Sleep
WHAT IS SLEEP?
Sleep is a natural process during which your body goes through a number of changes to help it rest and repair itself. Everybody can occasionally have sleep problems, but if they happen regularly, you might need support and advice.
It’s important to get a suitable amount of sleep so you have enough energy for the next day’s activities.
UNDERSTANDING SLEEP
Sleep is important for many reasons. It helps your body and brain to rest and repair and supports your physical and mental health and well-being. We’ll be exploring the impact sleep has on your overall health and providing practical tips to improve sleep hygiene.
Sleep is an essential part of life. It’s as important to our bodies as eating, drinking, and breathing. Sleeping well is crucial for the recharging and repairing of our bodies and minds. It’s important for maintaining physical, mental and emotional health in adults, whilst for children and young people it supports physical, mental and emotional development.
Sleep helps to regulate our mood and helps our brains to remember, memorise and analyse information. Not sleeping well can impact how we feel the next day. Immediate effects of a lack of sleep may include a poorer memory and poorer reaction times. Without enough quality sleep over a period of time, our brains can struggle to function properly. Research has also shown that recurring changes to sleep patterns can have an impact on long-term health.
Many factors can affect our ability to get enough sleep, such as everyday stress, demanding schedules or a sleep disorder. Experts recommend seven to nine hours of sleep per night, with both quality and quantity of sleep remaining important.
Poor sleep can have a harmful impact on mental health. If we don’t get enough sleep, we can lose patience and react negatively to situations. Over time, poor sleep can trigger mania, psychosis or paranoia, or make symptoms you already have worse. Many factors can affect our ability to get enough sleep, such as everyday stress, demanding schedules or a sleep disorder.
Age, health and personal situations affect how much sleep we need, and some people naturally need to sleep more than others. Teenagers, children and babies need more sleep as they’re still growing, but the time each person needs also varies. On average:
• Adults need seven to nine hours
• Children need nine to 13 hours
• Toddlers and babies need 12 to 17 hours
If you’re constantly tired during the day, you may not be getting enough sleep. However, it’s important to speak to your GP to rule out an underlying causes when you sleep
When you’re asleep, your brain slows down and engages in recovery, which can help improve physical and mental performance the next day and over the long term. If you don’t get enough sleep, the recovery processes aren’t able to happen, and this can affect thinking, concentration, energy levels and mood.
During a night of normal sleep, you go through several sleep cycles, each sleep cycle is made up of different sleep stages. These stages are broken into two groups:
• Rapid Eye Movement (REM) — occurs several times during the night and is where most dreaming happens
• Non-REM - has three stages with each stage progressing to deeper sleep
These categories are important because what happens during REM sleep is different to during non-REM sleep. The first three stages of sleep are non-REM sleep:
• Stage one is short and involves dozing off and starting to sleep
• Stage two is when the body and mind slow down as you enter further into your sleep. You can be woken easily in the first two stages
• Stage three is known as deep sleep. The body is slowing down more and is in recovery mode
During REM sleep, the brain activity increases and goes to a level like when you’re awake. This explains why REM is linked with the most intense dreams. Although breathing and heart rate increase during REM sleep, most muscles are paralysed which means we don’t act out our vivid dreams.
Several physical changes happen while we sleep including:
• Breathing: Breathing slows down during non-REM sleep and the breathing rate reaches its lowest point during the deep sleep stage three. In REM sleep, breathing increases.
• Heart rate: Like breathing, heart rate begins to slow during stage one and reaches its slowest pace in stage three. However, during REM sleep, your heart rate can get to almost the same rate as when you’re awake.
• Muscle tone: Muscles steadily relax during each stage of non-REM sleep, and the body’s total energy usage drops. During the REM stage, most muscles don’t move, but respiratory and eye muscles stay active. The name rapid eye movement comes from the darting of the eyes while your eyes are closed.
• Brain activity: During REM sleep, brain activity accelerates, which is why it’s the stage of sleep most linked to dreaming. REM sleep helps with building memories.
• Dreaming: Dreaming happens the most during REM sleep, but it can happen at any sleep stage. Dreams that happen during non-REM and REM sleep show different patterns.
Sleep and the body’s internal clock, which is called the circadian rhythm, play an important role in the production of several hormones including:
• Melatonin, the sleep hormone
• Growth hormone, which helps support bone and muscle development as well as metabolism
• Cortisol, which is part of the body’s stress response system
• Leptin and ghrelin, which help control appetite
Hormone levels change during different sleep stages, and the quality of sleep may also affect the levels of hormones produced during the day.
Sleep hygiene is the term used to describe healthy habits and behaviours to help you sleep. Your bedroom environment, your habits during the day and your habits before you go to bed all play a role and can influence the quality of your sleep. Practising good sleep hygiene can help:
• Improve your mood
• Improve your concentration and memory
• Prevent you from developing sleep disorders like insomnia
• Help you maintain a healthy weight
• Lower your risk of developing serious health conditions like diabetes and heart disease
• Help your body fight off diseases
Poor sleep hygiene may result in:
• Finding it hard to fall asleep
• Waking up several times during the night
• Feeling tired during the day
Lifestyle changes can help improve your sleep hygiene. There are simple things that you can do during the day and just before going to bed to help create suitable conditions for sleep, which can then help you get a better night’s sleep. These include:
• Creating a schedule for yourself — going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time every day (including weekends) can help regulate your body clock and circadian rhythm. An alarm clock like the Lumie sunrise alarm can help with this
• Creating a peaceful bedroom environment — keeping your room at a comfortable temperature, keeping the room as dark as possible and keeping the room as quiet as possible. You can also use earplugs
• Only using your bedroom for sleep, sex and getting dressed — this can help you to recognise that your bed is a place for sleeping
• Reducing electronic use before bed — this includes computers, phones and the TV as they can all stimulate your brain, which makes falling asleep difficult
• Avoiding stimulants like caffeine and nicotine after lunch, as they may take up to six hours to wear off, which can make falling asleep difficult
• Having a lighter meal for dinner — if you’re too full, your digestive system may keep working instead of resting. On the other hand, if you go to bed hungry, this can also disturb your sleep
• Getting regular natural light exposure — this can help you maintain a healthy sleep-wake cycle. Having too much light in the evening can prevent you from feeling sleepy
• Limiting or avoiding taking naps — taking a late afternoon or evening nap can affect the quality of your sleep
Sleep aid is a term used for certain licensed medicines which are suitable for short-term use only. Types of sleep aids include traditional herbal medicines containing active ingredients such as lavender or valerian which are used for the temporary relief of sleep disturbances based on traditional use only and pharmacy medicines which are available to buy over the counter from a pharmacy. Sleep aids may make you feel drowsy so it’s important not to drive if you’re affected. Speak to a pharmacy team member for advice about your symptoms and medicines to treat temporary sleeping difficulties. If symptoms persist you should speak to a GP for advice and to rule out an underlying cause.
From an early age, it’s important to introduce a good sleep routine for children. Good quality sleep is important for everyone but especially children as it’s essential for the development of children’s mental and physical health. It impacts alertness, attention, vocabulary, learning and memory. During the deep stages of sleep, the blood supply to your child’s muscles is increased, tissue growth and repair occur, and important hormones are released to help children grow.
A good night’s sleep can help children at school, helping them to learn more effectively and solve problems. It can also make them less susceptible to colds and other minor illnesses. Sleep problems can have a big impact on the whole family. A good sleep routine should aim to be the same every night. A good routine for children should include:
• Time for your child to calm down from their day’s activities
• Sleep cues — things that let your child know it’s time to go to sleep
There are different sleep recommendations for different age groups:
• Three years — daytime: 0 to 45 minutes and nighttime: 11 hours to 12 hours
• Four years— nighttime: 11 hours 30 minutes
• Five years— nighttime: 11 hours
Lots of children find it difficult to settle down to sleep and may wake up during the night. Every child is different, so it’s important to find suitable techniques to help. Here are some tips that might help:
• Decide a suitable time for bedtime
• Set up a ‘winding down’ bedtime routine, involving bath time around 30 minutes before the time that the child usually falls asleep. You can bring this forward by five to 10 minutes each week
• Set a limit on how much time you spend when putting your child to bed. For example, read only one story, then say goodnight
• Give them their favourite toy or dummy (if they use one) before settling into bed
• Leave a dim light on if necessary
• If they get up, take them back to bed with as little fuss as possible
• Try to be consistent
• This routine may have to be repeated for several nights
It can take patience and consistency, but most children’s sleep problems can be helped. If your child is still having problems sleeping, you can talk to a health visitor who may be able to help or speak to your GP if you have any concerns to rule out an underlying cause.
SLEEP RELATED PRODUCTS
SLEEP MADE SIMPLE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Good sleep hygiene is all about putting yourself in the best position to sleep every night. Optimising your sleep schedule, pre-bed routine, and daily routine is part of harnessing habits to make sleep feel more automatic. At the same time, creating a pleasant bedroom environment can be an invitation to relax and doze off.
Too much sleep, as well as not enough sleep, can raise the risk of long-term diseases, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and obesity in adults aged 45 and older.
Over time sleep deprivation can affect your mood, judgement, and ability to focus. Chronic lack of sleep may be linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, depression, heart, and kidney disease. If you aren’t sleeping enough, this may also make you more tired, which increases the risk of accidents like car accidents.
1 Subject to availability. Eligibility criteria may apply. Charges may apply.
2 Access to prescription-only treatment is subject to an online consultation with a clinician to assess suitability. Subject to availability. Charges apply.
