Hard day's night

AN EXPERT TELLS LISA SALMON HOW OUR DAYTIME BEHAVIOUR CAN AFFECT THE QUALITY OF SLEEP

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IF YOU'RE struggling to sleep, the key to your insomnia may be hidden within your daily routine.

What you do - or don’t do - during the day can have a profound effect on your sleep at night, explains psychotherapist and sleep expert Heather Darwall-Smith.

“We often think of sleep problems as something that starts when we get into bed, but in reality, how we live during the day plays a huge role in how well we sleep at night,” she says.

“If you're lying awake at 3am staring at the ceiling, trying to will yourself into sleep, stop fighting. Sleep isn’t something you can force.”

Heather, whose new book How To Be Awake is out now, explains that sleep involves two processes - firstly, your circadian rhythm, the internal body clock that tells you when to feel awake and sleepy based on light, movement and routine, and secondly your homeostatic sleep pressure. This is linked to a chemical called adenosine, which builds in your brain from when you wake, increasing your need for sleep.

“The longer you're awake and active, the stronger this sleep pressure becomes,” she says. “At night, high adenosine levels help you fall asleep naturally.

“Both processes work together across the 24 hours of the day and night to open a window for sleep. If you haven't built enough sleep pressure or your body clock is out of sync, sleep can feel elusive no matter how much you want it.”

In addition, our relationships help shape our nervous system and can also impact sleep, she explains. “A difficult conversation, unresolved tension, or feeling unseen can all follow us into the night.”

“So instead of obsessing over how to sleep better, flip it on its head to think: How can I be awake in a way that makes sleep happen naturally?”

Here Heather offers her advice on how to do it...