Sleep, are you doing it right?

We live in a world where there seems to be an awareness day for everything you could possibly think of. You could spend every waking moment coming up with awareness days and chances are there’s already one; from National Pie Day to Self-Injury Awareness Day, we as a species are exhausting the days, if we keep up at this rate we’ll soon be forced to create awareness nights.

Which rather seamlessly leads me to the subject of this here article, as March 13th – 19th is of course Sleep Awareness Week. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) are the campaigning body behind the awareness week, you’d be forgiven a cynical frown as you question whether we need a foundation and an awareness week for something we’ve been doing pretty well for millions of years. But the world is always spinning, always changing, always evolving and so too believe it or not is sleep and our sleeping habits. For instance, prior to the industrial revolution humans slept in two stints, rather than the solid block of sleep we tend to desire these days… well, nights. Launched in 1998, Sleep Awareness Week is NSF’s national public education campaign that celebrates sleep health and encourages the public to prioritize sleep to improve health and well-being. The campaign commences with the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. NSF provides valuable information during Sleep Awareness Week about the benefits of optimal sleep and how sleep affects health, well-being, and safety. NSF also releases its annual Sleep in America® Poll results on the public’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours about a sleep-related topic. I won’t bore you with a lengthy explanation of the vast benefits of a good night’s slumber, by now everyone old enough to flick through this magazine will know how a rotten night's sleep can ruin the following day. Sleep Doctor Guy Meadows even went as far to state in The Telegraph that “Sleep is the single most powerful health-enhancing weapon known to humankind”. Which when read like that makes you want to head straight for the duvet. So how to get that sweet sleep? That illusive 8 hours (or between 6 and 9 for some) that the medical types talk of? CommunityAd have assembled a list of some tips, some obvious, some radical. Establish a bedtime routine – relax by reading a book or having a bath. No caffeine after midday. Make sure that your bed and bedding are comfortable. Eat earlier, if you struggle to sleep eat your evening meal an hour earlier. Keep your bedroom cool and dark – the ideal bedroom temperature is 18°C. Exercise more, three 30 min – 1 hour sessions a week will benefit your sleep but avoid exercise in the late evening. Ban TV and computers from the bedroom – the bright light can make you more awake. Banish your phone to another room and replace with an old school alarm clock?