Summertime slumber

Many of us associate the winter with dark mornings that make it difficult to wake up, but in reality a good night’s sleep can be more elusive during the summer months.

Warmer weather can make it harder to drop off and this, combined with fewer hours of darkness, means that in the summertime we often struggle to get the recommended eight hours a night.

Lack of sleep has a profound effect on our physical and emotional health, leaving us feeling irritable and vulnerable to illness. When we’re tired we are also more prone to injury or exacerbating existing conditions such as back problems. Regular, restful slumber allows our bodies’ natural defences to do their job, building up immunity and healing damage to muscles, joints and ligaments.

With the summer months stretching ahead, specialist back advice website backadvice.info has developed some tips for getting a great night’s sleep, creating the optimum conditions for health and vitality:

Go to bed earlier

It’s a simple but often overlooked solution: if the dawn chorus wakes you up too early in the summer then it makes sense to shift your bed time forward slightly. Adapting your night time routine to seasonal changes in daylight means that you make the most of the darker hours that naturally stimulate sleep.

Lose the lie-in

We’ve all experienced the temptation to catch up on sleep at the weekend, staying in bed well past our normal weekly wake-up time. Unfortunately, this can actually do more harm than good by wrecking our ability to drop-off at the right time during the week.

The body adapts to daily changes very quickly, so after two days of sleeping-in late your internal clock will have shifted and you’ll find it hard to slip back into a work-friendly routine. Instead, you should always get up at the same time – which also means you’ll have more weekend hours to enjoy the summer.

Create a sleep haven

Your bedroom should be a place of calm and serenity that is reserved for the two Ss – sleep and sex! Watching TV, using a laptop or even reading in bed can result in an over-active brain that doesn’t want to switch off. If you’re having problems sleeping then try confining these activities to a different room and only heading to bed when you’re actually ready to settle down. If you still don’t drop off then it’s best to get up and do something else in another part of the house, as lying in bed tossing and turning only leads to frustration that further adds to the problem.

You should also ensure that you assess whether your present mattress and pillow provide the necessary support for a good night’s sleep, and remember that you should change your mattress every 10 years – after all, you do spend at least a third of your life sleeping! Tempur Mattresses, for example, offer the body full support, keeping the spine aligned in the anatomically correct position, and relieving pressure from tired muscles and joints.

Shut off the senses

On hot, stuffy nights it’s often essential to keep the windows open, but this obviously increases the likelihood of external noises disturbing your sleep. Combined with the light mornings this can provide a sensory overload that’s impossible to ignore. It’s worth investing in a good set of earplugs – try a mouldable wax version if you’ve struggled with foam ones in the past - and a well-fitting eye mask to block out unwanted stimuli.

Get active

It’s much easier in the summer to get outside and enjoy some fresh air and exercise, tiring your body out naturally and encouraging better sleep. However, you should try to avoid doing anything too active in the three hours before bed, as your body needs time to relax and unwind.

Take advantage of the summer days by adapting your normal routine to include more outdoor time: walk to work or, if that’s not possible, get off the bus one stop earlier or park the car further away so you can stretch your legs and get the blood pumping. As well as aiding sleep, gentle exercise is also a great way to prevent numerous health-related problems, such as bad backs, by maintaining muscle tone and joint flexibility.

Backadvice.info is home to a host of practical advice to help individuals manage back pain on a day-to-day basis, whether at home, work or play.

The site offers a wealth of information on the causes of back pain, as well as conventional and alternative treatments, preventative measures and exercises to help ease the pain. Osteopath Geoffrey Montague-Smith is available to provide professional guidance and answer any tricky questions you have about your own back pain.

Visit the site at backadvice.info. For more information about Tempur Products, visit tempur.co.uk.