It’s better to watch TV, play computer games and eat in another room. Where possible, try to remove distractions from your bedroom. The bedroom should be somewhere that we associate with sleep. Speak to your GP or mental health worker (if you have one) for advice on this, or have a look at the ‘Attitude’ and ‘Lifestyle’ sections of this guide for general ways to maintain good mental well-being. In these cases, a combined approach to tackle both the mental health issue and the poor sleep is often the most effective method of treatment. Mental health problems like anxiety and depression can also affect our sleep. Try to avoid taking medication without speaking to a medical professional, as sometimes the medication itself can stop you from sleeping properly if it’s not right for you. Speaking to your GP or pharmacist about appropriate medication can help with this. HealthĪs anyone who has tried to get to sleep with a blocked nose or headache knows, physical health problems can stop you from getting a good night’s sleep. The following advice can help to HEAL your sleep problems. The important thing is that you get good quality sleep.

However, it's recommended that a healthy adult should sleep, on average, between seven and nine hours a night. The amount that each of us needs is different. Sleep has also been shown to protect the immune system. Sleep affects our ability to use language, maintain attention, understand what we are reading, and summarise what we are hearing if we compromise on our sleep, we compromise on our performance, our mood, and our interpersonal relationships. Good sleep doesn’t just mean lots of sleep: it means the right kind of sleep.

There are four main things that affect the quality of our sleep:

Download among us sleep