Ten common mistakes that stop you from sleeping

by Dr Deborah Lee, Dr Fox Online Pharmacy

In a recent 2020 survey by Bed SOS, an incredible 74% of Brits are not getting 8 hours of sleep a night. In fact, 1 in 4 UK adults has 4 hours or less of sleep per night. This is serious as not getting enough sleep has major negative consequences for our mental and physical health, and even shortens life expectancy.

Here are 10 common reasons why UK adults are not getting enough sleep, all of which are quite easily remediable.

Not making sleep a priority

Sleep is not an optional extra – it’s an emergency. We simply have to get enough sleep or pay severe health consequences. It can be very difficult with so many pressures – due to work, family, school and college, and relationship responsibilities – to leave the issue of sleep on the back burner. But this is a great mistake. You need to schedule time for sleep and stick to it.

Not repaying a sleep debt

It takes 4 days to recover from one hour of lost sleep! Think how much sleep debt most of us have accrued in a lifetime. Chronic sleep deprivation increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. It also makes you angry and irritable, leads to relationship issues, poor productivity at work, and increases the risk of road accidents.

Experts suggest going to bed 15 minutes earlier each night until you reach your desired bedtime, but don’t sleep any more than 2 hours longer in the morning. Get up at the same time every day.

Taking too long a nap

Studies have shown that a short, 10-minute nap if taken before 2 pm can be beneficial. However, if we nap later in the afternoon, or let the nap last any longer than 20-30 minutes, this is not helpful. After 30 minutes, you pass into a deep sleep which is harder to wake up from and leaves you feeling groggy – so-called sleep inertia. Also, the deeper sleep you have closer to bedtime, this can make it harder for you to fall asleep when you go to bed at bedtime.

Drinking coffee after dinner

Many of us automatically drink coffee after dinner. But caffeine binds to adenosine receptors in the brain which are directly involved with sleep and arousal. Caffeine is well known to disrupt sleep. In fact, many athletes take caffeine to enhance endurance and performance. If you want to sleep well, you should not consume caffeine more than 6 hours – some say 8 hours – before bedtime.

Taking too little exercise, and/or too close to bedtime

Taking exercise has numerous benefits which often lead to better sleep. When you go outside to exercise, you are exposed to natural daylight. Your brain needs to appreciate the difference between day and night, to be in sync with your Circadian rhythms – your body’s natural body clock. Exercise lowers stress, and raises endorphins – and stress is a well-known cause of insomnia. Exercise tires out your muscles, which then need to relax to recover.

To sleep well, we all need to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week – but not too close to bedtime. Exercise raises core body temperature, whereas going to sleep is linked to a reduction in body temperature.

Revenge bedtime procrastination

Revenge bedtime procrastination is a term used for people who put off going to sleep in order to do other activities they couldn’t fit in during the day. Those who do this tend to be those in high-powered, stressful jobs. They know the consequences of lack of sleep but continue anyway. This behaviour is very unwise and leads to serious health problems such as depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, difficulty concentrating, a less responsive immune system, obesity, and memory problems. There is some suggestion that people who do this, are also more like to procrastinate in daily life. If this is you, it’s time to take stock and listen to your body – making time for sleep is more important than getting those other things accomplished.

Medication that can keep you awake

Many different medicines can keep you awake. If you need them, there’s not a lot you can do about this, but you can speak to your doctor to see if there is an alternative, or if it would be possible to take it at a different time of day.

Medicines that can interfere with sleep include steroids, statins, theophylline (for asthma), some cold and flu remedies that contain non-sedating antihistamines, some stop-smoking drugs, glucosamine, St John’s Wort, and possibly multivitamins.

Time for a new bed

We spend one-third of our lives asleep. So, shouldn’t we sleep comfortably and invest in a good quality mattress? However, in a 2016 survey, only 1 in 10 UK adults thought the quality of their bed or mattress disturbed their sleep. The recommendation is to change your mattress every 7-10 years. Did you know the average mattress actually doubles in weight over a ten-year period due to the amount of dust and other debris that collects inside it?

Undiagnosed sleep apnoea

If your partner is nagging you relentlessly about snoring – don’t ignore it. See your GP. Snoring is strongly linked to the serious medical condition of sleep apnoea. This occurs because the muscles and soft tissues in the back of the throat have become loose and saggy, and collapse when you are relaxed in sleep, partially blocking your airway. Although you are not aware of it, your body is struggling to breathe. Characteristically there are long pauses between breathing out and breathing in again, which can last 30 seconds.

These repeated episodes where your oxygen levels are plummeting are very dangerous for your health. A large meta-analysis of 22 studies, involving 42,099 adults, reported those with sleep apnoea have double the risk of sudden death, as well as death from heart disease, than those without the condition.

Sleep apnoea has many negative effects on health, yet there is much that can be done to treat it very simply. Don’t risk your health. See your doctor about snoring today.

Exposure to excess blue light

One of the most common problems today is the overuse of mobile phones, iPads, computer screens, and TVs in the run-up to bedtime. These devices emit blue light, which switches off the production of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Going to sleep with your mobile phone switched on is also a mistake due to constant interruptions overnight. For best results, stop using any of these devices a good couple of hours before bedtime, dim the lights, wind down for sleep, and keep your devices switched off overnight.

Final thoughts

There are many practical things we can all do to improve our sleep listed above. Many of these are quite simple, inexpensive options which just mean thinking ahead and doing a bit of life reorganisation. Getting enough sleep is vital for good health.

What could you do to sleep better?
Take a look at NHS – Trouble sleeping

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