COSMOPOLITAN · 41
By the weekend, I’m craving a lie-in,
but I resist. At 7am on Saturday, I’m
cleaning my flat. That evening I’m
not so virtuous. I go to a birthday
dinner. It’s well after 7pm when
I order but I skip the booze (it can
disrupt sleep) and leave at midnight.
The next day I feel terrible. I was still
enjoying birthday-cake crumbs at
10.30pm (three and a half hours
after my food cut-off time), and
wasn’t asleep until 2am. My body
is confused. Switching between my
old routine and my new one doesn’t
make for a restful night.
I haven’t gone
outside with
my jumper
on the wrong
way for at
least two
days.Butaftera positivefirst week,
mydisruptiveweekendseems to
havethrownmybodyinto confusion
and my sleep is disturbed. If I’m not
struggling to drop off, I’m waking
up at 3am, and lying there in a foggy
haze until I have to get up. I decide
to look more closely at my evening
routine. The experts’ plan dictates
a lack of light. It means no Netflix
and closing the curtains two hours
before bed, at 8pm. I dim the lights
but I’m virtually in the dark. It’s
way too dark to read. I light a Jo
Malone candle, but now my bedroom
smells distractingly like roasted
chestnut. I do everything else I’ve
read might help – meditation, putting
lavender oil on my pillow, playing
whale music. It strikes me that
I’ve turned my one-bed flat into
a low-end spa, and I consider adding
it to Treatwell, before realising I’m
not allowed to use my phone.
I speak to Dr Neil Stanley, a sleep
expert, to find out what I should
do about my restless nights. When
I wake up should I try to go back
to sleep? “If your worries are minor
I
wonderhowlongI’llneed
to keep this routine up for
before I become a natural
morning person, without
the lifestyle restrictions.
The bad news is that I might
be a night owl at heart forever,
says Dr Andrew Bagshaw,
co-author of the study. “Your
natural drive might always be
geared towards late bedtimes
and we don’t know what will
happen if night people relax
the regime.” But there is hope.
The more I stick to the rules,
he says, “particularly when it
comes to exercising”, the more
likely I am to maintain my
lark habits. “If you see a
benefit, you’ll want to change.”
And after seeing the change
over the past three weeks, I
agree. I consider my options...
I’ve seen the importance of
giving my body clues to what
time of day it is, using light,
food and air (almost as if I were
a plant) and sticking to a
routine. The thing is, I could
stop eating before 7pm every
night but I like going out for
dinner. I could avoid coffee in
the afternoon but I sometimes
crave a pick-me-up. I could get
up early at weekends but what
about lie-ins? Ultimately, I don’t
want to let go of life’s small
pleasures. But I don’t want to
go back to hating mornings,
either. It’s about balance and at
least I now have an arsenal of
sleep tricks and tools that I can
use when I need them. Even if
I do have the odd day off. ◆
d B f ii
and fleeting, stay in bed,” he tells
me. “But the minute you start hating
your pillow, get up. You’ll never
get back to sleep in that state.”
He suggests going into the living
room to read or even doing some
work – anything to distract my
whirring mind.
In a bid to
tackle my
restless
nights, I’m
monitoring
my sleep
usingtheSleepCycleapp. Dr Stanley
says that sleep trackers are the devil
in a nightgown because they can
make you anxious that you’re not
sleeping well – and then you really
don’t sleep well. But I like mine.
Then a friend has an idea: we’ll
both swap graphs in the morning.
Being competitive, I’d be a regular
sleeper in no time. On Tuesday,
I sleep through. I feel like I’ve
turned a corner. I achieve the
very definition of a good night’s
sleep (an early night, an early
morning and eight hours of
uninterrupted shut-eye) – and
it’s the first I’ve had in years.
By Thursday, I’m waking up
just before my alarm goes off at
7am (the 6am starts were absurd).
Dr Stanley says this is because our
body starts preparing to wake up
90 minutes before we actually open
our eyes and it’s clocked my routine.
This suggests I’m waking up at
a natural point in my sleep cycle.
I’m still pretty grumpy and Dr
Stanley tells me this is caused by
sleep inertia – the time when part
of our brain is still waking up. This
usually takes five to 30 minutes, but
can take up to four hours. By Friday,
I find myself walking rather than
dragging myself to my desk. The plan,
despite a few ups and downs, appears
to have worked – finally I’m a lark.
g
WHAT’S
NEXT?
PHOTOGRAPHS GETTY IMAGES, PIXELEYES. SLIP BEAUTY SLEEP COLLECTION PILLOWCASE, NET-A-PORTER.COM. EYES WIDE SHUT MASK, LAZYOAF.COM. *PUBLISHED IN
SLEEP MEDICINE
, MAY 2019. †ACCORDING TO A STUDY IN
THE MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL,
APRIL 2019