A lack of sleep can leave the body and mind feeling exhausted, creating anxiety and stress. But even if you get to bed on time, it's not always as easy as simply closing your eyes and drifting off.
Fear not, our Senior Herbalist answers common questions about sleep, and explores little changes we can all make to our daily routine and night time rituals to help get a much better night's rest.
So why is sleep so important?
It's important to remember that our bodies carry out a huge amount of vital tasks each day to keep us happy, healthy and ultimately alive. As we drift off each night, sleep is an opportunity for our body to be able to:
Help repair damaged cells
Give our immune systems a boost
Recover from the day’s activities
Recharge your heart and cardiovascular system
Do I have a sleep problem if I wake up in the night?
We are evolutionary conditioned to wake up in the night, it's completely natural. When you do, settle your mind and try to go back to sleep.
Top tip: Meditating is a powerful way of silencing the worries rattling around in your head. Go beyond your brain’s noisy internal dialogue and enter into a more relaxed state. Try our free guided meditation.
How much sleep do I need?
This depends on a few things, the kind of person you are, how old you are and what is a normal sleep time for your family. We need an average of 7-8 hours but some people need 4 whilst others need 10. You will know what is enough for you by how refreshed you feel.