TV presenter Sara Cox has spoken about what to do when she wakes up at 2.30am. The BBC Morning Live presenter was answering caller ‘Steve’ who was asking the ‘experts’ what they do.
Sara, who has previously hosted the Radio 1 breakfast show and knows about getting enough rest, said she has issues with her sleep a lot – but found the advice from wellbeing guru Michael Mosley, who sadly died last year, most effective.
On the show, she said: “Steve, you’re not on your own with this. I struggle with my sleep a lot. In fact, a couple of nights ago I was awake at similar times. So what is it with that time?
“I found the brilliant doctor. Michael Moseley’s little sleep pod, and he gives you some breathing exercises, but also he tells you the science behind it, which is super interesting, kind of distracts you from the fact that you’re trying to get back to sleep, and before you know it, because you are doing the breathing exercises, you listen, you snooze back off.”
Sara, 50, added that she had been tackling the issue of cold feet in bed keeping her awake: “Do you have cold hands and cold feet during the day in this sort of weather? Recently I’ve started wearing fluffy socks in bed, and it’s a game changer. I’m sure that’s why most nights I’ve been sleeping OK since starting to wear the socks. I recommend it.”
Gethin Jones also had some advice for Steve. ”I havethe same problem as you. I’m not the greatest sleeper and I do wake up in the middle of the night, but I did a little bit of a course during COVID because we all had time to do it and I took away one thing and this lady said to me, this sleep expert said to me, Even if you get up a few times in the night, the next day you’re still able to function and carry on with your day, but yet when you wake up in the middle of the night, you immediately worry thinking, ‘I’m gonna be so tired tomorrow, I’m not gonna be able to work, what’s gonna happen?’
“But if you remember that you’ll be absolutely fine the next day, it kind of takes away the anxiety at that time, and that’s been big for me. So if I wake up in the middle of the night now, I just think it’s just one of those things, what can I do about it? And all of a sudden you you sort of fall back to sleep. So if you can take the angst away and it’ll make a big difference knowing that you can function the next day.”
Diet and wellbeing guru Dr Michael Mosley spoke about a simple thing everyone can easily do which he says is ‘genuinely life-changing’ when it comes to sleep. The expert said that if people follow his advice if they are having trouble getting to sleep then ‘nine times out of ten’ it should work – and he said that he does this exercise ‘every day’.
Dr Mosley said: “Strangely enough one of my favourites and what has been genuinely life-changing is doing the slow deep breathing exercises. They’re really simple called 4-2-4. What you do is you inhale through your nose for four, you hold it for a couple of seconds and then you breathe out through your mouth for kind of four. You do that for a minute or so, your heart rate slows down.
“If you’re feeling a bit stressed through the day it has a big impact. But say you’re awake in the middle of the night and you’re worrying about stuff. You do that for a minute or so and you’ll be surprised that nine times out of ten you’ll just drop off to sleep.
“It is amazing how much difference just changing your breathing pattern can do. It’s something really, really simple, but it has a profound effect. This is a much more conscious process where you deliberately slow everything down and you listen to your breath. It’s been the basis of Yoga and all sorts of things and practices for thousands of years.
“It is astonishing – the science is really interesting as well and one of the reasons it helps with sleep is because it slows your heart rate down and then that is a trigger for sleep.”