Astudy published by King’s College London revealed that 63 per cent of the UK public say their sleep has worsened since the pandemic began.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study also showed that people who found the pandemic particularly stressful were more likely to experience sleep problems. And although 29 per cent say their sleeping hours have increased, they reported feeling less rested than they normally would upon waking. This figure increases to 42 per cent among those who are facing financial difficulties because of the pandemic.
So although working from home and no longer needing to commute has left some people with a little more time for sleep, the quality of that sleep may not be optimal, as “stress disrupts sleep quality”, explains Dr Sophie Bostock, founder of thesleepscientist.com.
Some people have reported experiencing more vivid or unsettling dreams, and some are waking in the early hours feeling anxious and unable to get back to sleep, she adds.
The combination of increased anxiety levels with the blurring of work/life boundaries over the past year has resulted in poor sleep quality for many people, agrees Dr Alex Dimitriu, founder of SiliconPsych.com.
How does sleep quality affect us?
Sleep often accidentally slips down the ranks on our list of priorities, but Dr Bostock emphasises its essentiality. “It affects every aspect of our physical, emotional, cognitive, social performance,” she explains.
“It underpins brain function. It’s absolutely necessary for our survival. There’s pretty much nothing that it doesn’t influence, to be honest. It’s our recovery process that we need in order to repair, recover and to enhance performance.”
How can we tell how much sleep we need?
We all know the feeling of waking up after a good night’s sleep, although it might not happen as often as we’d like. Lately, some of us are possibly more familiar with the feeling of a few nights, or perhaps more realistically, months, of poor-quality sleep.
Although most people require between seven and nine hours of sleep each night, some can thrive on just six. And some need 10 hours to feel their best, says Dr Bostock. “So in order to know where you are on that spectrum, it does take a bit of trial and error,” she adds.
It’s important to remember, though, that the amount of sleep you need is dynamic, says Dr Bostock. “It changes with age, it certainly changes with your genetics. There are heritable aspects to how much sleep we need. And it absolutely changes depending on your environment and your behaviour. So if you’ve been running a marathon, your body is going to need more sleep than if you’ve been sitting still at a desk all day.”
What happens while we sleep?
Your body typically goes through various sleep stages each night, including light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. Light sleep is usually present in between deep sleep or REM sleep, which is also known as dream sleep, explains Dr Dimitriu.
REM sleep is when the brain processes emotions and rehearses for upcoming tasks, he adds. “Some believe REM sleep is the brain essentially doing therapy on itself; processing feelings.”
And deep sleep usually happens in the first half of the night, says Dr Dimitriu. “During this time, the body produces growth hormone and gets much-needed deep relaxation, while the mind packages away memories.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.