Buy a Cheap Mattress, Have a Late Night and Bin Your Pillow Why Everything You Know About Sleep Is W

Nick Littlehales, Britain's top sleep expert, has dedicated the last 30 years to perfecting sleep and has taught sports stars from David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo to Victoria Pendleton and Laura Trott how to get the most out of their forty winks.

And incredibly, he has discovered that much of the talk about sleep is nonsense.

He wrote on theMail that the secrets of waking up feeling rested don't lie in buying the most expensive mattress or trying to get eight hours sleep a night.

Looks like it is time to throw out the rule book on everything you thought you knew about sleep and start again.

Nick's top tips are:

Nick says the first thing you need to realise about the bedding industry is there is very little regulation - meaning anyone can put the label 'orthopaedic' on a bed but it doesn't necessarily mean they have put the mattress through vigorous testing.

Manufacturers can make their springs smaller so they can fit 2,000 springs into a mattress to beat a competitors 1,500 spring mattress, but that doesn't make it better.

Those are just some of the sneaky tricks and shortcuts manufacturers could take.

So what is the solution?

Don't buy a mattress because of the label on it. And that includes price tag.

Manufacturers claim their mattress will last ten years, so people justify spending £1,500 or more by saying that works out at only £150 a year.

But after ten years, not only is that mattress full of stains, hair and dead skin cells, but however springy and firm it was at first, it will have degraded.

Nick says it is a far better option to buy a cheaper mattress for £200 or £300 that is right for you and replace it more regularly.

This might seem like a bit of an odd suggestion at first, but it will help you check if you are sleeping in the right position.

Nick recommends that people sleep on their side because it is best for postural alignment.

Sleep on your less used side, so right handed people sleep on their left side and vise versa, to keep your brain happy because your dominant side is ready to defend you.

When finding the best position,stand with good, upright posture, arms gently folded, then bend your knees into a comfortable and balanced position.

This is your standing foetal position.

Then rotate your body a quarter turn to the side and you will be in your optimum foetal position, ready to try lying down.

Lay in this position on the mattress and check it is right by taking a selfie or get someone else to take a picture to check where your head is relative to the surface of the mattress.

If it's right for you, your spine, neck and head should form a single straight line.

If your hip is dropping into the mattress it is too soft and if your head has to drop towards the surface then the mattress is too hard.

When you have the perfect mattress, your pillow is almost unnecessary. But they are a difficult, comfortable habit to kick.

Pillows are used to fill the gap between your head and the surface of the mattress when it is too firm, says Nick.

When the mattress is too soft, it pushes out head even further out of alignment and can cause postural problems.

If you sleep on two or more pillows, your mattress is either too firm or you are setting yourself up for back problems.

But, if you cannot bin your pillow, Nick recommends sleeping with a single thin pillow.

Even better news, it is better to buy a cheaper polyester pillow that fits and replace it every year or so than to buy an expensive orthopaedic neck brace or pillow.

Bedding needs to be breathable so you can stay cool under the covers and also clean and fresh to prevent allergens from interrupting your sleep.

But that clean, fresh allure of sheets isn't scientific, it's psychological, says Nick.

He said when he worked with the British cycling team, he insisted on fresh bed linen every night.

And it is for that reason he recommends man-made materials.

Nanotechnology can make the fibres a fraction of the size of any naturally occurring product, so breathability and speed to dry can't be beaten, so you're more likely to wash and dry bed linen more frequently.

If you're uncomfortable about this or simply can't do without your Egyptian cotton, then go for a thread count of around 300.

It takes just 90 minutes for a person to get through the stages that make up a sleep cycle in a clinical situation.

This includes light and deep sleep.

The amount of light and deep sleep we get varies from cycle to cycle, but ideally we would spend a night in bed smoothly making the transition from one to the other.

This is vital to getting the right quality of sleep all while feeling like one continuous sleep.

You should start by aiming for five cycles per night - that's seven-and-a-half-hours.

Work out what time you need to wake up and count backward in 90-minute cycles to determine when you should be going to bed.

For example, if you have chosen 7.30am as your wake-up time, you should be aiming to be asleep by midnight - which means getting comfortable in bed 15 minutes before, or however long it usually takes you to fall asleep.

If, after a week, five cycles seems too long then move down to four. If it is not enough, move it up to six.

You'll know if you are sleeping the right amount because you will feel more rested.

So instead of getting caught up in the idea of getting eight hours sleep a night, start thinking in cycles per week to take the pressure off.

For the average person, 35 cycles of sleep a week is ideal.

Just don't go three consecutive nights of fewer than your ideal number of cycles.

Common disorders such as sleep apnoea and snoring can significantly disrupt sleep and both stem from breathing through the mouth rather than the nose.

Using a nasal strip, like a Breath Right nasal strip, dilates the nasal passage and encourages you to breathe through your nose.

Nick says he even knows one breathing specialist who uses a hypoallergenic tape to hold his mouth shut and encourage him to breath through his nose while sleeping.

Nick says this is perfectly safe and is could improve your sleep.

Don't forget the 90-minute window either side of the time you are actually asleep.

Your pre and post-sleep routines directly affect the quality of your sleep and your day.

For example, Nick says if heplanning on an 11pm bedtime, he starts preparing for it at 9.30pm.

"If I'mstill a bit hungry, I have a light snack. I take on my last fluids for the night, so I don't wake up thirsty. I go to the loo so I won't wake up needing the bathroom in the middle of the night," he said.

He also turns off technology, dims the lights, tidies up, jots down thoughts for the day and basically ties up any loose ends so he isn't thinking about them when he is trying to sleep.

By the same measure, post-sleep is about trying to get the best out of your day.

You should get as much light into your room as possible to kick start your body clock, eat a good breakfast and, if you exercise, the morning is a good time to do so.

If not, get your brain into gear by listening to the radio or a podcast but avoid emails and phone alerts as soon as you wake up.

There are plenty of reasons you might not get to bed at your planned time every night, a dinner ran late or you had to stay late at work.

If you are still full from eating or not switched off from your day, you won't get a better nights sleep by getting into bed straight away.

You are better off staying up later and winding down by going through your usual 90-minute pre-sleep routine instead, according to Nick.

You will feel better after four decent sleep cycles than on five poor ones.