ITV This Morning doctor Michael Mosley on the classic mistake made by people who can't sleep

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

ITV This Morning doctor Michael Mosley says one of the classic mistakes made by anyone who can't sleep is to try to spend MORE time in bed.

The popular TV doctor said the most effective way to cure insomnia is to "reboot your brain". Mr Mosley said: "It might sound like a good idea, but lying in bed wide awake, worrying about how tired you’re going to feel in the morning, can be very stressful and certainly not conducive to a good night’s sleep. "If you’ve got into the habit of going to bed early to try to catch up on lost sleep, you could be spending a disproportionate amount of your time in bed both awake and stressed. "This can set up an unwitting pattern of behaviour where your brain comes to associate being in bed with being awake, making it even more likely that you’ll have trouble sleeping." The doctor said if you spend a lot of time in bed, but only a few hours actually asleep you have poor ‘sleep efficiency’.

This is a scientific way to measure your sleep quality and 85 per cent or more is the ideal score. He said: "The most effective way to cure insomnia is to reboot your brain by putting yourself through a short course of Sleep Restriction Therapy which actually demands that you cut back on your sleep. "It sounds barbaric, but studies have shown that sleep restriction is more effective than drugs, and the results last, long-term. "Cutting down on the amount of time you spend in bed really does reset the brain . "People who try it find they sleep more deeply, wake up less often and feel much better during the day." The doctor said there are five steps to better sleep efficiency which include keeping a sleep diary for a week to measure exactly how much time each night you spend asleep.