Sleep Disorder

Roughly a third of adults have trouble sleeping at some point, and most self-treat it badly - usually with alcohol, which makes it worse, or with sedatives, which stop working.

Insomnia

The best-evidenced treatment is not a tablet. It is CBT-I, a structured behavioural programme, and it outperforms sleeping pills over the long run in trial after trial. Its core moves are counter-intuitive: keep a fixed wake time regardless of how badly you slept, get out of bed if you are awake more than about twenty minutes, and stop spending nine hours in bed to catch six hours of sleep.

Sleep apnoea

Loud snoring, gasping or pauses in breathing witnessed by someone else, waking unrefreshed, daytime sleepiness, morning headaches. This is common in India, frequently missed, and it raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. It is also very treatable once diagnosed. If this describes you, ask for a sleep study.

Snoring loudly and waking tired is not a personality. It is a symptom, and it has a treatment.

Restless legs and shift work

An irresistible urge to move the legs at night is often linked to low iron and responds to treating it. Shift work fights the body clock directly - strategic light exposure, a consistent sleep block and a genuinely dark room are the tools that help most.

See a doctor if

Sleep trouble persists more than a few weeks, you are falling asleep during the day, or a partner has seen you stop breathing at night.