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Sunday Night Fever: Sleep Survey

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Sunday is the cruellest night for insomniacs, finds an NOP poll conducted for www.stressbusting.co.uk, which also discovers that nearly two-thirds of people now have trouble sleeping.Sunday is by far the hardest night of the week on which to sleep, according to a survey of 1,000 people conducted by NOP on behalf of www.stressbusting.co.uk.

Over three times as many people find it hard to sleep on Sunday night as do on Saturday night, the next most problematic night.Almost half (49%) of all those who found it hardest to sleep on a particular night of the week named Sunday as their most sleepless night - compared to 16% who had particular problems on Saturday, 11% on Friday, and just 5% who suffered most on each of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Overall, 63% of the 1,000 respondents admitted to having sleeping problems. Of these, 51% identified a particular night on which they had greatest difficulty.

‘The prospect of getting up to go to work on Monday is the obvious explanation for the result’, comments Jessica Alexander, spokesperson for The Sleep Council. ‘But it is also probably to do with the disruption of routine, because good sleep is related to having a good routine, which can get disrupted on weekends.’

The reason that Sunday, Saturday and Friday are the three nights causing most sleep problems may also be linked to alchohol consumption. ‘A small nightcap might help you relax and wind down’, says Jessica Alexander. ‘But while alcohol might knock you out quickly, it will also tend to wake you up later in the night because, among other effects, it’s dehydrating’.

‘Stress is one of the biggest causes - and commonest symptoms - of insomnia’, comments Peter Freedman, co-editor of stressbusting.co.uk. “Sunday night is the eve of the working week and the time, it seems, when people start to get wound up about the week that lies ahead - the true onset, if you like, of that Monday morning feeling’.

“Personally, I sleep well every night apart from Friday, when all the concerns of the past week seem to pile up and I often wake up in the small hours. This is a common symptom of adrenal stress. But I listen to old recordings of Geoffrey Howe’s budget speeches and that does the trick. Also helpful, I believe, are sex, and bananas, although not necessarily at the same time.’