Bedtime stories

In this extract from his new book, Dr Michael Mosley traverses learning to live with insomnia and the links between snoring, sleep apnoea and being overweight.

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My idea of a great night’s sleep is to go to bed around 11pm, fall asleep within a few minutes and then wake up, refreshed, at about 7am, without the need for an alarm clock. That would be lovely. It is what used to happen. It hardly ever happens now.

I have no problem getting to bed and falling asleep, but I almost always wake up in the middle of the night, and sometimes find it hard to get back to sleep. In this respect, I am a classic insomniac.

There are other types of insomnia: not being able to get to sleep is quite common, as is waking up early in the morning. But the most common form is waking in the middle of the night, particularly as we get older. This is partly because our sleep gets lighter as we age, but also because of things like having a full bladder and feeling the need to go to the toilet.

I used to get quite worked up about this. I resented the fact that no matter how tired I was, I’d wake up four and a half hours after going to sleep (normally around 3.30am). I would go to the loo, get back into bed and then just lie there, for what felt like hours, worrying about not being able to get back to sleep, and worrying about how tired I would feel in the morning. Finally, I’d drift off, only to be dragged awake again by the alarm clock at 7am.