Dreaming of a sleep in?

It's something we get between the sheets and do... every day if we're lucky.

But do we really give "sleep" the credit it deserves?

Researchers have long known that sleep basically makes us smarter, but a New York study, for the first time has come up with hard, physical evidence that sleep increases our ability to learn.

A London researcher has recommended that workers should have hour long nap times during the day, to increase productivity. Wouldn't he be a nice boss!?

My own quick office poll (perhaps a little less researched!) found, most of us don't get the recommended 8 hours sleep a night. Instead we think we'll "catch up" with our sleep on the weekend. Do we ever really do this?

Don't we go to bed later on the weekend… after a dinner with friends or a few wines anyway?

Many would admit to being more impatient without sleep, so a lack of hours clocked can also affect our relationships and performance at work.

I'm focussed on getting a few nights of 8 hours a week. It can be hard to change a habit like this, but it's a rather lovely little challenge!

A great tip is from a yoga instructor, it works. If I can't sleep, getting out of bed and doing just a few yoga poses in another quiet room really helped me when I was doing early morning television and couldn't get to sleep early.

My favourite is lying with my legs up against the wall for a few minutes, sounds weird (looks odd too!), but it gets the blood circulating but it's also super relaxing.

For me, winter is the perfect time to get into this good habit, because it gets so dark so early getting cozy is that much more appealing, don't you think?

Sweetdreams.

 JT

Xxx