Caffeine can influence how long it takes you to fall asleep, how long you sleep for, and the quality of your sleep.

Unsurprisingly, fuelling yourself with energy drinks will make it harder to nod off. But caffeine is also hidden in lots of products that we might associate with bedtime, such as hot chocolate.

Did you know, the half-life of caffeine is around 5 hours. That means it take five hours for just half of the caffeine you have consumed to leave your body!

You may be tempted to have a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar as a bedtime snack but try to avoid the temptation.

Reaching for sugary snacks to give you that energy boost can also increase the chance of a restless night.

There are lots of reasons that alcohol can have a significant negative impact on your physical and mental health. But it can also negatively impact the quality of your sleep.

Many people believe that alcohol is relaxing and helps them to get to sleep, assuming this means they are getting more sleep. However, alcohol actually interrupts the quality of sleep, so the sleep that you get after drinking is much less restorative.

People who drink alcohol before bed often find themselves waking up a lot in the night and being even more tired in the morning than when they went to sleep.

Nicotine (in cigarettes and vapes) also acts as a stimulant and will interfere with your ability to fall asleep.

Avoid drinking any caffeinated drinks at least 5-6 hours before bed, as well as alcohol and cigarettes.

Swap coffee, fizzy drinks, or energy drinks for herbal tea, milk or water. Chamomile tea is known for its calming effects.

Milk contains tryptophan, an amino acid which acts as a natural sleep inducer.

Don’t go to bed hungry, but also don’t eat a massive meal right before bed. Avoid big meals and sugary snacks late at night. A small evening snack of certain foods can really help aid sleep.

Foods that are thought to help us sleep include almonds, bananas, oatmeal, cherries, sugar free cereal and turkey (we now have a genuine excuse for that post-Christmas dinner nap!) as well as anything dairy.

It’s a myth that cheese gives you nightmares – it’s thought to derive from the classic Dicken’s story ‘A Christmas Carol’ where Scrooge blames seeing ghosts on eating mouldy cheese.

Lots of people under-estimate the impact of the food and drink they eat.

At CAMHS, we often hear people say that caffeine has no effect on them and they can drink lots of it without it impacting their sleep.

However, when they try cutting out coffee, they suddenly find their sleep (and anxiety) to be much improved. It’s always worth trying it out to see what happens!