BLOG – World Sleep Day 2020

World Sleep Day is an annual event, intended to be a celebration of sleep and a call to action on important issues related to sleep, including medicine, education, social aspects and driving. It is organized by the World Sleep Day Committee of World Sleep Society and aims to lessen the burden of sleep problems on society through better prevention and management of sleep disorders.

Recently LiveWire’s Lifestyles team held a very well attended event about sleep at Burtonwood Library. Over 34 people attended the session on improving their sleep, featuring advice from the Lifestyles team and Dr Saager Patel, a sleep consultant from Warrington Hospital.

The session was very engaging and lasted over 90mins as the audience had so many questions about the night’s topic.

So here’s some information from our team about how to get a good night’s sleep:

If you have difficulty falling asleep, a regular bedtime routine will help you wind down and prepare for bed.

Humans have 5 stages of sleep

Stages 1– Light Sleep, muscle activity slows, occasional muscle twitching

Stage 2– Breathing Pattern and heart rate slows with decrease in body

Stage 3– Deep Sleep begins

Stage 4– deep Sleep, rhythmic breathing, limited muscle activity

Stage 5 –Rapid eye movement, brain speeds up and dreaming occurs, breathing is rapid and shallow

Here are Paul Corless, Lifestyles Advisor’s top tips for sleep:

• Put your mobile phones/social media away after 7pm as looking at your phone will stimulate your mind. And keep your phones out of the bedroom!
• Reduce sugar & caffeine from mid afternoon.
• Create a perfect sleep environment in your bedroom – your bedroom is for sleep only, so no TVs etc
• Room temperature – room cool, bed warm is a good approach.
• Room Lighting (low level lights during the evening, use the dimmer switch if you have one).
• Stay hydrated during the day, less drinking in the evening may help reduce night time toilet tips
• If you go take naps in the day, make them no longer than 30mins and have them earlier in the day.
• Creating a ‘golden hour’ before bed to get back into a regular routine preparing to switch off.
• If you have a poor night sleep don’t lay in bed in the morning, keep your normal routine and get up as normal.
• If you can’t sleep after 30mins get out of bed and do something else.
• Practice mindfulness.

If anyone is struggling to get to sleep please see the link for more advice https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/how-to-get-to-sleep/

Sleep & Immunity

If you seem to catch every cold and flu that’s going around, your bedtime could be to blame. Prolonged lack of sleep can disrupt your immune system, so you’re less able to fend off bugs.