It takes the healthy sleeper about 15 minutes to fall asleep, but much longer than that… make sure to get out of bed, change the environment and do something that's mindless.

Struggling to sleep

Sleeping five hours or less consistently increases your risk greatly for adverse health consequences. These included cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes, and shorter life expectancy.Everyone should aim for a consistent seven to eight hours of sleep a night.<h2></h2>

Five hours of sleep

Often if we're watching the television it's the nightly news… it's something that's going to cause you insomnia or stress right before bed when we're trying to power down and relax.The other issue with TV - along with smartphones and tablets - is they produce blue light, which can delay the body's production of the sleep hormone melatonin.

Watching TV in bed

It may help you fall asleep, but it dramatically reduces the quality of your rest that night. It particularly disrupts your REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep, which is important for memory and learning.You will have slept and may have nodded off more easily, but some of the benefits of sleep are lost.

Alcohol before bed boosts your sleep

Snoring can be harmless, but it can also be a sign of the disorder sleep apnoea.This causes the walls of the throat to relax and narrow during sleep, and can briefly stop people breathing. People with the condition are more likely to develop high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat and have a heart attack or a stroke. One of the warning signs is loud snoring.

Snoring is always harmless

The research team says that when the alarm goes off, we should just get up.Realize you will be a bit groggy - but resist the temptation to snooze. Your body will go back to sleep, but it will be very light, low-quality sleep.

Hitting the snooze button

Widely held myths about sleep are damaging our health and our mood, as well as shortening our lives, say researchers. A team at New York University trawled the internet to find the most common claims about a good night's kip. Then, in a study published in the journal Sleep Health, they matched the claims to the best scientific evidence.

Struggling to sleep

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