The importance of a quality night’s sleep

Sleep is just as essential as food and water to the body. We spend on average one third of our life sleeping. During these moments of rest, our bodies are replenishing themselves by rebuilding energy and repairing itself, and the mind is sorting through the previous day’s events and storing memories.

In the present day many of us are not getting enough sleep due to the demands of a modern lifestyle. It is advised that an adult should have on average 8 hours sleep a night. Research suggests that the average length of night time sleep is just 6 hours 19 minutes. The National Sleep Foundation have put together this information table, highlighting how much sleep different age categories should be getting.

Cumulative sleep loss is known as ‘sleep debt’, and the greater the loss of sleep the greater the depth of sleep debt. Sleep is vital to our health. Poor sleep habits and lack of sleep can contribute to a deterioration in both mental and physical health. Lack of sleep means that the body is unable to restore energy supplies and repair itself, whilst the mind is unable to maintain attention, and memory and learning skills are reduced.

Once sleep has been lost it cannot be earned back. If you sleep on average 6.5 hours a night, that is 1.5 hours less a night from the recommended 8 hours. Over a week you are losing 10.5 hours of sleep, a month on average 42 hours, and over a year on average 504 hours.

A common question during an initial assessment when starting therapy is ‘How is your sleep?’ Mental health conditions such as depression, stress, and anxiety can all influence sleep. On the flip side, lack of sleep can also contribute to feeling low, heightening anxiety, and feeling less able to deal with stress.

If you feel that you are not getting enough sleep, it would be advisable to assess why this is. A sleep diary is a positive way of detailing your sleep-wake patterns over a period. The use of a diary will help you not only measure time slept, but quality of sleep, and will help identify any factors which may be affecting your sleep. The Sleep Council have developed a diary which you can download here.

Here are some tips on helping you achieve a quality night’s sleep:

1. Go to bed at the same time every day, and wake at the same time in the mornings, even on the weekend. If you do have sleep debt, research suggests that having the lie in on a weekend can slightly improve cognitive functioning, but isn’t substantial enough for the body to reduce the effects of sleep deficit. So, it may for example mean going to bed earlier on a regular basis to help you get those important 8 hours sleep.

2. Go to sleep when your body is ready. This is problematic for people who are shift workers as their natural body clock will be out of sync, and unable to sleep when it needs to.

3. Make time for sleep. Modern-day life styles mean that we don’t necessarily prioritise sleep. Sleep is so important to helping maintain a positive mental and physical wellbeing, if we are wanting to live a well balanced healthy lifestyle, we need to factor in sleep.

4. Make sure your last hour of the day is calm, relaxing and not stimulating. Switch off phones, tablets, computers and do not exercise.

5. If you have difficulty going to sleep, think about meditation or mindfulness exercises. There are lots of apps you can download onto your phone or tablet that you can listen to, which can help with relaxing the mind and body as you prepare to go to sleep.

6. Do not eat a large meal at least 2 hours before bed time.

7. Avoid alcohol. Even though it may help you go to sleep, the quality of sleep is affected, meaning the quality of sleep that night will be lower.

8. Avoid caffeine and nicotine, which all act as stimulants.

9. Be active during the day and spend time outside in the daylight.