Don't mess up your natural clock.

Your body has an internal ‘clock’ that is used to patterns in your life and comes to expect the same patterns.

If we look at toddlers you may know that letting them stay up an extra hour one night makes the next day terrible for them and those around them and even the day after that may be a bit bumpy too.

Its tempting to think that as adults we are tougher and more flexible than kids -after all a late night for us doesn't make us break into screams at the mall! But actually we would be wrong to think that.

Our body clocks don't care much for what our will power wants them to do -they are a bit like that toddler -they need regularity.

Your body clock takes clues as to what time it think's it is from several areas. These 'clues' include sensing light and meals.

    Gently does it before bed.

The most important thing for your body clock.

Your body clock (or its Circadian Rhythm) takes its biggest clue as to what time it is when you get out of bed in the morning. This is due to specialized light receptors in your eyes that tell the brain to produce less of a sleep chemical (Melatonin). As that happens other chemical systems in the body start to prepare the body for wakefulness.

So when you wake up is actually more important than when you go to sleep -to get a good night's rest!

We also know that naps during the day don't affect your body clock.

Oh no Stephanie, but what about my weekend sleep-ins?

Sorry, but sleep-ins do you more harm than good -trust me on this -you will feel great on Monday. Get up at your usual time, have breakfast in a well lit room and if you then want to you can go back to bed for a nap.

Think about it this way. If you usually have to get up for work at 7.00am but on Saturday and Sunday mornings you slept until 9.00am then your body clock "thinks" that it's new wake up time is about 9.00am. On Sunday night when you go to bed for work the next day you may not be able to get to sleep properly for two hours. Then, on Monday morning when you try to get up at 7.00am you will feel groggy and grumpy because it's like getting up at 5.00am -your body hasn't finished resting properly. Isn't that a really bad start to the week? No wonder you start looking forward to that sleep-in on the weekend...

How long can I nap for?

There is no hard and fast rule on how long to nap. Various scientific studies have determined that different nap lengths have various positive and negative affects on mental alertness but overall it is better to have a nap of any length than none at all.

Hope this helps -Steph

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