Burnt out Brits are suffering from sleep deprivation causing increased levels of depression and anxiety. But why are we deprived of quality sleep and what we can do to improve it?
More than a third of us feel tired most or all of the time, according to a recent YouGov survey – with many of us having just six and a half hours of quality sleep every night…. 90 minutes less than the recommended eight hours. Reporter Datshiane (Dastshi) Navanayagam, a poor sleeper, tried to find out why Brits are deprived of quality sleep and what we can do to improve it, as part of an investigation for ITV’s Tonight.
Joshua Piper and his colleagues at London’s ResMed Sleep Clinic diagnose and treat sleep disorders. He says: “Sleep has such drastic effects on every other element of your health, be that psychological, cognitive or physical. We know that people with poor sleep have increased rates of things like depression and anxiety. If it’s fragmented through the night, we aren’t clearing away some of that sleep pressure that we build up through the day. We’re waking up essentially with our bucket already half full.”
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Datshi has been waking between 3am-4am every morning for years, leaving her feeling wiped out. Women’s health expert Dr Alison Grimston tells her: “It’s particularly common in people who are stressed in their jobs, people who aren’t sleeping properly and women in perimenopause.” She adds: “If you are feeling tired all the time and it’s been going on for 6 weeks, then go and see your GP. If we use a blood test, we can see if you’ve got B12 or folate deficiency or magnesium deficiency, or if you’re anaemic or if you have an underactive thyroid.”
This helps doctors to detect issues that could be contributing to tiredness.” And if you’re experiencing burn-out-style tiredness, without being overly stressed at work, Dr Grimston says you could be one of the 10% of people across the UK, who is deficient in iron – increasing to around 20% for women in their forties and beyond.
Dr Claire Ashley specialises in burnout – the body’s normal response to being under prolonged stress – which she has experienced herself. She says: “After I qualified as a GP in 2018, I started working in a very highly pressurised surgery where I was expected to see huge numbers of patients on a daily basis. I found the volume and the complexity start to become more and more difficult for me to handle. I started bringing my work home with me, emotionally, mentally. I couldn’t switch off and it just became this spiral of increasing worry and overwork. I mistakenly thought that working harder would fix those problems and unfortunately it didn’t.”
Now on the road to recovery, she advises people experiencing burnout: “Speak to your GP, speak to your occupational health department or your employee assistance program, speak to a therapist.” The Tonight team also went to a pilates class in Bury, Greater Manchester, where 12 people agreed to have blood tests, like Datshi..
Ten of the 12 showed an iron deficiency – more than 80 per cent of the group – far higher than the national average. Meanwhile, Datshi’s bloods revealed some possible deficiencies, which could be contributing to her poor sleep. Dr Grimston tells her: “You have a borderline low iron, we’ve seen a slightly low folate. We’ve seen significant vitamin D deficiency. My top tips for you would be to increase iron and folate containing foods in your diet, supplement with vitamin D and iron and get as much sunlight as you can.”
Stress has been revealed as a huge factor in disrupting our sleep. One sector of society particularly impacted is unpaid carers. There are almost 6 million unpaid carers in the UK, with 65% saying they struggle to sleep because of their role. Laura Knight*, 36, cares for her elderly grandma in Greater Manchester. She says: As a carer, I’m just permanently tired. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t. I wake up tired and by the end of the day, I am absolutely exhausted.”
Unpaid carers, like Laura, can experience high levels of burn out, with one report putting it as high as 77%. Laura lived and worked in London until life came to a grinding halt when COVID hit, and she returned to the North to care for her grandma. She says: “I was asked to come up to help with my grandmother and what was a two week trip turned into 6 years. It just became obvious that she couldn’t live on her own. She’s blind, she’s also in heart failure, and so it’s just [she needs] a lot of help with all the regular daily tasks.
“Personal care, getting around, all the admin, all the cooking, all the cleaning – just sort of running the household generally and then making sure she’s looked after medically as well. I can’t leave the house for more than 2 hours at a time. You don’t sleep. You are sort of constantly looking after somebody else to the detriment of yourself, so not going out, not seeing friends – my life has stopped.”
On top of caring for her grandma, Laura is still working in communications. She continues: “I look after the communications for a big tech company covering Europe and the US, so it’s a big job. I work all hours.” Tonight paired Laura with experts to see if some small changes could help her sleep. Mindfulness teacher Ruth Rosselson recommended some meditation and breathing exercises, while nutritionist Faye Thompson helped Laura look at what food would support her busy lifestyle – and when she should be eating it.
A 2016 study found that sleep deprived people consume around 385 calories more than people who sleep well. Faye explains: “When the body’s tired, it reaches for the quickest form of energy it knows, which is sugar. If we don’t sleep well, we’re gonna make poor choices the next day, because we’re tired. “People who are eating more carbohydrates are exhausted, often overconsuming calories, underconsuming nutrition, and become very, very tired. So the kinds of foods we need to be eating to keep us fuller for longer are protein.Chicken, fish, meat. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, it tends to be beans, lentils, chickpeas, any kind of legumes.”
As well as feeding our bodies, mindfulness expert Ruth says we should be feeding our souls. She says: “Being more mindful and at least putting some time aside to meditate can be really helpful for our tiredness. Mindfulness can help us notice when we’re tired and allow us to take a little bit of a break. Whether that’s five minutes in the office just to take a breather or go out for a walk.”
After a week of following their tips, Laura felt the benefit. She adds: “I’ve been trying out some chia seed pudding in the morning and some overnight oats as well, alternating those recipes. It’s worked really well. I’ve [also] benefited from being more mindful. I’m going to try and keep that in mind in my daily routine. This week has also made me realise, as a carer, just how much we abandon ourselves. It’s taken this experiment to show that I deserve to eat and breathe.”
*Tonight: Why Are We So Tired? 7:30pm Thursday, on ITV1
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