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struggle to fall asleep or wake frequently?
Do you feel constantly tired from the lack of sleep and rely on caffeine, sugar or energy drinks to get you through the day?
We need sleep to function correctly, but what is the ideal amount of sleep needed?
Genetics plays a part in explaining why some people can manage with less sleep. Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s first female Prime Minister, famously once said she survived four hours of sleep per night.
But everyone is different, and what one person needs and thinks of as a good night’s sleep can differ from another. There is no ideal number .
The key point is that according to sleep researchers, quality should be placed above quantity .


Little is known about why we need to sleep
Little is known about why we need to sleep, but it is thought it is essential for cognitive health to support learning, problem-solving skills, decision-making concentration, and memory . Time is a great healer but so is sleep. The stage of sleep referred to as rapid eye movement or REM is an emotional healer. It reactivates emotional events and reprocesses the information to soften those sharp edges, so we wake up feeling better. This is why we often feel better once we’ve “slept on it”.
Several things can disrupt our sleep or stop us from falling asleep. The most well-known disruptor of sleep is caffeine, but bright lights and blue light from our smartphones, alcohol , eating late at night, a warm room and anxiety can also have an impact on our sleep, so try and limit or avoid these before bed.
Conversely, some find that taking a warm bath before bedtime can help as it lowers your core body temperature and triggers the production of melatonin, our sleep hormone.
If you suffer from anxiety or stress, then consider meditation or reading a book before bedtime to relax and calm your mind and body. If you still have a busy mind when switching the lights off, leave a writing pad and pen by your bed so you can jot down anything you need to remember the next day or anything troubling you to clear your mind.
Like all good things, it can take time, and consistency and patience will help when trying to improve your sleep.