Having a bad night’s sleep sucks – you’re groggy, irritable, and the next day can end up being a write-off.
For many people sleep deprivation is an all too common experience, and as reported by the Daily Mirror, regularly sleeping for less than five hours can increase health risks such as diabetes.
But how can you tell if you are sleep deprived? apparently this simple test will help, and all you need is a metal tray and a spoon.
The Sleep Onset Latency Test is recommended by Dr Michael Mosley, and is the product of development by Nathaniel Kleitman from the University of Chicago.
Mosley explained the test as follows:
Lie down in a quiet, darkened room in the early afternoon (note, this is a daytime test) clutching a spoon, which you hold over the edge of the bed.
You put a metal tray on the floor by your bed, check the time, then close your eyes. The question is: do you fall asleep and if so how soon after you lie down?
So basically you want to try and fall asleep so that you drop a spoon on a metal tray to wake you up again almost immediately. It seems a bit counter-intuitive but there is method in the madness.
If you fall asleep within five minutes of closing your eyes then you can be considered ‘severely’ sleep deprived.
Within ten minutes suggests you have issues with sleep, while anything over 15 minutes means you are probably OK.
They say prevention is better than the cure, so at the very least this test will confirm whether you need to consider taking more serious action to improve your sleep routine…
