From inews.co.uk
By Tom Bawden
Anxiety about Covid, the environment, war in Ukraine and the cost of living, mean sleep has deteriorated for Britons since 2020. And worries about insomnia are making the problem worse. But one scientist says we misunderstand how we sleep
We’re not getting enough sleep and worrying about the problem is making it even worse.
Scientists agree that anxiety levels triggered by the pandemic, war, and insomnia itself – have led to a marked deterioration in sleep quality in the UK since 2020.
But there is hope – one expert says that if we understood sleep better we might become less worried about it.
Professor Russell Foster, director of Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, thinks that some people who believe their sleep has got worse may actually be sleeping better.
This is because they are getting so much extra sleep they are unwittingly dividing it into two or more segments a day. The pattern is known as polyphasic sleep and is what used to happen before we had electric light.
“During Covid some people have slept longer and they’ve flipped back into polyphasic sleep,” Professor Foster tells i.
“This is making them extremely anxious because they’re interpreting the fact that they are waking at night as being worse.
“In fact, if you look at sleep patterns in the pre-industrial era, or in societies without electric light, that’s what it’s like. You have a slow winding down, a period of sleep, you wake up, interact with others, you go back to sleep again, you may have another period of waking up and going back to sleep. That is the normal state.”
However the academic, who has stopped watching the evening news to improve his own sleep, also agrees that “a significant number of people are sleeping worse at the moment”.
Are you getting enough sleep?
“You know if you’re getting a decent night’s sleep if you can function properly during the day,” says Oxford University’s bodyclock expert Professor Russell Foster.
“Do you need an alarm clock to wake you up? That indicates you haven’t had enough sleep.
“Other questions to ask include: Do you oversleep extensively on free days, particularly holidays? Does it take a long time to wake up? Do you feel groggy when you wake up in the morning? Do you feel sleepy and irritable and fatigued when you’re awake?
“Do you need a nap during the day? Do you find yourself doing stupid, unreflective, impulsive things? Do you need or crave caffeine drinks to sustain your daytime activities?”
“And do your friends and family comment that you are more irritable and have lost empathy?”
What to do if you’re not
If you answer “yes” to the above questions then here are Professor Foster’s tips for getting more sleep:
-You need to wind down: It could be yoga, mindfulness, anything that relaxes you and makes you less anxious.
-For many couples the end of the day is the only chance to talk about important issues but what surfaces in so many occasions is finances or worries about the kids or the parents that increase anxiety and keep them awake at night. In my household, we’ve banned talk of finances and other stuff and schedule a time, usually on a Saturday morning, when we go through the tough stuff, Professor Foster says.
-Exercise can be a good stress buster, as long as it’s not too close to bed time.
-Have a relaxing shower or bath, with candles.
-Read a few pages of a favourite novel or look through a wonderful old photograph. Anything that can promote gentleness and happiness of thought.
Aisling Traynor, Head of Advice and Training at Rethink Mental Illness, added: “There are plenty of strategies to help sleep but it can take time to find out what works for you. Anyone struggling to get some proper rest should try to find a routine that suits them, going to bed and waking at a similar time each day. Avoiding rigorous exercise, large meals and alcohol late in the evening and switching off screens for an hour before you go to bed and reading a book instead can help.”
“It may seem counterintuitive, but often a good solution is to get out of bed and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy.
“Rolling 24-hour coverage can make us feel anxious and powerless, so try to avoid doomscrolling and take regular breaks from the news to help you get some much-needed shut-eye. If you’re still struggling with your sleep, consider making an appointment with your GP to explore further options for support.”
The impact of the pandemic seems clear. A study by King’s College London, conducted in May 2020 as the first lockdown was being eased in the UK, found that sleep got worse for nearly two thirds of Britons after Covid restrictions were introduced.
And a second piece of Kings College sleep research published in November has since warned that persistent sleep problems “may continue long after the pandemic is over”.
“Covid, lockdowns and associated stress and anxiety around the pandemic have measurably impacted on sleeping patterns in the UK and communities around the world,” says Ivana Rosenzweig, head of the Sleep and Brain Plasticity Centre at King’s College London, who worked on both King’s College sleep studies.
“There has been a recognised change in sleeping patterns and a deterioration in sleep quality in the population over the last two years. And I would not be surprised if the horrors of the war in Ukraine have now further affected people.”
Professor Barbara Sahakian, of Cambridge University, who last week published a study saying seven hours was the optimal sleep duration, agrees. “Sleeplessness is a growing problem in the UK and I suspect this is due to chronic stress caused by concerns about the natural environment, Covid-19, the Russian conflict with Ukraine and the cost of living increases,” she said.
And, as Professor Foster points out, anxiety about a lack of sleep can be added to the list.
“Many people, particularly as we age, wake up in the middle of the night and think ‘Oh my God, this is it, I’m never going to get back to sleep’ and they start drinking coffee and doing their emails,” he says.
“But if we stay relaxed and calm and appreciate it’s perfectly normal, we’ll go back to sleep again.”
He also says that a minority are actually sleeping better than they used to – the 2020 King’s College study found that 27 per cent of men and 22 per cent of women – were sleeping longer hours and feeling more rested.
And people get far too hung-up on getting the seven or eight hours seen as optimal, according to Professor Foster who says this is highly variable from person to person.
“The healthy sleep range for adults is between 6 hours and 10 hours,” he says. “Sleep is like shoe size – one size does not fit all. We need to accept that and stop worrying about it.”
Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock and How It Can Revolutionise Your Sleep and Health, by Russell Foster, is published by Penguin Books on 19 May
Tapping into mindfulness all throughout the day can do wonders for your sleep health - net-boss.org/mindfulness-by-julia-hanner
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