Women's Fitness

‘Brits lose an average of

almostan hour’s shut-

eye every night (that’s

one night’s sleep a week)

which result s in physical

and mental problems that

cost the NHS millions of

pounds each year’

September2016 | womensfitness.co.uk 85

Lose

ifyoudon’t

snooze!

W

hether it’s work

Netflix or social

drinks that keep us

from our bed there’s no doubt

that sleep has dramatically

droppe d from our list of priorities.

But with new statsfrom the Royal

Society for Public Health (RSPH)

revealing that the consequences

of cutting down on your kip are a

whole lot worse than we imagined

it’s time we took our snooze more

seriously. According to the RSPH

Brits lose anaverage of almost an

hour’s shut-eye everynigh t (that’s

one nigh t’s sleep everyweek)

which result s in physic al mental

beha vioura l and performance

prob lems and costs the NHS

millions ofpounds eachyear.

Despite being a fundamental part

of living one in five Brits suffer

from poor sleep – making it the

second most common health

complaint after pain. In her new

bookThe Sleep Re volution

business mogul Arianna

Huffington probes the cause

(and costly effe cts) of the ‘sleep

epidemic’ and looks into ways of

overcoming it. Struggling toswitch

your br ain off at nigh t? Casting

sleep to the si delines over

everything el se? Get ready to

welcome change as this book

leav es no question unanswered.

TIME TO SWITCH OFF

Much like chea t meals or he avy

nigh ts out we know that missing

out on our ZZZs is bad for us – yet

we still continue to ignore the

sensible voice in our head. Why?

The technology boom has meant

that we’re working harder faster

and for longer hours than ever

befo re – with less time for much

else. ‘Advances in technology

have allowed us to pull backthe

curtain on what’s going on while

we sleep but technology is also

one of the main reasons our

relation ship to this fundamental

partof our existence has become

so compromised’ says Arianna in

the book. Her words couldn’t ring

truer – after all if it’s not our

desktop screens we’re staring at

We’re all guiltyof burning the ca ndle

at both ends sometimes but just how

dangerous is sleep deprivation?