Welcome back to Stylist’s Sleep Diaries, where we take a deep dive into one of the most important (and elusive) factors in our day-to-day lives: sleep. To help us understand more about it, we invite women to share their habits with our sleep expert Dr Nerina Ramlakhan for analysis.  

Age: 35

Occupation: editor

How much water you drink on average per day: 8+ glasses

How much caffeine do you drink on average per day: I tend to have three caffeinated drinks (I have my last one around 4pm). 

What time do you go to bed at night: midnight

What time do you wake up in the morning: 7.30am

How often do you exercise? Never

Do you eat breakfast within 60 minutes of rising? I usually eat around 60-90 minutes after I wake up due to my thyroid medication (I have to wait at least an hour after taking my meds before consuming anything). 

“I struggle with a lot of different things where my sleep is concerned: I’m often tired but find it difficult to fall asleep and wake up frequently throughout the night. When that happens, I tend to find it hard to get back to sleep again, and the sleep I do get feels shallow – I have lots of vivid dreams and regularly grind my teeth.

“My job is challenging, and I do tend to take work home on a daily basis at certain times of the month. I also work at weekends on a monthly basis due to tight deadlines. I’ve only been doing this job for about three months, and it was an entire career change. I suspect some of the stress this has caused is messing with my sleep, but many of the issues I experience have always been present in some form or another throughout my life.

“As a result, I really struggle with my energy levels. In fact, I’d probably say they’re at about a 5/10. This means I struggle to exercise, regularly lie in at the weekends and sometimes end up having an accidental nap after work before dinner when I take a short break. My thyroid condition probably doesn’t help with all this, but it’s far from the only factor.

“Ultimately, I need help fixing my sleep. I feel like my very deepest sleep is around 6am and I really struggle with early mornings. I’m the type of person that has 20 alarms and can snooze for hours. I’d love to wake up not feeling completely startled and go to bed with a calm, non-racing mind. Have you got any advice?” 

“You are my classic ‘tired but wired’ client – you’re waking up tired, pressing the snooze button, feeling exhausted even though you’re getting enough sleep (in terms of hours), falling asleep too early in the evening and then finding yourself unable to fall asleep when you getsinto bed at night,” says sleep expert and physiologist Dr Ramlakhan.

“You need to get more restorative sleep, especially as you’ve started a new job which seems to be pretty pressurised. I want to help you do this, but you need to make some changes.

“Your caffeine intake is too high; ideally, you need to halve this and have your last caffeinated drink no later than 2pm. You also need to stop falling asleep when you’ve finished work – this is depleting your sleep drive, making it harder for you to fall asleep at night. And, probably most importantly given your thyroid condition, you need to get to bed earlier.” 

Dr Ramlakhan continues: “According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and my 30+ years of experience, sleep before midnight is vital for helping to break the fatigue cycle that you’re in. TCM and chronobiology tell us that every organ system in the body is impacted by the levels of light and dark in the environment – they create our physiological rhythms. The 90 minutes before midnight is apparently the most important rebalancing time for the thyroid and adrenal glands, as I describe in my book Fast Asleep Wide Awake.

“Getting off your phone at night and getting into bed earlier will undoubtedly boost your energy levels as well as help you to go to bed with a calmer mind and wake up feeling more peaceful and ready for your busy days.” 

Cover image: Ami O’Callaghan

Image: Dr Nerina Ramlakhan