Sleep Better Tonight: Everything You need To Know To Beat Insomnia And Feel Better

Anyone who's stayed up all night writing an essay, working an overnight shift or feeding a baby knows just how important sleep is.

And now new research backs up previous claims that being in 'sleep debt' can cause weight gain and lead to serious health conditions.

Experts have warned us that perpetually choosing the remote over the pillow increases your risk of all sorts of unpleasant health conditions. Just 30 minutes of sleep debt a day was found to up the risk of obesity by 72 per cent.

But if you struggle to sleep, worrying about not getting enough is only going to add to your sleeplessness. So we've trawled through every bit of expert sleep advice we've ever been given to complete your cut-out-and-keep guide to getting 40 whole winks every night.

Long-Term Sleep Habits

There are many reasons why people find sleeping difficult. Modern life hasn't respected our body's need for seven-to-nine hours sleep a night, and work practises, stress, technology, diets and even our homes can all conspire against us to stop us nodding off.

If you're repeatedly having trouble, instead of guzzling coffee and complaining about being tired, sit yourself down and think about any longterm issues that are affecting your sleep.

Ask yourself:

-Are you stressed?
-Do you go to bed too late?
-Do you use phones/tablets and other technology late into the night?
-Does your partner keep you up?
-Is your diet unhealthy?
-Do you avoid exercise?
-Are you overtired or burned out?

If the answer to any or all is yes you need to make some changes to your lifestyle to see the benefit in your sleep.

Some things are easier than others. Improving your diet, making sure you exercise and going to bed earlier (minus your mobile) are simple. But solving being burned out, escaping unavoidable stresses caused by your job or other elements of your life and even your partner's sleep habits can be harder to iron out. But the first step is realising that they are what's behind your sleeplessness.

Try tackling one thing at a time and see how your sleep improves.

Short-Term Changes

There are a few things you can do in the day to make sure you can sleep at night.

-Stay hydrated (eight glasses of water a day)
-Reduce your caffeine intake and avoid it after 3pm
-Do some exercise. Even if your brain is tired and ready to drop off, if you're body's wired and ready to go, it won't let you give your head a rest
-Don't drink alcohol (even if you think it helps you drop off, it damages your sleep quality)
-Have a (healthy) bedtime snack, particularly if you know your diet isn't very balanced, as it could be fluctuating blood sugar that's affecting your sleep and waking you in the night. A small bowl of cereal with milk or oatmeal and banana are good choices.

Sleep-Friendly Bedroom Environment

If your bedroom is a tip, with lights and digital screens blinking in every corner, no wonder you can't sleep. The only thing you should be doing there is sleeping and having sex. So give it a tidy up and move all your gadgets out. The only electrical item you need is a light and an alarm clock (not your phone - that should stay on the other side of the bedroom door). More on technology later.

What else can do you do make your bedroom a sleep room?

-Replace your normal lights with red toned light - which doesn't physiologically wake up the brain like 'blue' light from our light bulbs and screens does
-Bedsheets should be changed at least every two weeks
-Turn your mattress over every six months to keep it comfy
-Wear bed socks. Warm feet = better sleep
-Use lavender pillows or sprays. The scent's been found to be very effective for even serious insomniacs
-Keep the room cool. Your body drops in temperature when it's time to go to sleep so being artificially hot with central heating and too many layers can prevent this natural process

Food

Your diet is your body's fuel for life so it's hardly surprising that what you eat affects how you sleep. General healthy diet advice applies here - avoid too much sugar during the day, which gives you energy slumps and spikes that can continue into the night and confuse your body

Eat regularly and have protein with every meal, load up on fibre, go for lots of healthy vegetables, whole grains and slow-release carbs and avoid refined foods such as white bread, cakes, crisps and chocolates.

Sleep can also be affected by vitamin and mineral deficiencies so if you think you're not getting all the nutrients you need, get tested and start supplementing. Vitamin D is a key one many of us are deficient in, particularly during and after winter. To naturally avoid this eat a varied diet with plenty of different colour fruits and veg.

If you know you're relying on caffeine and sugar to stay awake in the day, try to wean yourself off slowly. The better your diet, the more likely you'll sleep better and the less likely you'll need sugar to pep you up. If you can just get onto it, it's an upward spiral.

Technology

Technology has brought us many good things but it's also one of the biggest thieves of our sleep. Whether it's checking work emails late into the night or scrolling through Instagram, just looking at your phone wakes your brain up both physically and mentally (it doesn't know the difference between Facebook and important work research so it all tires it out).

Have a cut off point where you don't check your screens and stick to it. If someone really needs you that urgently, they'll call.

Techno Sleep Rules:
-Leave your mobile phone outside the bedroom
-Don't use backlit screens for an hour before you go to bed
-Turn off LED lights and screens in the bedroom
-Read instead of watching TV late into the night

Making The Change

Not sleeping is frustrating and damaging and it can be hard to get out of the negative cycle. But in order to get into a healthy sleep plan, it needs to come from you.

Make the decision this week to focus on your sleep ahead of everything else, follow these guides and we guarantee you'll be sleeping better by Friday.

But You Can Sleep TOO Much

If you're a super sleeper and regularly get to stay in bed, you might not be doing as well as you'd thought. Some research has suggested that regularly getting more than eight hours sleep could up your risk of premature death. Needing so much sleep could also be a sign of an underlying health condition that may be putting you at risk, so if you're getting too much shut eye, it could be a sign that you need a check up too.

Other Essentials:
-Actually go to bed. Stop putting it off and head to bed half an hour earlier than usual (you can increase this to an hour earlier until you find your optimum sleep time)
-Have a bath. It's nice and relaxing and will raise your temperature so that when it falls back to normal your body will think it's falling for sleep time. Just make sure you're out of the bath two hours before you want to go to bed so your core temperature falls low enough
-Don't eat a big meal in the two hours before bed. If you don't get home for dinner, stick to something light instead
-Listen to your body. We all need different amounts of sleep so if you're worrying about not getting enough but feel fine, you might just need less than some other people. Go by how you feel, not by the numbers on the clock

If you're still struggling, there are medical conditions that can cause sleeplessness so if you're doing everything right, don't suffer in silence - head to your doctor's for help.

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