There are not many worse ways to start your day off than a terrible night of sleep (or more accurately: lack of sleep). Waking on the wrong side of the bed due to bad dreams, inability to get comfortable or a mind that won’t stop ticking is infuriating at best. This is something that we all have to deal with from time to time. But we don’t have to accept it as standard.

Not getting a good night’s sleep is bad, mmm-kay.

If you are regularly waking up cranky, tired or otherwise not at your best, then it’s time to start taking steps to remedy the situation. Don’t let it get out of hand. If you are tired you are never going to be able to contribute fully at work and you will more than likely rub your friends and family the wrong way too. More seriously, you may be a danger to yourself and others on the road, at work and at home.

When my clients turn up to morning training sessions looking like they’ve just gotten home from a night of clubbing it’s time for some questions and answers. If you are getting to work and desperately reaching for your mug of hot coffee whilst yawning and wiping the sleep from your eyes, you need to take a good hard look at things too.

Here are a few things I recommend to those struggling to get a good night’s sleep:

• Get into a rhythm – try to rise and retire at the same time every morning and night. Your body craves rhythm, once you get used to the pattern it will become natural.
• Hit the sack when your body tells you too – if you feel like it’s time to go to bed then it’s time to go to bed, don’t watch the rest of the TV show or read another chapter of your book. Your body follows its own inner patterns of about 90 minute intervals, if you don’t go to sleep when you get tired chances are it will be another 90 minutes before your body and mind will relax again.
• Don’t watch the TV right before bedtime – TV stimulates your brain, all those bright lights and flashy noises aren’t going to calm you down, are they?
• Write down what’s on your mind - before you go to bed write down everything that you are thinking about, list your tasks for tomorrow and anything else that needs attention. Now forget about it and get some sleep.
• Meditate – you don’t have to be a reclusive Zen monk to benefit from a little meditation. Keep it simple – find a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed and let you mind wander for 10-15 minutes, once you’ve thought everything through your mind will relax all by itself.
• Nine is the magic number – aim for nine hours of sleep every night in a totally dark room. Sacrifice whatever you have to in order to get to the magic number.

Good night and good luck, Adam.

So, I’m doing a lot of research for my book about the three pillars of health and fitness – sleep (and rest), diet and exercise – and their connectedness and I come across the term Ultradian Rhythm. Now, I’ve heard all about Circadian Rhythm before but this term was new to me. Yet, it turns out I’ve known about the concept but not the terminology for quite some time. I think you might have inherently known about this too.

This description of ultradian rhythm sums it up pretty well: “Ultradian rhythms are biological rhythms with durations shorter than circadian rhythms (i.e., shorter than approximately 19 hours). They include cardiac, respiratory, neuroendocrine, gastrointestinal, tidal, and other rhythms.” (source)

No doubt most of you have probably experienced the frustration where your body tells you to go to bed but you decide that you’ll watch more TV and then when you retire to bed a bit later you can’t get to sleep for love nor money. Guess what? That’s an ultradian rhythm at work. Your body is cycling every 60-90 minutes and if you miss or ignore that “go to bed, fool” signal then you have to wait for the next one to come along.

The thing is that ultradian rhythms aren’t related only to sleep patterns but many other patterns that occur during the day too. I guess the description above indicates that, eh?

If you aren’t getting a regular break from work then this could be why you are burning out with excessive stress levels. Some research suggests that we need a break every 60-90 minutes our output becomes sub-par and our stress level rise. Not good for you or your boss.

So, what does this mean? Well, it could give you a damn simple way to relieve your stress levels, get a better night’s sleep, perform better at work and did I mention sex? Yeah that’s right if your understand these rhythms a little more you just might become a superstar in the sack too.