Sleep Profiler

Very interesting! You can take your own sleep profiler test (it's quite comprehensive - 8 pages) at the BBC's Sleep Profiler (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/profiler/).

Bless!
YA

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My own sleep results:

Sleep Profiler Results

Your Score

0%	20%		40%		60%		80%	100%

Least optimised		Most optimised

Your profile summary

Your sleep is reasonably optimised, scoring 40 %.

You said you sometimes have a problem with sleep and there are times when you feel sleepy and ideally shouldn't - your personalised advice below will help you improve your score.

Body and Health

How to boost your alertness

• You seem to be quite tired during the day.
• One way of treating the symptom is to nap in the afternoon. The body is designed this way - most of us have a natural dip in alertness at roughly 2-4pm.
• A 15 minute nap when you're tired can be a very effective way of staying alert throughout the day. But sleep longer than 20 minutes and you'll enter the stage called Slow Wave Sleep (or 'deep' sleep), and you'll feel very groggy when you wake.

Environment

Your bedroom should be mainly for sleep

• Sleep experts recommend that bedrooms should be for rest, relaxation and a good night's sleep.
• If getting to sleep is a problem, remove distractions from your bedroom if you can. If you use your mobile telephone as an alarm clock, try to turn off the mobile to avoid getting any late night calls or text messages. The alarm clock function still works when the mobile is off.

You said light is a problem...

• Your body is designed to wake-up in response to light. To reduce your light problem, you could hang thicker curtains, a blackout blind, or wooden shutters.
• Night lights in bedrooms can be enough to confuse your internal body clock (which takes its cues from light).

A comfortable bed could improve your sleep.

• One thing that could be keeping you awake is your bed. It's not necessary to change your bed every three years as some people advocate, but it should be comfortable.
• New research shows that an 'orthopaedic' mattress (a hard one) is often not best for people with back problems. Ignore the hardness, and choose something you're comfortable on. Test out a range of mattresses by lying on each for about 20 minutes.
• Think about what you wear in bed as well - natural fabrics such as cotton that allow your body to breath are best.
• Foam and synthetic fibre mattresses retain body heat and act like ovens. This will raise body temperature and make sleep lighter. Natural fibres such as cotton and wool will help keep the body at a more even temperature.
• Duvets come in different tog ratings and it's advisable to use the appropriate one during different times to the year. 4.5 tog is a light duvet and ideal for summer. 12 - 13.5 gives extra warmth in the winter. 9 - 10.5 tog offers medium warmth and can be used all seasons.

Making your bedroom more comfortable

• As you've noticed, temperature has a big influence on how well you sleep. The body needs to cool by about 0.5°C at the start of sleep.
• If the weather's too hot, it will be difficult to cool, even by this small amount. Keep the window open and buy a fan.
• If it's too cold, your body will be working extra hard to produce heat, keeping your core temperature up.
• Think about what you wear in bed. Breathable natural materials such as cotton are best for comfort.

Lifestyle

Exercise routines can help

• Regular exercise is a great way of improving your sleep - but be careful not to exercise close to bed time as this produces stimulants that stop the brain from relaxing quickly.

You regularly drink coffee or consume caffeine

• You use one of the oldest and best short-term cures for sleepiness: caffeine.
• Caffeine stays in your system for many hours, but is active in your brain for only about an hour. However, having large amounts of caffeine in your system will disturb your sleep.
• If keeping alert is your goal and you want to cut down your caffeine intake, try taking a short nap when you feel sleepy.
• Current research shows a short 15 minute nap is more effective than a cappuccino at beating tiredness.

Psychological

How to get past your worries and get to sleep

As you've spotted, trying to sleep when worried is very difficult, so it would be a good idea to try some techniques to help you relax before trying to sleep.

• Having a time to calm down after a hectic day is important - try taking a bath, reading a book or taking a gentle walk outside.
• Simple breathing exercises can also help
• Some people find that Lavender oil, Valerian or other herbs help them to sleep.
• If you still have problems, you could try massage, aromatherapy or acupuncture.