Dr Neil Stanley advises us on the importance of sleep…

Good sleep is vital for good physical mental and emotional health and it is as important as good diet and exercise. 45% of us are unhappy about the amount or quality of sleep we’re getting, yet poor or inadequate of sleep can have serious consequences on overall health and wellbeing and has been shown to lead to:

• Lower immunity
• Poor performance
• Mood changes

In the longer term, inadequate sleep is associated with a greater risk of a number of diseases, such as:

• Heart disease
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Obesity

We live in a society where we are bombarded with health messages and most of us realise the importance of good diet and exercise but we seem to have forgotten that sleep is equally vital for our well-being. The problem of poor sleep is perhaps even more important in children as it has been linked with increased risk of amongst other things obesity, diabetes, poor academic performance and behavioural problems.

Sleep is not just what goes on during the hours of darkness, there are also important daytime consequences of poor or inadequate sleep which negatively affect the way we feel and perform during the day. It has been reported that tired drivers now cause more deaths on European roads than drunk drivers and yet whilst it has become socially unacceptable to be drunk behind the wheel or in the workplace it is almost a matter of pride that we believe we can function properly when tired. Yet you would not want a drunken surgeon operating on you or a drunken train driver taking you to work, so why would you accept a tired one? Why do we go through life feeling so tired and run down? You know how good you feel after a good night’s sleep; just imagine how much better you would feel/perform if you felt like that every day.

We need to make the time to get the sleep we need and then we need to put our body and mind in a position where sleep can happen naturally. The amount of time you need to sleep is simply that which allows you to feel awake and refreshed during the day. With regards getting to sleep we need to relax and wind down at the end of the day, putting our cares and concerns to one side and calming the mind and body so that when we switch off the light we are ready for sleep, but most of us fall into the classic pattern of just lying there hoping we’ll nod off eventually. Remember that the harder you try to fall asleep the less likely it is to happen. You cannot find sleep; you have to let sleep find you.

Sleep is a biological necessity but it is also important to remember that good sleep can be a most wonderful pleasure. So if you want to live life to the full you should give sleep the importance in your life that it deserves and make time for getting a good night, every night.

written by Dr Neil Stanley