the bed, so there are all these distractions. I got an app on my phone that allows you to track your sleep rhythms. I don’t ever get into the deep, deep, deep sleep.’ believes that her insomnia probably started ‘when my mother died. And sleep’s never been an easy thing for me. If I can get six hours, I can get through the day. In the recording studio, I never finish before 2am, and then I have to get up at 7am for my kids. So there’s a lot of sleep deprivation.’