FAQs

Most adults sleep for around seven to eight hours a night, but there’s no single “normal” amount that suits everyone. What matters most is what feels natural for you and whether you wake up feeling rested.

It’s normal to feel tired now and then, but tiredness shouldn’t regularly interfere with your daily life or health. If it does, it may help to look at the quality of your sleep rather than just the number of hours.

Checking your bedroom environment — such as light, noise, temperature and comfort — and making small improvements can often help you sleep better and make the most of the time you spend asleep.

To enjoy better sleep, it’s important to build healthy daily habits and remove anything that may be disrupting your rest. Start by creating the right sleep environment — your bedroom should feel cool, dark and quiet, and your bed should be comfortable and supportive. Paying attention to lighting in your home, especially in the evening, can also make a big difference.

What you eat and drink matters too. Some foods, caffeine, and alcohol can interfere with sleep, particularly later in the day. Try to avoid screens for at least an hour before bed, as the light from phones, tablets, and TVs can keep your brain alert.

Instead, wind down with calming activities such as a warm bath, gentle stretching or yoga, reading, or listening to soft, soothing music. Finally, aim for a regular sleep routine by going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time each day. Keeping this steady pattern helps your body and mind feel more relaxed, balanced, and well‑rested.

There are products that can support better sleep, but they work best alongside good sleep habits rather than as a quick fix. What helps one person may not help another, so it’s about finding what works for you.

Things to consider include:

• Blackout curtains or blinds
• Eye masks
• Ear plugs
• White noise machines
• Temperature and comfort aids such as thermometer, hot water bottles, bed socks
• Relaxation products
• Bedding and mattress

 While supplements and sleep aids are widely advertised, they’re not suitable for everyone and shouldn’t be used without medical advice. If you’re considering these, it’s best to speak to your GP or pharmacist first.

The most effective approach is to combine any product with healthy sleep habits — such as regular bedtimes, reducing screen use at night, and creating a calm bedroom routine. Products can help, but good sleep starts with good habits.

Try a few minutes of deep, slow breathing to help your body relax. Spend around five minutes focusing on letting go of tension and easing yourself into rest.

If your mind feels busy or full of things you need to remember, keep a notebook by the bed and write them down. Getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper can make it easier to switch off.

Instead of forcing yourself to sleep, try the opposite. Sleep works best when it’s allowed to happen naturally. Keep your eyes open, gently resist sleep, or adopt a calm, accepting attitude to being awake — this can take the pressure off and often makes sleep come more easily.

If you don’t fall asleep within about 15-20 minutes, avoid watching the clock. Get up, move to another room, and do something quiet and relaxing, such as reading or listening to soft music. Return to bed once you feel sleepy again.

The key is to stay calm, patient, and kind to yourself — relaxation, not effort, is what helps sleep find you.

Waking during the night is very common, and it doesn’t always mean something is wrong. Often, it’s linked to sleep habits, stress or your sleep environment. The good news is that there are simple steps you can take to reduce night‑time waking.

Here’s what can help:

• Check your sleep environment - make sure your bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet. Light, noise, or being too warm can pull you out of sleep. Blackout curtains, earplugs or adjusting the room temperature can make a big difference.
• Watch food and drink in the evening - caffeine, alcohol and large meals close to bedtime can cause lighter sleep or night waking. Try to avoid caffeine after mid‑afternoon and keep evening meals lighter.
• Get up if you can’t fall back asleep - if you wake and don’t drift off again within about 15 minutes, don’t lie there worrying. Get out of bed and do something quiet and calming in low light, like reading or listening to gentle music. Go back to bed once you feel sleepy.
• Reduce stress and racing thoughts - stress is a common cause of broken sleep. A wind‑down routine before bed — such as slow breathing, stretching or writing down worries before sleep — can help your mind switch off more easily.
• Keep a regular sleep routine
  - in particular waking up at roughly the same time every day helps your body clock stay stable, which reduces night‑time waking over time.
• Limit light and screens at night - bright lights and screens can interfere with the sleep hormone melatonin, making it harder to stay asleep. Try to avoid screens for at least an hour before bed.

If you regularly wake many times a night, feel exhausted during the day or your sleep problems have been going on for a while, it’s a good idea to speak to your GP. Ongoing night waking can sometimes be linked to conditions such as sleep apnoea, anxiety, menopause, pain or medication effects.

Broken sleep is frustrating — but with small, consistent changes, many people see real improvements.

 Short, planned daytime naps can help boost alertness and energy without disrupting your night’s sleep. Aim to keep naps to about 20 minutes — longer naps can leave you feeling groggy and may make it harder to sleep later on. If you struggle with insomnia or regularly have poor‑quality sleep at night, it’s best to avoid napping, as it can sometimes make these issues worse.

There are many apps and sleep trackers that claim to improve sleep, but it’s worth using them with caution. Some can be distracting or increase anxiety, especially if you rely on them too much. They don’t always give an accurate picture of how well you’re sleeping and focusing too closely on the data can sometimes create unnecessary worry rather than helping you rest better.

Yes — what you eat and drink can have a big impact on how well you sleep.

Some foods can help calm the brain and make it easier to drift off to sleep. While it’s best to avoid large meals close to bedtime — as they can cause discomfort or indigestion — a small, well‑chosen snack can be helpful for some people.

The most sleep‑friendly snacks usually contain complex carbohydrates and protein, and sometimes a little calcium. This is why dairy foods, such as milk or yoghurt, are often linked with better sleep.

Try to avoid spicy or heavy foods, as these can be hard to digest and disrupt sleep. Alcohol is best avoided too, as it can cause broken sleep later in the night. If you often wake to use the bathroom, it may also help to reduce how much you drink in the hour or two before bed.

Keeping evening food and drinks light, simple, and calming can support a more comfortable and restful night’s sleep.

We all like different positions so sleep in whichever you find most comfortable – this will depend on all sorts of things. If you sleep ok – don’t try to change!

Snoring is one of the most common causes of disturbed sleep when sharing a bed. For some people, simple solutions like earplugs can offer short‑term relief. However, if snoring is loud, frequent or ongoing, it’s important to take it seriously.

What may start as a small irritation can become a major problem for both sleep and relationships if left unresolved. Persistent snoring can affect sleep quality for both partners and may sometimes point to an underlying issue, such as sleep apnoea.

If snoring is a regular problem, it’s a good idea to seek advice rather than ignore it. The Sleep Apnoea Trust or Hope2Sleep charity offer clear, trusted information and online tools to help identify possible causes and next steps.

Addressing snoring early can greatly improve sleep for everyone involved — and help keep bedtime peaceful again.

Many different things can affect a child’s sleep, so it’s best to start by checking the basics. Make sure your child isn’t too hot or too cold, that the room is quiet, and that they’re not hungry or thirsty before bed.

Sleep can also be disrupted by illness (even before symptoms appear), changes or stress at home, holidays, or fears and worries. These are all very common and completely normal.

One of the most important things you can do is to create — and stick to — a regular bedtime routine. Children feel more secure when they know what to expect, and routines help signal that it’s time to sleep. A simple routine might include teatime, quiet play, a bath, a bedtime story, and then bed, at roughly the same time each evening.

It’s also important to limit screen time in the hours before bed. TVs, tablets, computers, and games can overstimulate children and make it harder for them to settle.

Instead, use the time before bed to help your child wind down. Reading together, talking about their day, or letting them read to you are all calming activities that strengthen connection and make bedtime feel safe and relaxed.

With consistency and patience, most children respond well to routine and gentle support, helping everyone get a better night’s sleep.

Broken sleep for weeks or even months after having a baby is very common. It can leave new mums feeling short‑tempered, emotional, forgetful, and low in mood. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone — and it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.

If you struggle to settle back to sleep after night‑time waking, try some slow, deep breathing to calm your body. If your mind feels busy or full of things to remember, keep a notebook nearby and write your thoughts down so they don’t keep spinning around in your head.

It’s also important to remind yourself that this phase won’t last forever, even though it can feel overwhelming at the time.

Where possible, try to sleep when your baby sleeps, and make space for a little “you time” too. Winding down properly before bed can really help. Simple things like a warm bath, reading a few pages of a book or listening to soothing music can help your body and mind relax.

Be kind to yourself — rest, support and small moments of calm can make a big difference during this demanding time.

Sleep is important at every stage of life and is essential for good health and wellbeing. It isn’t something we can skip or cut back on without consequences — sleep is a basic human need.

While we sleep, the body gets to work repairing and restoring itself. Tissues grow and heal, the immune system is strengthened and the brain has time to reset and recover. Sleep also plays a key role in learning and memory, helping the brain process information and store what we’ve learned during the day.

Sleep affects many of the hormones and chemicals that keep your body working properly. When you don’t get enough sleep, these systems are disrupted, which can affect your health, mood, energy and ability to think clearly.

Simply put, good sleep supports both your body and your mind — and getting too little of it can have a real impact on how you feel and function every day.

Even a single poor night’s sleep can affect your mood, focus, and alertness. Over time, ongoing lack of sleep can have much more serious effects and has been linked to health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

Stress and anxiety are common reasons people struggle to sleep. This might come from a busy, high‑pressure job, worries about money or everyday life demands. When we’re stressed, our heart rate increases and the mind begins to race, making the brain too alert to relax and fall asleep.

Unhelpful habits can make this worse. Poor diet, lack of exercise, drinking alcohol or caffeine too late in the day, irregular sleep routines and too much screen time in the evenings can all interfere with sleep. Together, these factors keep the body switched on when it should be winding down, making good sleep harder to achieve.

A good night’s sleep makes you look better, feel better, behave better, perform better and think better! What more could you want.

Most people prefer to sleep in a slightly cool environment and a room temperature of around 16-18°C (60-65°F) is usually sufficient for getting a good night’s sleep. Lowering your core body temperature by about ½ °C will switch on your “sleep switch”. Anything over 24°C (71°F) is more likely to cause restlessness and temperatures around 12-13°C (53-55°F) are usually too cool to be able to drop off. Older people and young babies/children may need a warmer environment – there are helpful room thermometers appropriate for all ages to guide you to the best temperature.

A good night’s sleep starts with the right bedroom environment. Aim for a space that feels cool, quiet, and dark, and free from distractions. This means keeping phones, tablets, computers and TVs out of the bedroom wherever possible.

Good sleep also depends on healthy daily habits. What you eat and drink, how much caffeine or alcohol you have and how active you are during the day all play a part. The good news is that even small changes to your routine or environment can make a big difference to how well you sleep and how rested you feel.

Sleeping in at the weekend might help you feel a bit less tired, but it doesn’t fully undo the effects of poor sleep during the week. Even a few days of missed sleep can lead to increased daytime sleepiness, reduced focus and performance, changes linked to inflammation in the body, and problems with blood sugar control.

“Catching up” on sleep over the weekend doesn’t always reverse these effects — and if sleeping late disrupts your usual bedtime and wake‑up routine, it can actually make sleep quality worse. For the best results, try to keep a consistent sleep schedule throughout the week, rather than relying on weekend lie‑ins to recover lost sleep.

This is a common sleep myth and there is no scientific evidence that sleep suddenly becomes more valuable just because it happens before midnight. What may have led to this belief is that the first part of your sleep is usually the deepest and most restorative, and this is when your body and brain do the most repairing and recovery.

So if you go to bed at 10pm, you are likely to get more deep sleep between 10pm and 1am. But if your natural sleep schedule is later, your body will still prioritise deep sleep during the first part of your sleep.

The most important things are getting enough sleep, keeping a regular bedtime, and sleeping at times that work with your body's natural rhythm. 

It’s a common belief that we need less sleep as we get older, but this isn’t actually true. Our sleep needs stay much the same — what tends to change is how well we sleep.

As we age, sleep quality often declines and sleep patterns shift. This might mean waking more often during the night, spending less time in deep (non‑REM) sleep or feeling the need to nap more during the day. These changes are normal, but they can make sleep feel lighter and less refreshing.

The good news is that there are plenty of simple ways older adults can improve their sleep. Often it’s just a matter of adjusting daily routines to suit these changes — such as keeping regular bed and wake times, getting daylight and activity during the day, and creating a calm bedtime routine. Limiting long or frequent daytime naps can also help protect night‑time sleep.

With a few small tweaks and consistent habits, it’s possible to enjoy better, more refreshing sleep at any age.