How to Sleep Well with Michael Moseley

Well, that’s what they called it. Not sure they thought the title through, but whatever. 

This week I watched a BBC show called How to Sleep Well With Michael Moseley, a BBC Horizon special. Insomnia regularly affects 1 in 3 people in the UK (including me) and has knock-on effects in people’s physical and mental health, not to mention can cause dangerous problems if you drive or use heavy machinery. 

The show featured University of Surrey’s Prof Simon Archer, from their Sleep Research Centre. The key points I took from this, that I’ll be implementing wherever possible: 

• If you don’t fall asleep within the first 15 mins of being in bed, get up and have a walk around. Lying there will only make you more annoyed, or anxious, that you’ll be more tired tomorrow. That in itself is a slippery slope. A quick walk around will help reset your mind and body, after which you can restart the process of falling asleep. 
  

• Your ‘sleep propensity’ is your ability to fall asleep quickly. When possible, a daytime nap can lift your mood, but also will mean you’ll practice the act of falling asleep more frequently (as opposed to once a night). It will give you more confidence in the act of falling asleep. 
  

•  The obvious one: leave your mobile out of your bedroom. Stop shining a rectangle of bright light into your eyeballs when you’re supposed to be going to sleep. Sadly, we’re all addicted to our phones. I know I am. But these phones are absolutely botching our circadian rhythms, out bodies’ processes of controlling when we’re asleep and when we’re awake. Now, I use my phone perhaps more than most people, as I store info in it that short term memory difficulties does not allow me to remember. Tons of thoughts that pop into my head, like with most people, do so just before I fall asleep. Hence, I’ve left a spiral-bound notebook and pen next to my bed. I can now write it there, then rip it off and put it in my phone the next day. The phone now stays out of the bedroom. 

There’s more info on brain injury charity Headway’s site. Their advice on napping contradicts Prof. Archer’s. Make up your own mind on that!

The show is available for the next 11 months of the BBC website.