THE EXPERTS' GET-TO-SLEEP-QUICK TRICKS

Everyone has trouble sleeping from time to time, even the scientists who spend every waking hour studying it. So, what steps do the experts take when they can't drop off?

- By JACQUI THORNTON

Can’t sleep? You're likely to be one of the 852 million people around the world who struggle to drop off, with more than 414 million of them suffering severe insomnia.

Around a third of adults in Western countries experience sleep problems at least once a week and a meta-analysis from 2023 found that a quarter of adults are tired all the time.

You might not expect the world’s leading sleep researchers to have trouble reaching the land of nod, but they too have nights when getting some shuteye seems impossible. The difference is, they know more about what's likely to be preventing them from nodding off and what to do about it. Here’s what the sleep experts say you should try if you find yourself awake in the wee small hours...

STAY AWAKE

I don't have insomnia, but even good sleepers have occasional nights when they can't sleep due to the stresses of the day. The key is never to try to get to sleep, but only ever enable yourself to fall asleep. Contrary to what you might expect, if you want to fall asleep and can't, one solution is to try and stay awake.

The technical term for this is paradoxical intention - intending to remain awake in order to fall asleep. All you need to do is keep your eyes open - only then, you'll find yourself unable to keep them open for very long.

There's another technique that I included in my Clinician's Guide and which I've, personally, found useful on the rare occasions when I can’t sleep because my mind is racing. It involves miming the word ‘the’ over and over, each for a few seconds - I never say it out loud, but I make all the lip and mouth movements.