Latest news with #MerijnvandeLaar
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Swimming like Vikings or sleeping like cavemen, ruling the tennis court and romping with royals: when it comes to non-fiction...We've Got Your Summer Reading Sorted!
How To Sleep Like A Caveman by Merijn van de Laar (William Collins £20, 304pp) What is worse than being sunburnt, all your clothes smelling of suncream, and finding sand in every crevice? Being sunburnt, all your clothes smelling of suncream, finding sand in every crevice... and not being able to sleep. Happily, Merijn van de Laar can provide the solution to this holiday nightmare: be more caveman. Discover all the ways our forebears got it right (sleeping when tired, rather than when they thought they should, for example) and the fascinating fact that, until the enforced working routines of the Industrial Revolution, people didn't really experience insomnia. KS Swimming With The Viking Of Skye Richard Waters (Aurum £17.99, 256pp) When Richard Waters discovered his Viking lineage in a DNA test he decided to plunge himself into one of the less violent traditions of his ancestors: cold-water swimming. Diagnosed with Parkinson's in his early 40s, he finds unparalleled relief for his physical and mental health in the chilly waters of the Highlands. In this moving book Waters swims us through the rockpools, waterfalls and coves of Skye, as well as introducing us to a man as hardy as the Norsemen who conquered the island so many centuries ago. JCD No Filters by Christie Watson and Rowan Egberongbe (Chatto & Windus £14.99, 192pp) Having a teen in the house all summer might feel daunting but this book is an insightful, if tough, read for any struggling parent. When Christie Watson's 16-year-old daughter Rowan was refusing to speak to her, she had to learn a whole different means of communicating. What began as a daily Snapchat message evolved into a new-found closeness. This engaging book sheds light on the boggling number of mental health issues faced by today's teenagers, many of which most parents know little about. KS John & Paul by Ian Leslie (Faber & Faber £25, 432pp) Music history is full of relationships that crash and burn in a cacophony of vicious headlines, backstabbing and (if we're lucky) a revenge song or two – Sonny and Cher, ABBA and perhaps the most spectacular break-up of them all, John and Paul. This spellbinding biography of the two men behind The Beatles takes you through the dizzying highs and crashing lows of their 13-year bromance and the break-up that changed the course of music forever. JCD How Not To Be A Political Wife by Sarah Vine (HarperElement £20, 320pp) As a Mail columnist and former political wife, Vine is a force to be reckoned with – no wonder her memoir sent shockwaves through British politics. She gives us a fascinating insight into being raised by a narcissistic father, her 20-year marriage to Michael Gove as he rose from Tory MP to Cabinet minister and prime ministerial contender, and the explosive end to her friendship with Samantha Cameron. Funny and heartwarming, this is a revealing, and riveting, look behind the scenes of the personal politics of Westminster. KS Going Nuclear by Tim Gregory (Bodley Head £25, 384pp) For most of us, nuclear means mushroom clouds, Chernobyl and Mr Burns. Certainly, something to be afraid of, not welcomed. However, in this delightful book by nuclear scientist and apologist Dr Tim Gregory, we are urged to reframe our relationship with nuclear power or face extinction. He peppers his convincing argument with surprisingly enchanting anecdotes from the glowing history of nuclear power. JCD The Warrior by Christopher Clarey (John Murray £22, 368pp) This is the first year since 2004 that the King of Clay has not graced Paris's Roland Garros with his presence. Christopher Clarey's comprehensive biography of Rafael Nadal's career takes us from his early days in Majorca being coached by his Uncle Toni to his dominance as part of the big three alongside Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, proving himself as one of the greatest players of all time. Rafa's humility and sportsmanship shine in this glowing portrait that also abounds with wider tennis trivia. KS The Slow Road North by Rosie Schaap (Mariner £20, 272pp) When Rosie Schapp found herself a widow at 39, she didn't know where to turn. Eventually, she decided to pack up her troubles, and her flat in New York, to travel through Europe. Still weighed down by grief, a chance conversation with a stranger in Belfast somehow lightened her sorrow. Before long she had traded the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple for a Georgian cottage in Glenarm, Northern Ireland. This gentle memoir shows how her new friends and neighbours helped dig her out of her grief and made her capable of love again. JCD Queen James by Gareth Russell (William Collins £25, 496pp) Not many wives would be pleased to hear that their husband had embarked upon an affair with someone much younger who was said to possess 'the finest legs in Christendom'. She might be doubly irritated to discover that these fabulous legs belonged to a man. However, Queen Anne, wife of King James I, was delighted. Anything to keep temperamental James happy. This is just one of the fantastic tales in this royal romp through the treacherous and flagrantly gay court of King James I. JCD Shaolin Spirit by Shi Heng Yi (Particular Books £25, 288pp) If the 'cultivation of vitality and strength' appeals to you this summer, be prepared to push 'physical and mental limits you will never have encountered before'. Or at least that is the promise of Shaolin Master Shi Heng Yi. Through his meditative practices that reconnect the mind and body, you can tap in to a 1,500-year-old way of life to discover more energy and greater peace of mind. Although you might not be able to bend a spear by pressing down on the pointed end with your throat, as Shi Heng Yi himself can, by September. KS Story Of A Murder by Hallie Rubenhold (Doubleday £25, 512pp) More often than not, True Crime is more gory than fiction, and that is certainly the case with the tale of Dr Crippen. Medical fraudster, terrible husband and murderer – is there anything this man can't do? Rubenhold chooses to focus on the women in the doctor's life: the wife he murdered, music-hall starlet Belle Elmore, and his typist and lover Ethel Le Neve. Not one for those with a weak stomach, this uncovers a dark side to humanity that many will find fascinating. KS Dave & Me by Lili Myers (Ebury Spotlight £22, 304pp) The Hairy Bikers, made up of Dave Myers and Si King, were hugely loved as much for their humour and camaraderie as their cooking. When Dave died last year after suffering from cancer, 46,000 bikers drove from London to Barrow-in-Furness in tribute to him. Now his widow, Lili, gives an emotive and intimate account of the love and life they shared for 20 years. KS Allies At War by Tim Bouverie (Bodley Head £25, 688pp) Defeating the Nazis required the UK to make strange bedfellows. An otherwise inconceivable alliance had to be hastily made with Stalin, while even the 'special relationship' with America was fraught with difficulty and ended up costing Britain an awful lot of money to maintain. This glorious book alters the focus of the war and reveals that navigating the many traps and pitfalls in the shifting diplomatic sands imposed by friends and allies was almost harder than actually confronting the enemy. JCD Affairs by Juliet Rosenfeld (Bluebird £20, 288pp) Do you fancy a clandestine summer fling? You're not alone. As Juliet Rosenfeld reveals, one in five of us will have an affair at some point. Putting her psychotherapist skills to good use, Rosenfeld takes us through five different adulterous scenarios and examines what pushes people to commit this greatest of relationship sins. Not a guide for cheaters, but this book might help you spot one... KS The Buried City by Gabriel Zuchtriegel (Hodder £22, 256pp) If you're heading for a scorcher in the Italian sun, spare a thought for the poor people of Pompeii. There was no sun cream strong enough or sun hat wide enough to protect them from the fiery heat that pummelled their city into oblivion. The city, frozen in time, is still bursting with undiscovered secrets and at the helm of these discoveries is Zuchtriegel, director of the Pompeii archaeological park. This is an unparalleled tour through a city that has fascinated and bewildered us for 2,000 years. JCD The Ageless Brain by Dale Bredesen (Vermilion £22, 384pp) It is never too early to start looking after your brain's health. In clear steps Dr Dale Bredesen explains exactly how to keep your brain just as sharp at 100 as it was at 20. From actions as simple as maintaining your oral hygiene or completing a daily sudoku, to learning a new language and cutting out sugar – there are so many things we can all do to retain our cognitive function. KS Source Code by Bill Gates Allen Lane £25, 336pp How do you become the richest man in the world? In this memoir of his early years, Bill Gates makes it seem easy. Key ingredients include cleverness, awkwardness with a sprinkling of ferocity, and most importantly of all, a reliance on the beneficence of adults. Turns out a tragic backstory certainly isn't necessary. Bill Gates, King of Nerds, was even popular at school! JCD The Light Of Day by Christopher Stephens (Headline £20, 400pp) 'Sir, we are homosexuals…'. So began the letter that scandalised Britain in 1960. This criminal confession (homosexuality wasn't decriminalised until 1967) was sent to several newspapers and signed 'Roger Butler'. This is the story of the heroism and fierce battles fought by the first man in England to choose to publicly come out. The author, while still at university, befriended the aged Butler and has faithfully and beautifully told the story of this extraordinary man. JCD
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I'm a scientist who cured my insomnia... and discovered what we've been told about sleep is a lie
For decades people have been told they need seven to nine hours of sleep - warned that anything less could result in obesity, depression and even dementia. However, Dutch sleep scientist Dr Merijn van de Laar is turning all we've been told about sleep on its head - saying it's alright if you get less than seven hours, or if you're awoken in the middle of the night. The secret to the best night of rest can be gleaned from looking back to our caveman ancestors and mimicking the way they slept. Prehistoric men and women lived a lifestyle that facilitated a restful night's sleep, including walking nearly 20,000 steps a day, living life without technology and sharing their bed with canine companions. Dr van de Laar wrote: 'Newsflash: There is no sleep loss epidemic, most people don't need eight hours of sleep, sleep medication has a bad influence on sleep and (probably) on health, lying awake at night can be perfectly normal and your sleep tracker is unreliable.' Data from the CDC shows 14.5 percent of adults have trouble falling asleep and 18 percent have trouble staying asleep. And a 2024 American Academy of Sleep Medicine survey found 12 percent of Americans have been diagnosed with chronic insomnia - a condition Dr Van de Laar battled firsthand. Now, in his book 'How to Sleep Like a Caveman,' the sleep scientist is sharing how he cured his insomnia and outlines his top tips for sleeping like the earliest humans. Get moving Research on early humans shows they may have needed more sleep due to their active lifestyle. Prehistoric humans were hunter-gatherers, meaning all their food came from hunting animals and gathering plants. This required them to travel up to a dozen miles a day on foot, and research estimates our ancestors walked twice as much as people today. Women took around 11,000 steps a day while men trekked 19,000. Today, the average American walks 5,000. A study from Brandeis University found middle-aged adults who walked an extra 2,000 steps a day slept longer and better than on days they were less active. Another study of 500 adults found people who didn't exercise but walked 10,000 steps a day had improved sleep quality. Walking has been shown to release mood-boosting hormones called endorphins, which lower stress and can promote relaxation. Dr van de Laar also suggests higher intensity exercise like jogging or cycling may improve sleep, but exercising within two hours of bedtime could increase your body temperature and heart rate, disrupting your sleep cycle. Adopt a dog Records of man's best friend date back tens of thousands of years. Researchers have discovered footprints and paw prints beside each other and found people and dogs buried together. Dr van de Laar wrote that this suggests humans and dogs likely slept together, so dog owners who mimic their ancestors may get better sleep. A 2019 study found dog owners tend to sleep 53 minutes more at night than people without a canine companion. The researchers suggested this could be because dog owners walk more during the day than non-owners. Dr van de Laar wrote: 'An important factor here is that dog owners may have more active lifestyles anyway, which could make it more likely that they choose to have a dog. 'At the same time, because of the active way of living, they might need more physical recovery anyway, which increases sleep duration.' Dogs also offer a sense of companionship, leading to fewer feelings of loneliness. Hunt and gather Dr van de Laar also suggests mimicking the diet of our ancestors, now known as the Paleo or caveman diet. The plan involves eating foods that only could have been obtained through hunting and gathering, such as vegetables, nuts, seeds and lean meats. Ancient humans stuck to these foods until roughly 10,000 years ago, when agricultural practices increased the popularity of grains, legumes, dairy and vegetable oils. Paleolithic diets were also high in protein from meats like beef and bison, which Dr van de Laar suggests could have sleep-promoting properties. A recent review of 19 studies found people who report sleeping more soundly at night tend to eat more protein-rich meals. Additionally, a 2023 study found mice and flies on high-protein diets had higher levels of molecules in their guts that improve sleep quality. Research suggests opting for protein-rich meals instead of carbohydrates may help regulate blood sugar, preventing blood sugar spikes that can disrupt sleep. Eyes off the clock Prehistoric humans didn't sleep with an alarm clock or cell phone on their nightstand, and Dr van de Laar said ditching tech may lead to a more restful night's sleep. A 2023 study from Indiana University studied 5,000 people with insomnia. Participants completed questionnaires about the severity of their insomnia, use of sleep medication and the time they spent watching a clock while trying to drift off at night. Lead researcher Spencer Dawson said: 'We found time-monitoring behavior mainly has an effect on sleep medication use because it exacerbates insomnia symptoms. 'People are concerned that they're not getting enough sleep, then they start estimating how long it will take them to fall back asleep and when they have to be up. 'That is not the sort of activity that's helpful in facilitating the ability to fall asleep; the more stressed out you are, the harder time you're going to have falling asleep.' Dr van de Laar wrote: 'The conclusion is that it is important to remove visible clocks from the bedroom as much as possible. 'It is important to move these as far away from your bedroom as possible and try to get through the night without a clock. The same applies to mobile phones.'
New York Post
20-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Having trouble sleeping? 4 ways sleeping like a caveman can cure insomnia
Yabba dabba snooze! Sleep is essential for physical and mental health — it's crucial for brain function, memory consolidation, tissue repair, immune system maintenance, concentration, hormone regulation and stress management. Unfortunately, more than a third of American adults don't get enough rest. Inadequate sleep has been linked to cognitive troubles, a weakened immune system, weight gain, depression and a higher risk of chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Advertisement Dutch sleep scientist and recovering insomniac Merijn van de Laar suggests that our ancestors may hold the key to sleeping like a rock. 4 Dutch sleep scientist Merijn van de Laar wrote the new book, 'How to Sleep Like a Caveman.' Courtesy of Merijn van de Laar 'Sleep has hardly changed since Paleolithic humans snoozed soundly in their caves,' van de Laar notes in his new book, 'How to Sleep Like a Caveman.' Advertisement 'While saber-toothed tigers were their biggest night-time worry, today it's stress and social media that keep us awake, but the solutions are the same,' he added. Van de Laar shares four suggestions for getting a better night's sleep in three weeks — cave not required. Let go of the eight-hour rule Experts generally recommend adults snooze between seven and nine hours a night. Van de Laar said it's OK to get six. Advertisement 'The average length of subjective sleep is between just under six hours and almost 7.5 hours,' he told The Post. 'Sleeping six hours is generally not more associated with health problems when compared to sleeping eight hours.' 4 Experts generally recommend adults snooze between seven and nine hours a night. Van de Laar said it's OK to get six. Jelena – Beware the potential risks of catching fewer winks. A 2019 Penn State study found that middle-aged adults with high blood pressure or diabetes who averaged less than six hours a night had twice the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke than those who dozed longer. People with a history of heart disease or stroke had three times the increased risk of dying from cancer if they clocked less than six hours a night. Examine your attitude towards lying awake at night Advertisement If you lie awake at night, don't fret. Van de Laar said awake time is normal — it's only a problem if you're restless or anxious. 4 Van de Laar said awake time is normal — it's only a problem if you're restless or anxious. Syda Productions – 'We have forgotten to lie awake because, in industrialized countries, we are faced with higher sleep pressure due to shorter bed time,' he said. 'In a more natural situation, where even the best sleeper lies awake a lot (such as the Hadza tribe in Tanzania), lying awake takes on a different and less problematic form.' Discover your personal sleep needs Van de Laar suggests experimenting with how much time you spend in bed to figure out what feels most restorative. 'If you find yourself regularly awake and restless in the night, institute a shorter bed time to increase sleep pressure,' he said. 'The goal at first is not to sleep better, but to have shorter periods of restless wake. This is how you break the negative circle of insomnia.' 4 The amount of time spent in bed can influence sleep quality. amenic181 – Advertisement To do this, estimate how long you slept on an average night last week and add half an hour. That's how much time you should spend in bed this week. Don't go under five hours. On the flip side, you should consider extending the amount of time you spend in bed if you sleep fairly continuously but feel like you are getting too little sleep. 'If you continue to have restful nights and function better during the day or even feel less sleepy, you know you are on the right track,' he explained. Respect your circadian rhythm Advertisement Circadian rhythm is your body's 24-hour clock — it regulates sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, appetite, digestion and body temperature. These natural processes are heavily influenced by light and darkness. 'Skip the 6 a.m. exercise class if it does not fit with your natural circadian rhythm,' van de Laar advised. 'Try to find out what your biologically determined day-night rhythm is, and try to follow it as much as possible.'
Telegraph
01-04-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Sleep trackers are wrong half the time, warns expert
Sleep trackers do not work half the time, a leading sleep expert has said. Sleep-monitoring devices, which often take the form of electronic wristbands, claim to monitor sleep patterns and provide insights into sleep quality and duration. They have grown in popularity, but Merijn van de Laar, a psychologist and sleep therapist, has raised concerns about the technology. Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival, partnered with The Telegraph, he said: 'The thing about the commercially available sleep trackers is that they're not reliable. 'They are actually only capable of measuring whether you're awake or asleep 50 per cent of the time. So half of the time they're wrong. 'I saw a lot of people that were reading a book very quietly and the things (trackers) thought they were sleeping. 'We know that for people who have sleeplessness, the trackers actually perform even worse. So it's best not to use a tracker.' The UK industry for sleep trackers was estimated at £270 million in 2023 and is forecast to more than double by 2030. Trackers often use sensors to track movement, heart rate, and breathing patterns, and will produce a score in the morning about how well a person has slept. Mr van de Laar, who was speaking about his new book How to Sleep Like a Caveman: Ancient Wisdom for a Better Night's Rest, said trackers provided some value as they can 'make some kind of estimate of how long you've slept'. However, he said 'the rest is all b----cks'. Mr van de Laar, who has treated between six and seven thousand people with chronic insomnia, also claimed that using a phone before bed was not as harmful as believed. 'There was a big review in 2024 that found the use of mobile phones did not have the effect that we might expect,' he said. 'Sometimes people might take two to three minutes more to fall asleep, but in most cases, it's a negligible effect. 'A lot of people thought that it was very logical, if you have the blue light and if you're stimulating yourself, then you have more difficulty falling asleep. 'But in practice, we saw that this was not the case. 'And what I saw in practice is that a lot of people that I treated actually used the mobile phone before going to bed and did something like watching a series or something like that.' Mr van de Laar said that if the light was not too intense, then using a phone had the same effect as watching TV before going to bed. 'A couple of decades ago, people said, don't watch the TV before going to bed, while the same people were falling asleep on the couch while watching the TV,' he added. 'I think we've got off from the black and white stuff that we heard 10 years ago.'
The Independent
14-03-2025
- Health
- The Independent
World Sleep Day: The eight-hour sleep myth and why you're getting bedtime all wrong
It was a curious sight: five or six glassy-eyed people staring back from the laptop screen, yawning in tandem on a Zoom call each week, learning how to sleep. The course of group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) had been prescribed by an NHS consultant in an attempt to fix a recurring issue – long, arduous months spent sleepless, a ghost in my own house, sulking around in the small hours. I'd been optimistic that the class would be the key to finally mastering this basic, human skill. Sadly it was not, though to be fair I did find myself struggling to stay awake during the two-hour sessions spent staring at clipart on decades-old slideshows. I'd first gone to the GP in April 2022, after four months of averaging about three hours of sleep per night, mostly between the hours of 5am and 8am. I'd never been the sort of person who could stand a 'bedtime'. When the world had gone to sleep I cheated time, or so I thought, writing and reading after hours until I dropped off at a reasonable time of about 1am. I'd been happy in my nights spent in the twilight. Then something changed. Slowly the nights got longer – at first sleep came at 2am, soon after, 3am and 4am – and the gentle quiet that I'd always found to feel safe, away from the pressures of the day instead became bleak and solitary. Suddenly the hours that I had filled with ideas were loaded up with questions instead. How will I cope tomorrow? When will I finally feel tired? Why can't I just sleep? I'm no stranger to insomnia – I'd even been prescribed sleeping pills as a child, though they had no effect. I spent my days trying to find reasons and solutions for my lack of shut-eye at night: the winter, lack of exercise, Dry January, stress. I joined the gym and began doing pilates four times a week to wear myself out. I still laid awake at night, only with slightly better abs. I started a night-time routine – skincare, all the rest of it – got an eye mask, banned screens, caffeine and carbs, wrote down nagging anxieties to put them to bed first, got up, read, reluctantly meditated and snapped at anyone who mentioned 'sleep hygiene'. None of it helped and now, I discover, could have all been making it all worse. In How To Sleep Like a Caveman: Ancient Wisdom for a Better Night's Rest, Dr Merijn van de Laar makes a compelling case for the one-third of adults worldwide who struggle with insomnia. Throw the 'sleep hygiene' rules out of the window, he says – we need to change how we think about the eight-hour rule and rest in general. 'The evolutionary theories around sleep are amazing, because not many people know about them,' Van de Laar explains. 'It's very important to go back to the body – how the body is made and what we're actually intended to do. The last couple of hundred years have seen such a rush into new technologies and into new science, but we still have those old bodies. 'And to really understand something as ancient as sleep, you have to go back to the roots of it all.' The book, which has now been released in 20 countries to wide acclaim, came about via Van de Laar's long career and extensive research into how we sleep. Having studied behavioural psychology and completed a PhD in sleep, he has spent his life deciphering the best conditions for rest and, crucially, gently skewering the advice that inadvertently keeps us awake at night. Like, for instance, the idea that we need eight solid hours of sleep per night, every night, or that waking in the night for a couple of hours is an innately bad thing. Actually, widely reported research has long disputed the idea that eight hours is key to wellbeing – rather, says Van de Laar, that it varies from person to person. And if we take a lead from our ancestors' behaviour, being awake for parts of the night is pretty normal. 'We know from studies in the Hadza tribe in Tanzania – who still live in the same circumstances as we did hundreds of thousands of years ago – that lying awake is something they do a lot. On average, they lie awake more than two hours per night.' The key difference, he says, is 'they don't stress about it'. 'Waking during the night really has a function in the tribe – it's important for survival … population data also tells us that seven hours' sleep is the average, but that's including being awake for up to 20 per cent of each night. A lot of people don't know that, and are then faced with this perfect picture of sleeping eight hours without interruptions, which poses a lot of tension for people with insomnia.' Even those who have never suffered with long-term insomnia will know the infuriating cycle of clock-watching and internal panic during restless nights – and subsequently all the conflicting advice on what to do about it. When I took part in group sleep CBT therapy, we were given different techniques to try. Using the '15-minute rule', wherein if we were not asleep within 15 minutes of getting into bed, we should get up, go to another room and find 'enjoyable things to do' (suggestions were 'doing a puzzle, knitting, colouring books etc') until we were sleepy, and to repeat the cycle as many times as possible. I played the piano for about three hours one night. I didn't sleep. Other techniques included banning yourself from shutting your eyes, using timelines and formulae to find a 'buffer zone' between the day and bedtime and setting a strict 'latest rising time'. We were asked to meticulously document our sleep on an Excel spreadsheet (grim) and work out our average sleep time using a calculator or conversion chart. After the first week, I gave up filling it in, easily overwhelmed by exhaustion, and resigned myself to never sleeping again. Crucially we were told to 'reduce stress'. Easier said than done in a modern world, which is far from the environment cavemen slept peacefully in. Again, Van de Laar says that being stressed out naturally puts more pressure on us to sleep, in order to compensate for the worry. 'It's then very natural and logical for your body to tend to wake more during the night, because if there's impending danger, you want to know about it and check your environment is safe. So adjusting your expectations of how much sleep you might get – rather than becoming more frustrated that you failed to get this perfect eight hours – is very important.' This idea – that we must put in more effort to perfect a good night's sleep – is a myth that Van de Laar is keen to dispel. 'If you ask a person who sleeps well, 'How do you sleep well?' the person answers, I don't know, I just go into my bed and I fall asleep. If you ask a person with insomnia, 'what do you do to sleep?' they're like, I bought a £5000 mattress, I stopped using coffee during the evening, all manner of things,' he observes. 'I've trained between 5,000 and 6,000 people with insomnia – and I suffered from insomnia myself – and from all the cases I've seen most people were actually obsessed with good sleep. Actually, people with insomnia should sometimes do less to sleep better.' Van de Laar also notes that rather than there being a 'correct' circadian rhythm, each person is likely different to the next. The only thing you need to know is what works for you, and 'respect your natural biorhythm' – the body's natural cycles – he says, especially if you suffer from complex mental illness, where changes in sleep are the biggest precursor to an episode. The idea that being an early riser is better is also problematic – in caveman days, it was useful to have people up at various different hours. Van de Laar explains, 'I believe the differences in biorhythm are there for their evolutionary purpose. The essence of different prototypes have helped us to survive during the night.' Katherine May, the author of the bestseller Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times, wrote in The Independent last year about how historian A Roger Ekirch found evidence of this midwinter break in sleep across history. Waking up in the middle of the night was seen as a valuable quiet time, when people talked, had sex, prayed, and even socialised with neighbours. It was only after the arrival of artificial light, she pointed out, that we lost this secret corner of our lives. Getting natural daylight as soon as you can in the morning stops the production of melatonin, our sleep hormone, that helps get you in sync with your natural biorhythm. Exercising – even just walking a bit more – in the daytime is also useful, which isn't a surprise. If you're trying to get better sleep, Van de Laar says, spend less time in bed, not more. The CBT didn't work for me but everyone has to find their own path; it may well work for others. Now, rather than listening to the noise around the search for the perfect night's sleep, the rule book is being thrown out. On the sleepless nights that will inevitably return at some point as they always do, I'm going to try a new method: doing nothing. It might not be reinventing the wheel but it might well do my sleep cycles – and yours – some good.
