“A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow”. Charlotte Bronte

Whilst the nights are still long and the weather is not great, it makes perfect sense to start this ‘project’ with sleep!How well did you sleep last night, did you get your full 8 hours of slumbering bliss, or were you ruffled, stressed and restless?

Sleep is at the cornerstone of good health and considered vital in helping your immune system perform at its optimum level, yet two-thirds of adults in the developed world fail to obtain the recommended 8 hours sleep. 

In fact, sleep is so essential to every component of our wellbeing that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had now declared a sleep loss epidemic throughout industrialised nations. Scientist have started lobbying doctors to start “prescribing sleep” – but do not mistake this for a plea for prescribing sleeping pills.

Feeling fresh and vibrant as you jump out of the bed in the morning is something, we may all yearn for but may seem so far away as we struggle to roll out on the right side of bed each day. But what really happens to the body and brain as we sleep and why is it so important?
Society’s apathy towards sleep is in part caused by the historic failure of science to explain sleep and why we need it.

​Here’s what we know:
Humans, along with all other species, require some form of sleep. Sleep is an active period in which a lot of important processing, restoration, and strengthening occurs. Our body requires long periods of sleep in order to restore and rejuvenate, to grow muscle, repair tissue, and synthesize hormones. Precisely how this takes place and why our bodies are calibrated for such a long period of sleep is still not fully understood. However, research has repeatedly shown how important sleep is for both your physical and mental health. From anxiety and depression to type 2 diabetes and cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease - prolonged paucity of sleep is associated with numerous of the most serious health conditions. 

Perhaps you have noticed that your feel hungrier when you are tired? This is no coincidence. When you are sleep deprived you release a hormone that makes you feel hungry whilst suppressing the companion hormone that tells you you’ve have eaten enough. Sleep deprivation can therefore have a negative impact on any attempts of dieting. Sleep alone isn’t a magic cure to all ailments. But as research into sleep increases, what is becoming clear is that good sleep is the foundation upon which our health can be built. The shorter you sleep, the shorter your life span.

How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?
As we have seen, healthy sleep is critical for everyone, and even more so when we consider the amount of information we need to retain, plus learn skills to thrive in life. Most adults require 7-9 hours of sleep per night, whilst one-year-olds need roughly 11 to 14 hours. Children of school age need between 9 and 11, whilst teenagers between require 8 to 10 hours. During these critical periods of growth and learning, younger people need a heavy dose of slumber for optimal development and alertness. 

As they are acquiring language, social, and motor skills at an incredible pace throughout their development, they require more sleep than adults.

Unfortunately, we are unable to ‘pay back’ any sleep debt once it has been accumulated, but it doesn’t hurt to log as many extra hours of sleep as you can, particularly if you're sleep deprived.
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Being consistent with your sleep habits and creating healthy routines as well as a calming sleep environment can help play a significant role in reaching your daily sleep needs. Although all humans have a circadian rhythm, our 24-hour body clock which conducts life’ biological rhythmic symphony – the differences from person to person is striking.  For some people (about 40%), their peak of wakefulness arrives early in the day, and sleepiness early at night. For others – such as the “evening types” – going to bed late and subsequently wake up late the following morning is preferable.  The remaining fall somewhere in between. Society’s work schedule is of course strongly biased towards the early start times that punish owls and favour larks! Let’s hope society will gradually adapt to this in order to increase work performance and health maintenance.

So, what can YOU do to improve your health and sleep cycle?

• Set yourself a sleep schedule and stick to it
• Avoid caffeine, bright screens (especially up close such as iPad, phones and Kindles) and alcohol in the lead up to bedtime.
• Engage in a relaxing activity for 20 minutes to an hour before bed, such as reading, a warm bath or meditation.
• Pay attention to temperature and the sleep area, too. A cool bed environment is best for finding sleep.
• Soft, clean, cosy bedding also has a role to play in sleep quality.
• A comfortable mattress and supportive pillows also play a part in helping keep you relaxed, refreshed and healthy.
• Any lighting, even the red LED signal on your dormant TV is registered by your brain – turn it off!
• Use ear plugs to block out noises – my wife insists this has saved our marriage