World Sleep Day

17 Mar 2023

Are you getting enough sleep?

Today is World Sleep Day, an annual event intended to highlight the importance of sleep and a call to action on issues related to sleep. The theme of this year’s day is, simply, that sleep is essential for health.

While we may be able to cope with occasional nights of poor sleep, having regular, insufficient and poor-quality sleep can have significant impacts on health and wellbeing. The impact of poor sleep has been shown to include:

Lower immune response
Impact reaction times and judgment
Lead to weight gain
Increase risk of diabetes and heart disease
Impact on mental health
Difficulty concentrating

Quality sleep is about more than just than hours. The three components of healthy sleep are duration, continuity and depth. There are a range of factors that can impact on whether you achieve quality sleep including looking at a screen late into the evening, exercising close to bedtime, experiencing stress, as well as a diagnosable sleep disorder.

The UK based The Sleep Charity has a wealth of information and resources on getting a better. Have a look at their Sleep Hub to learn more about sleep. And they provide the following advice to achieve good sleep hygiene:

Morning: keep a regular sleep / wake schedule and get out into natural light as soon is practically possible
Afternoon: engage in daytime exercise and avoid stimulants that contain caffeine 8 hours before bedtime
Evening: try to avoid going to bed full, hungry or thirsty, reduce electronic use before bedtime and don’t use alcohol to sleep
Night: avoid nicotine before bed, try to ensure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet and ensure that bedroom clocks are not visible

More information

Visit 'How to Sleep' which has a range of practical guides on the things that can challenge us getting a good night’s sleep, as well as lots of suggestions on how to deal with insomnia.

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