The Deep Sleep Guide: Part 2 (Don't Toss and Turn)

As our understanding of sleep goes through a revolution - and has become a real science in itself - we’ve been calling on the greatest brains at the forefront of this understanding to, frankly, help us snooze better.

In part one, we delved deep with Russell Foster from the University of Oxford - where he’s professor of circadian neuroscience and the Director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute. He talked us through:

What we now know happens when you sleep
Signs you’re not getting enough sleep
Ideal pre-bedtime sleep routines
Food and drink to help or hinder sleep
Sleep supplements and melatonin: do they work?

Here in part two, Prof Foster is joined by sleep guru Dr Rebecca Robbins from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School - to explore:

Beating jetlag
Optimal bedtime
How to become a morning person
Napping
When lack of sleep is something underlying
The three types of insomnia (and how to crack each)
The pillow your sleep type needs

>> Watch our in-depth chat with Professor Foster here

Anyone who has suffered the sleep-deprived horrors of jetlag will know all too well the desperate attempts to sleep after a long flight. So is there anything Professor Foster recommends?

In part one, Professor Foster advised caution against melatonin to help you get to sleep. He also suggests avoiding it when flying - even airline pilots are told not to. “I used to melatonin when I first travelled to Australia”, he explains, “but then I realised it was doing more harm than good.” The problem, he explains, is that if you don’t know the time, there’s the risk of taking the supplement at the wrong biological time so that “it might actually interfere with the body’s natural processing.”
So what can you do to ease jetlag? “I think the key thing for jet lag is light. The rule of thumb is straightforward. If you’re travelling west, you seek out light and you adapt to an expanding day. If you’re travelling east, you have to be slightly careful because light can do different things at different times. The rule of thumb is you avoid morning light and seek out afternoon light and that will speed up the time in which you can move the clock forward to you can reestablish your patterns.” So for example, if you are travelling from the UK to the US, get the earliest flight you can and maximise on daylight. If you’re travelling to Australia, take a flight so that you arrive there at nighttime.

Without getting into the complicated world of REN vs REM sleep, Professor Foster says stick to what works for you. “If you’re a morning-type, go to bed early and let biology take control”, he explains. “Most people tend to be later types and are biologically-inclined to go to bed later (there is a genetic element to this!) so work out what is best for you and stick to it.”

Obviously, being able to stick to an optimal bedtime is easier said than done, with social and work schedules proving problematic. A lot of this is to do with our age, too. As Professor Foster explains, “asking a teenager to get up at 7am is a bit like asking a 55-year old to get up at 5am.” For many, poor sleep, even insomnia in some cases, is an example of how some people are “out of kilter of what’s being expected of them.” So has Professor Foster any tips for how to change your individual body clock’s routine with minimal disruption to your daily activities?

One of the most important things to note, he says, is that “morning light advances the body clock and makes you get up earlier. Similarly, evening light can delay sleepiness.” So in light of this (absolutely no pun intended…), set an alarm and when it goes off, expose yourself to bright light as soon as you wake. Professor Foster recommends “average office lighting conditions”.
One option is to place a SAD light by your bed which you can switch on as soon as you wake. “It will be brutal for three to four days”, he admits, “but then you will notice that you are getting up earlier and to some extent, can advance the clock by giving yourself more morning light.”
Another suggestion Professor Foster made was to keep a sleep diary before you make these changes. “Note when you wake up and keep it a week beforehand and then see if it helps.”

As Professor Foster explains, “a single solid block of sleep is not the norm” for humans. In fact, our sleeping practices have been shaped by the way we live and the kinds of routines we have formulated as a society. With that in mind, is it ever ok to have a sneaky siesta in the afternoon?

“Naps you have to be a little careful with. The evidence suggests that a 20-minute nap in the middle of the day can increase your performance for the second half of the day. Longer than 2o minutes, you tend to go into a deeper sleep and recovery from that might make you fuzzy and groggy and counterbalance that usefulness of the nap.”
Avoid naps closer to bedtime because it means you will go to bed later and struggle to sleep.

“Tiredness has an obvious cure - sleep. So it’s important to distinguish between fatigue and sleepiness”, advises Professor Foster. “Fatigue also includes lethargy and a failure to be motivated. This can often reflect an underlying problem such as depression or a physiological problem that is not necessarily cured by sleep.”
Alcohol also can have a direct impact on memory consolidation so it’s worth considering how this might be impacting on your ability to sleep.