Life Time

This has very important consequences, not least for those of us who eat most of our daily calories in the evening. For clarity, I define evening loosely as between 6 p.m. and bedtime. Evening eaters are at a greatly increased risk of impaired glucose tolerance, Type 2 diabetes, weight gain and obesity.

Those individuals who exercised between morning and mid-afternoon (7 a.m. to around 3 p.m.) woke earlier, whereas those exercising later (7–10 p.m.) woke later, with little impact on sleep timing when exercise was undertaken between 4 p.m. and 2 a.m.

The first point to make is that if you want a nap, you are probably not getting enough sleep at night, and that needs to be attended to first.

Sleep is a period of physical inactivity during which time an individual avoids movement within an environment to which it is poorly adapted, while using this time to undertake a range of essential biological activities that allow optimum performance during activity.64

but it is really important to avoid any discussion or consideration of stressful topics immediately before bed. The acute elevation of cortisol and adrenaline will increase alertness and delay sleep

In addition, digestive processes are reduced toward bedtime, so if the major meal of the day is prior to bed, this can lead to digestive health issues such as excessive stomach acid production and a greater risk of peptic ulcers.299 Stomach pain can then act to disrupt sleep. And to complete the circle, SCRD increases the risk of peptic ulcers.

We now appreciate that the same meal consumed at different times of day can produce very different levels of blood glucose due to the circadian-driven changes in glucose uptake and metabolism.

A relaxing behaviour, such as a bath or shower, or warming the hands and feet,308 can be very useful before bed. Again, it can be part of your routine of ‘sleep preparation’,

Bedside lights should be bright enough to read, but kept as low as possible to reduce alertness.