What's the best time for bed? Plus easy tips & sleep hacks to help you drift off - & stay that way

If you're feeling exhausted all the time and just aren't getting enough quality sleep, this is what you need to know. Can't lose weight either? Your sleep patterns could be to blame

We may be joined at the hip, but we promise we don’t sleep together! We’ve been described as the Menopausal Morecambe & Wise (if you know, you know…)

Trish (top left) writes: A question popped up on our Postcards From Midlife Facebook Group this week, from a member who was on holiday, saying she was ready for bed around 10pm each night, and getting up at 7am. Her concern? That she was being boring for happily retiring to her hotel room so early in the evening. The comments came thick and fast, with an overwhelming endorsement for bed over hotel bar with some saying that under the duvet was one of their favourite places to be. Many, like me, even admitted to heading up the stairs to get ready for bed before 10pm, no longer even waiting for Big Ben’s bongs on the 10 O’clock news to signal sleepy time.

So is there such a thing as the right time to go to bed? Night owls and morning larks may well disagree, but the answer is actually no, what matters is that you are getting around seven to eight hours of good quality sleep a night. Which, let’s face it, for most of us is about as achievable as the England football team finally bringing it home. The normal state of play is more likely to be recurrent waking in the 3am worry zone, taking hours to fall asleep in the first place or being disturbed by kids or a snoring partner.

Quality sleep meanwhile, is spending 90% of your time in bed sleeping (as opposed to watching TV, reading etc) waking no more than once a night and being able to get back to sleep if you do. In the morning, you should wake feeling refreshed without the need to rely on caffeine to get you through the day. Sounds like a tall order? Not according to one of our recent podcast guests, the wonderful and much missed Dr Michael Mosley, who we are sure would be very happy for us to keep spreading his advice and sharing his knowledge.