Your profile summary

Your sleep is very well optimised, scoring 81 %.You said you sometimes have a problem with sleep, though you are not at all sleepy during the day, which indicates your body is getting the sleep it needs. Quality of sleep is more important than quantity. You may find your personalised advice below useful for the odd bad night.

Body and Health

You are an “Owl”

• You are built to be at your best later in the day. Surprisingly, it also means your body clock is more flexible than people with standard or lark-like body clocks.
• Ideally, people should wake at the same time everyday, but being an owl, you can probably cope quite well when your sleep pattern is disrupted.

Now you’re a teenager you need more sleep

• At your age, you need a lot of sleep – usually around nine hours is normal. This is due to all the changes your body is going through. If you’re feeling sleepy during the day, go to bed earlier to get the sleep you need.

Environment

Excellent, your bedroom is optimised for sleep

• By keeping your bedroom as simply somewhere to sleep you are giving yourself the maximum chance of doing just that.
• Having items that are used for fun or work would change how you view your room; from somewhere designed for rest, relaxation and a good night’s sleep to a stimulating work or play area.

Making your bedroom more comfortable

• As you’ve noticed, temperature has a big influence on how well you sleep. The body needs to cool by about 0.5°C at the start of sleep.
• If the weather’s too hot, it will be difficult to cool, even by this small amount. Keep the window open and buy a fan.
• If it’s too cold, your body will be working extra hard to produce heat, keeping your core temperature up.
• Think about what you wear in bed. Breathable natural materials such as cotton are best for comfort.

Lifestyle

Exercise routines can help

• Regular exercise is a great way of improving your sleep – but be careful not to exercise close to bed time as this produces stimulants that stop the brain from relaxing quickly.

How to optimise your naps

• When on your night-shift, a 15 minute nap can relieve tiredness for about an hour or two and should not affect your ability to sleep after work.
• But if you nap too long, you will fall into ‘deep’ sleep, and feel worse when you wake up. So, set your alarm to restrict your nap to 20 minutes to get the maximum benefit from it.

Optimising your shifts and sleep

• From your answers it looks like you are coming home from work just when everyone else is getting up to go to work. This can cause problems for sleep.
• Your natural (or ‘circadian’) rhythm of sleep and wakefulness is affected each morning by sun light – your body will be getting signals to wake up just as you are driving home to go to bed.
• It’s probably impossible to avoid the daylight, but try to limit your exposure before going to bed. When you wake, get outside as much as possible.

You know what works.

• Well done – the things you do to help you sleep should be working – did you know there are real scientific reasons?
• A warm bath offers a chance to relax (vital for a good night’s sleep) and in a more practical way, it makes the blood vessels in your extremities dilate and help cool the body.
• There’s new evidence that hormones released during sexual activity can promote sleep.

Have you considered caffeine as a way to increase your alertness?

• Sleep experts say caffeine is a safe, natural chemical that acts as a stimulant so is good way to alleviate tiredness.
• However, the effect only kicks in after about 20 minutes – so beware if driving – it won’t make you any safer until it is in your system. (The psychological effect of drinking caffeine is probably instantaneous, but only makes you feel more alert).
• Either as an alternative, or in combination, to alleviate tiredness, you could try napping for 15 minutes – test show a 30% improvement in concentration when you have a coffee and a nap.

Psychological

How to get past your worries and get to sleep

As you’ve spotted, trying to sleep when worried is very difficult, so it would be a good idea to try some techniques to help you relax before trying to sleep.

• Having a time to calm down after a hectic day is important – try taking a bath, reading a book or taking a gentle walk outside.
• Simple breathing exercises can also help
• Some people find that Lavender oil, Valerian or other herbs help them to sleep.
• If you still have problems, you could try massage, aromatherapy or acupuncture.

Sleep information created with Jim Horne and Clare Anderson of Loughborough University
BBC Sleep profiler