World Sleep Day
Wakey, wakey! It’s World Sleep Day.
I trust you had a good night’s sleep and are feeling bright and perky. No? Well, maybe you’re one of the 14 million UK adults who suffer from undiagnosed sleep disorders, or one of the 48% of the population who engage in high risk behaviour when you can’t sleep? These statistics from The Sleep Charity are concerning.
Sleep is the most effective, cheapest and portable therapeutic treatment. It repairs your immune system, helps you think clearly, regulates weight and blood pressure, and helps stave off a range of diseases from heart issues to diabetes. It’s vital for mental health too. It manages emotional well-being, keeps worry, anxiety and depression at bay. Sleep is one of the vital keys to keeping fit and healthy. The Dalai Lama puts it simply: “sleep is the best meditation”.
To sleep or not to sleep?
It’s had its critics, sleep. Novelist Virginia Woolf described it as “that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life.” Rapper Tupac Shakur declared that “the only time I have problems is when I sleep”. And Shakespeare’s Scottish king lamented that “good things of the day begin to droop and drowse, whiles night’s black agent to their preys do rouse.” (Macbeth, III, II, 45). Well, no disrespect to big Mac, but maybe if he’d enjoyed a good kip, he’d have woken up in a better mood and not felt so, well, murderous.
I am a champion sleeper, and sleep is my refuge when life gets hard or I feel low. But too much sleep is just as bad as too little. As with all things in life, balance is needed.
Photo source Kate Stone Matheson
World Sleep Day
World Sleep Day is held on the Friday before the spring vernal equinox of each year. This year it’s the 14th of March, and the theme is “Make Sleep Health a Priority.” If you’re struggling to make sleep a priority, help is available from Sleep Action
and The National Sleep Helpline
And the NHS Inform has compiled a self-help guide: Sleep problems and insomnia self-help guide | NHS inform
Here at Edinburgh Napier, we have a range of resources to support you. Sign in to LibrarySearch to find the Sleep Well Kit, Sleep, and Sleep: a very short introduction among many others.
Let’s leave the last word to peace activist Mahatma Gandhi: “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”
Read more on how to take care of yourself by reading our article on self-care books in 2025
Or why not check out our Virtual Relaxation Space!
By Lesley McRobb
Photo source Connor Home
