A sleep expert has shared surprising advice on how to get better sleep and improve your sleep hygiene – and it’s not about cutting out coffee
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A sleep specialist has revealed some unexpected advice for ensuring you get proper rest. He advised against reducing your caffeine consumption and suggested that attempting to maintain a rigid schedule could actually hinder your ability to sleep well.
Many people struggle to establish a regular sleep pattern or experience restlessness at bedtime. Dr David Garley, director at The Better Sleep Clinic, has offered his insights on achieving quality rest, reports the Express.
He emphasised that the most important factor in getting adequate sleep is to avoid overthinking it. He said: “Sleep is very unique in that the more you think about it, the less likely it is to happen.”
He warned that those battling sleep difficulties often attempt to enforce a stringent routine, but this approach may prove counterproductive. Dr Garley explained: “If for whatever reason you’re struggling with your sleep, one of the first things that people try to do is to fix the problem and they will start doing everything to try and improve their sleep.
“People might start skipping the gym, or might stop seeing friends or might even stop going to work. It means that your world shrinks and shrinks until the only thing that you have left to think about is your sleep, and the more that you think about your sleep, the less likely it is to happen.”
He said that eliminating coffee could potentially worsen your sleep quality, particularly if you become overly anxious about achieving a good night’s rest. Dr Garley explained: “For most of the areas of health, if you take quite a meticulous approach, that can lead to improvement.
“Sleep is very different though in that the more you focus on it, the less likely it is to happen easily.” In response to this common misconception, the clinic has introduced its own brand, Sunrise Coffee, designed to help people rediscover their coffee-drinking habits and adopt a more laid-back attitude towards sleep.
Dr Garley noted: “Coffee was always something people gave up if they weren’t sleeping. We felt that by encouraging people to drink coffee again, it helps to loosen that very fixed grip that we place on sleep, and with that looser approach to sleep, people nearly always find that they start sleeping better.”
What can you do to get better sleep
Discussing practical steps you can take to boost your chances of a restful night, the expert highlighted one element. He advised: “The most important point initially is to make sure that you’re in bed for enough time.
“The commonest cause for sleep deprivation in the UK is called ‘voluntary sleep deprivation’, which is essentially not spending enough time in bed.” Another helpful tip is to only get into bed when you’re truly feeling drowsy.
Dr Garley explained: “It is often the temptation that if we feel we haven’t slept enough, we bring the bedtime earlier. However, that means you’re getting into bed and you’re just not sleepy and that often works against getting better sleep.”
Should you find yourself lying awake at night, the sleep specialist suggested taking a break from trying to nod off altogether. He advised: “Get up out of bed, go to a relaxing spot and find a distracting activity to do until you feel that urge to sleep and come back to bed.”
When it comes to the ideal amount of shut-eye, Dr Garley encouraged a laid-back attitude towards timings. He noted: “You want to make sure you’re giving yourself enough of a window for sleep, and so it can help to know roughly the number of hours that you need because this is different for everybody.
“On average, it’s somewhere between seven and nine hours but it does vary from night to night. It’s best not to have too fixed a view on when you should be getting into bed, because if you do and you’re not sleepy, as a general rule you’re going to struggle. It’s always good to have flexibility on your bedtime and not get into bed if you’re not sleepy.”
