Can’t sleep? Take our quiz-zz and drift off faster with four tips from the Sleep Geek

VERY few of us get consistently good kip.

Just nine per cent of our readers say they “never” struggle to get to sleep, according to the recent Sun Health survey.

While seven to nine hours a night is the “golden rule” as advised by the NHS, one in five say they typically get six, one in eight survives on even less.

It is dangerous to repeatedly get inadequate sleep.

In newly published research, a Swedish study found that adults who sleep only three to five hours a day are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Sleep deprivation has also been shown to up the odds of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

James Wilson also known as The Sleep Geek, and founder of , told Lynsey Hope: “Lack of sleep makes life a lot harder. We make worse decisions, we struggle to exercise and eat healthily and we do not process emotions properly.”

Now take the Sleep Geek’s quiz to see how you sleep and get his practical tips to improve the quality of your slumber . . .

Questions

1. Do you worry or feel stressed that you won’t be able to sleep before you go to bed?
a) Always
b) Most of the time
c) Sometimes
d) Rarely

2. If you wake in the night, how long does it take you to fall back to sleep?
a) An hour or more
b) 30-60 minutes
c) 10-30 minutes
d) 5 minutes

3. How often do you use your smartphone or tablet right before bed?
a) every day
b) most days
c) 2-3 days a week
d) Almost never

4. Is your bedroom comfortable, dark and calm?
a) No, not at all
b) No, my bed is uncomfy and it is too light
c) Usually it is fine
d) Yes, I often fall asleep straight away

5. You’re feeling in a good mood:
a) Almost never
b) Rarely
c) Sometimes
d) Nearly always

6. How often do you feel tired, irritable and fatigued during the day?
a) Most of the time
b) Often
c) Occasionally
d) Almost never

7. Do you struggle to concentrate at work and feel your productivity is slipping?
a) Yes, always
b) Yes, sometimes
c) Occasionally if I’ve had a bad night’s sleep
d) I never struggle to concentrate and am very efficient

8. Would you say your weight fluctuates and that your appetite is often insatiable?
a) All the time
b) Sometimes
c) Rarely
d) Never

9. Do you find your libido is flagging?
a) Yes, I’m always too tired for sex
b) Yes, I rarely have the energy
c) Occasionally I’m too tired but this is not usually an issue
d) No, I always have energy for love-making

10. Do you struggle to make decisions?
a) Yes, all of the time
b) Quite often I do struggle
c) Rarely
d) No, I can make decisions quickly

11. How often are you unwell? Pick the sentence which best describes you:
a) All the time. I get every cough, cold and bug going
b) I am ill fairly often
c) I am mostly healthy and well
d) I never even catch a cold

12. I have fallen asleep at the wheel or in other places where it might be unsafe:
a) Yes, all the time
b) This happens to me every month
c) I recall this happening once or twice
d) This never happens

13. I have daytime naps to catch up on my sleep:
a) All the time
b) Often
c) Once in a while
d) Almost never

Answers

MOSTLY A: It may be time to assess not only your sleep at night but what you are doing in the day.

I’d start by trying to understand your sleep better.

Do you try to wind down in the hour before bed, doing things that relax you and drop your core temperature?

Wind down for an hour before bed doing whatever you find relaxing, whether it be journaling or reading.

If you watch TV, make sure it’s not in bed or a suspenseful programme that ends on a cliffhanger.

Get ready for bed (brushing your teeth, taking make-up off, loading the dishwasher) before wind-down time, so that when you get sleepy, you can nod off.

When your core temperature drops, it signals to the brain that you are relaxed and it’s time to sleep.

To help, a hot bath or shower before bed will raise your temperature slightly, so when you go to bed, your temperature will fall.

You could also rest a hot water bottle on your feet in the lead-up to bedtime.

Do you have a usual wake-up time, including at the weekends? This will make keeping a consistent bedtime easier.

Think about how much caffeine you are drinking (coffee, tea, fizzy drinks) and how close to bedtime you’re drinking them.

We all metabolise caffeine at different rates but a general rule is six hours before sleep time in your 30s and 12 hours in your 60s.

Alcohol knocks us out but gives poor quality sleep, and nicotine is an incredibly stimulating substance.

If you snore, or particularly if you briefly stop breathing during the night and make a choking sound, you need to see your GP.

There are more than 1.5million people in the UK with undiagnosed sleep apnoea, which is a breathing disorder that can be life-limiting.

Other symptoms are tiredness in the daytime and morning headaches.

MOSTLY B: It is fair to say that your sleep could be better, but are you helping yourself get the best sleep possible?

Make sure you’re not having your evening meal too late, as digesting food in the three hours before bed makes it more likely your core temperature will rise.

We want a drop in core temperature to fall asleep and stay asleep.

The best bedroom temperature is 18C, which usually means turning the heating off before bedtime.

Exercise is great for sleep, but too close to bedtime it raises your core temperature and leads to the production of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline that will make it harder to sleep.

If you are working until late, or have a hobby that makes your brain whirr long after you should be asleep, you need to make the hour before bed free from these distractions.

If you need to work late then make sure you wind down properly, even if it is the early hours of the morning.

See tips in Mostly A.

MOSTLY C: You sleep well most of the time, but it could be better.

In my experience, looking at your sleep environment, including your relationship with the person you sleep next to, would be a good place to start.

If your partner disturbs you in the night, think about a bigger bed, because you have less space in a double bed with another person than a baby has in a cot bed.

If you are a hot sleeper, go for a spring mattress with natural fillings.

Try separate duvets to stop heat transferring from one side to the other.

If you sleep on your front this could be the source of your issues, as it puts pressure on the neck, back and knees and pulls us out of our sleep cycle.

Use a body or maternity pillow which trains you to sleep in the foetal position.

This is the best position to sleep in, with minimal pressure on joints and a neutral spine.

Sleeping on your back is fine if your pillow provides the best support under your neck.

Another pillow under the knees reduces spine curvature and pressure in the back.

Use the Goldilocks Test to see if your mattress is supportive.

Lie on your back with a pillow and see how much you can slide your hand under the bottom of your back where it curves.

If it won’t go in at all or goes in too easily, the mattress does not support you right.

It needs to be a bit of a struggle and you need to be able to wiggle your fingers a little. That is just right.

If you mainly sleep on your side, you will need a deeper pillow, while a back sleeper will need a shallower one.

MOSTLY D: You are sleeping pretty well and although it would be worth reading all of the above to see if anything obvious is wrong, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.