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Contained in this PDF are several easy and quick evening recipes. Which can be tailored around your exercise sessions.

Try to cook more than you need and take to work the next day for lunch OR get the kids involved for more fun!

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Building Muscle? These are your non-negotiables!

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Building Muscle? These are your non-negotiables!

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A PDF to assist with losing body fat.

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Reebok, free guide to working out at home.

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Working from home is a pretty desirable position to be in - the flexibility of taking a conference call in your pj's while avoiding a clogged morning commute is a charmed reality. But isolation at home presents a whole new set of challenges, and being cooped up may actually introduce more chaos into your day. All that sitting at home is bound to make you antsy, it can affect your posture and studies show it can increase anxiety. It is also easy to peer behind that laptop in your favorite pair of sweats and forget what they were originally intended for: working out. But if you don't have a home gym or a trainer that makes house calls, how do you get that heart rate up?

Boston-based CrossFit Seminar Staff Coach Joe Masley encourages people to get creative to make sure that you're keeping up with their fitness. "Think outside the box and use whatever you have at your disposal to improve your fitness. Pretend that there's somebody else next to you and just work as hard as you can in the space that you're given."

If you're struggling to stay sane and kick that lazy, locked-in feeling, HIIT instructor and personal trainer Jenn Ogonowsky suggests some good tunes. "If you make a good playlist and you have music that pumps you up and gets you in the zone, you can do a workout in your room and feel just as pumped up as you would in the gym," she says.

Perfect for isolation (and no gym equipment necessary), you can access home workouts that cover all the bases - whether you're into functional training, HIIT or yoga. Masley, together with Ogonowsky and yoga instructor Lena Rakijian, designed three home workout programs specifically adapted for your living room. "Some of the hardest workouts I've ever done involve no equipment and just your own body weight," says Ogonowsky.

Now that you're armed with some tunes and motivation from these top fitness instructors, it's time to break free from your couch's grip, carve out some space, and sweat it out with these three home workouts.

FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

12 Minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)

TABATA WORKOUT

20 seconds working, 10 second break for each of the following movements:

High Plank Hold, left hand behind back

High Plank Hold, right hand behind back

High Plank Hold, left hand behind back

High Plank Hold, right hand behind back

Bonus 1-Minute Challenge: Leg Drops (add a pillow between legs as a scale)

With the challenge included, the above combination - known as a "tabata set" takes five minutes. Repeat this tabata set from the start three more times - so four tabata sets in total - for a 20-minute workout.

YOGA FLOW

3 Legged Downward Dog: Inhale reach right leg up towards the sky. Firmly press both hands into the mat with equal sensation so the shoulders are square with your mat. Root down through your left heel and reach up through the heel of the right foot. Roll the right inner thigh skyward and hug the outer hips in.

Low Lunge: Inhale as you step your right foot in between your hands, drop your back knee down and untuck your back toes. Reach both arms up towards the sky, lift the low ribs up away from your pelvis. Lunge forward so your right knee tracks over your right ankle. Draw your right hip slightly back and your left hip slightly forward.

Pyramid Pose: On an exhale, lift the back knee off the mat and straighten the front leg as you fold your upper body over the front leg. Draw the right hip back and the left hip forward to square the hips and create sensation in your right hamstring. Relax the head and the neck.

Revolved Lunge: On an inhale re-bend your right knee, place your left hand on the met and sweep the right arm open towards the sky for a simple twist. Back leg is long and strong, firm the quad to lift the knee cap up. Feel your left ribs rotate towards your right inner thigh. On your inhale, lengthen your spine. On exhale, revolve your heart skyward and gaze up towards your right hand.

Prasarita: (wide legged forward fold) Walk your hands down the left side of your mat and find a wide legged fold with your heels slightly out and your toes slightly in. Relax your head and neck, shift your weight slightly forward so your hips align with your ankles.

Warrior II: Step your right foot forward into your runner's lunge, spin your left heel down to the mat, reach your left arm forward raise your torso with both arms parallel to the mat, palms facing down. Align the arch of your back foot with the heel of your front foot. Turn the back toes slightly inward and make sure the front knee tracks over the ankle.

Reverse Warrior: From Warrior II, reach the right arm up and over by your right ear. Feel your side body lengthen.

Side Angle:Reach the right forearm to the right thigh and reach the left arm and over by your left ear.

Stretch from your left heel through your left fingertips; lengthen the left side body. Turn your head to gaze up at your left arm. Release your right shoulder away from your ear. Spiral the left pinky finger inward to feel for the external rotation of the left shoulder.

Sweep the left arm up over by your left year. Bring both hands to the front of the mat, step back for downward dog. Repeat on the left side of the body.

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Stay Fit While You're Working From Home-No Equipment Required

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Working from home is a pretty desirable position to be in - the flexibility of taking a conference call in your pj's while avoiding a clogged morning commute is a charmed reality. But isolation at home presents a whole new set of challenges, and being cooped up may actually introduce more chaos into your day.

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A PDF guide to assist when making nutritional choices.

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Promotion codes for Nutrition X products.

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Week by week programme to get you achieving 5km.

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General health and fitness guidelines for adults aged 19 to 64, including tips on how to achieve 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week.

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A wide variety of competitive and recreational sports, for all abilities, to help maintain an active, independent and healthy life.

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That is the sentiment of former Rifleman Ash Coles whose military career made a promising start when he passed out with the best shot in his platoon. But a serious car crash in 2010 cut short his life in the Army before he ever saw an operational tour.

Read Ash's Story

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"I feel like a soldier but I'm not. Once it's built into you, it's drilled into your head. You'll never get it out." That is the sentiment of former Rifleman Ash Coles whose military career made a promising start when he passed out with the best shot in his platoon.

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England Netball.

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England Netball - The Vitality Roses - Coaching - Clubs - Participation

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National Governing body of England’s biggest female team sport, England Netball has 92,000 members, represented Internationally by the Vitality Roses.

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Paying more attention to the present moment – to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you.

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It can be easy to rush through life without stopping to notice much.
Paying more attention to the present moment - to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you - can improve your mental wellbeing.

Some people call this awareness "mindfulness". Mindfulness can help us enjoy life more and understand ourselves better. You can take steps to develop it in your own life.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness involves paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.

It's easy to stop noticing the world around us. It's also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living "in our heads" - caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour.

An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience. This means paying attention to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. That might be something as simple as the feel of a banister as we walk upstairs.

Another important part of mindfulness is an awareness of our thoughts and feelings as they happen moment to moment.

How mindfulness helps mental wellbeing

Becoming more aware of the present moment can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better.

When we become more aware of the present moment, we begin to experience afresh things that we have been taking for granted.

Mindfulness also allows us to become more aware of the stream of thoughts and feelings that we experience, and to see how we can become entangled in that stream in ways that are not helpful.

This lets us stand back from our thoughts and start to see their patterns. Gradually, we can train ourselves to notice when our thoughts are taking over and realise that thoughts are simply "mental events" that do not have to control us.

Mindfulness can help us deal with issues more productively. We can ask: "Is trying to solve this by brooding about it helpful, or am I just getting caught up in my thoughts?"

Awareness of this kind may also help us notice signs of stress or anxiety earlier and deal with them better.

Mindfulness-based therapies are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a way to treat less severe depression.

NICE also recommends that employers make mindfulness available to all employees, to support mental wellbeing at work.

How to be more mindful

Reminding yourself to take notice of your thoughts, feelings, body sensations and the world around you is the first step to mindfulness.

Notice the everyday

As we go about our daily lives, we can notice the sensations of things, the food we eat, the air moving past the body as we walk.

Keep it regular

It can be helpful to pick a regular time, such as a morning journey to work or a walk at lunchtime, during which you decide to be aware of the sensations created by the world around you.

Try something new

Trying new things, such as sitting in a different seat in meetings or going somewhere new for lunch, can also help you notice the world in a new way.

Watch your thoughts

Some people find it very difficult to practise mindfulness. As soon as they stop what they're doing, lots of thoughts and worries crowd in.

It might be useful to remember that mindfulness isn't about making these thoughts go away, but rather about seeing them as mental events that come and go. This can be very hard at first, but with gentle persistence it is possible.

Some people find that it is easier to cope with an over-busy mind if they are doing gentle yoga or walking.

Name thoughts and feelings

To develop an awareness of thoughts and feelings, some people find it helpful to silently name them: "Here's the thought that I might fail that exam" or: "This is anxiety".

Free yourself from the past and future

You can practise mindfulness anywhere, but it can be especially helpful to take a mindful approach if you realise that, for several minutes, you have been trapped in reliving past problems or pre-living future worries.

Different mindfulness practices

As well as practising mindfulness in daily life, it can be helpful to set aside time for a more formal mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness meditation involves sitting silently and paying attention to thoughts, sounds, the sensations of breathing or parts of the body, bringing your attention back whenever the mind starts to wander.

Yoga and tai-chi can also help with developing awareness of your breathing.

You can watch this short mindful breathing exercise video on YouTube from Every Mind Matters.

Is mindfulness helpful for everyone?

Studies show that mindfulness can help with stress, anxiety and depression. More research is needed to show whether it helps with other mental health conditions.

Many people find mindfulness helpful, but it's not right for everyone. Some people find that it does not help them, or that it can make them feel worse.

More tips for wellbeing

There are other steps we can all take to improve our mental wellbeing. Learn more about the 5 steps to mental wellbeing.

You can also get your free Mind Plan on the Every Mind Matters website for personalised mental wellbeing tips and advice to your email inbox.

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It can be easy to rush through life without stopping to notice much. Paying more attention to the present moment - to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you - can improve your mental wellbeing. Some people call this awareness "mindfulness".

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Helping people in Defence stay mentally fit.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19)

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HeadFIT for Life helps defence people stay mentally fit and on top of their game...

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Sleep hygiene explained.

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Paying attention to sleep hygiene is one of the most straightforward ways that you can set yourself up for better sleep.

Strong sleep hygiene means having both a bedroom environment and daily routines that promote consistent, uninterrupted sleep. Keeping a stable sleep schedule, making your bedroom comfortable and free of disruptions, following a relaxing pre-bed routine, and building healthy habits during the day can all contribute to ideal sleep hygiene.

Every sleeper can tailor their sleep hygiene practices to suit their needs. In the process, you can harness positive habits to make it easier to sleep soundly throughout the night and wake up well-rested.

Why Is Sleep Hygiene Important?

Obtaining healthy sleep is important for both physical and mental health, improving productivity and overall quality of life. Everyone, from children to older adults, can benefit from better sleep, and sleep hygiene can play a key part in achieving that goal.

Research has demonstrated that forming good habits is a central part of health National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. See Full Reference . Crafting sustainable and beneficial routines makes healthy behaviors feel almost automatic, creating an ongoing process of positive reinforcement. On the flip side, bad habits can become engrained even as they cause negative consequences.

Thankfully, humans have an impressive ability NIH News in Health The NIH, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation's medical research agency - making important discoveries that improve health and save lives. See Full Reference to make our habits serve our long-term interests. Building an environment and set of routines that promote our goals can really pay off.

Sleep hygiene encompasses both environment and habits, and it can pave the way for higher-quality sleep and better overall health.

Improving sleep hygiene has little cost and virtually no risk, making it an important part of a public health strategy National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. See Full Reference to counteract the serious problems of insufficient sleep and insomnia in America.

Having trouble sleeping?

Call the Help Me Sleep Hotline at 1-833-I-CANT-SLEEP for a set of tips, meditations, and bedtime stories to help you get a good night's rest.

What Are Signs of Poor Sleep Hygiene?

Having a hard time falling asleep, experiencing frequent sleep disturbances, and suffering daytime sleepiness are the most telling signs of poor sleep hygiene. An overall lack of consistency in sleep quantity or quality can also be a symptom of poor sleep hygiene.

How Do You Practice Good Sleep Hygiene?

Good sleep hygiene is all about putting yourself in the best position to sleep well each and every night.

Optimizing your sleep schedule, pre-bed routine, and daily routines is part of harnessing habits to make quality sleep feel more automatic. At the same time, creating a pleasant bedroom environment can be an invitation to relax and doze off.

A handful of tips can help in each of these areas, they aren't rigid requirements. You can adapt them to fit your circumstances and create your own sleep hygiene checklist to help get the best sleep possible.

Set Your Sleep Schedule

Having a set schedule normalizes sleep as an essential part of your day and gets your brain and body accustomed to getting the full amount of sleep that you need.

Have a Fixed Wake-Up Time: Regardless of whether it's a weekday or weekend, try to wake up at the same time since a fluctuating schedule keeps you from getting into a rhythm of consistent sleep.

Prioritize Sleep: It might be tempting to skip sleep in order to work, study, socialize, or exercise, but it's vital to treat sleep as a priority. Calculate a target bedtime based on your fixed wake-up time and do your best to be ready for bed around that time each night.

adjustments of up to an hour or two Make Gradual Adjustments: If you want to shift your sleep times, don't try to do it all in one fell swoop because that can throw your schedule out of whack. Instead, make small, step-by-step National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) The NHLBI is the nation's leader in the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders.See Full Reference so that you can get adjusted and settle into a new schedule.

Don't Overdo It With Naps: Naps can be a handy way to regain energy during the day, but they can throw off sleep at night. To avoid this, try to keep naps relatively short and limited to the early afternoon.

Follow a Nightly Routine

How you prepare for bed can determine how easily you'll be able to fall asleep. A pre-sleep playbook including some of these tips can put you at ease and make it easier to get to fall asleep when you want to.

Keep Your Routine Consistent: Following the same steps each night, including things like putting on your pajamas and brushing your teeth, can reinforce in your mind that it's bedtime.

Budget 30 Minutes For Winding Down: Take advantage of whatever puts you in a state of calm such as soft music, light stretching, reading, and/or relaxation exercises.

Dim Your Lights: Try to keep away from bright lights because they can hinder the production of melatonin, a hormone that the body creates to facilitate sleep.

Unplug From Electronics: Build in a 30-60 minute pre-bed buffer time that is device-free. Cell phones, tablets, and laptops cause mental stimulation that is hard to shut off and also generate blue light that may decrease melatonin production.

Test Methods of Relaxation: Instead of making falling asleep your goal, it's often easier to focus on relaxation. Meditation, mindfulness, paced breathing, and other relaxation techniques can put you in the right mindset for bed.

Don't Toss and Turn: It helps to have a healthy mental connection between being in bed and actually being asleep. For that reason, if after 20 minutes you haven't gotten to sleep, get up and stretch, read, or do something else calming in low light before trying to fall asleep again.

Cultivate Healthy Daily Habits

It's not just bedtime habits that play a part in getting good sleep. Incorporating positive routines during the day can support your circadian rhythm and limit sleep disruptions.

Get Daylight Exposure: Light, especially sunlight, is one of the key drivers of circadian rhythms that can encourage quality sleep.

Be Physically Active: Regular exercise can make it easier to sleep at night and also delivers a host of other health benefits.

numerous sleeping problems Don't Smoke: Nicotine stimulates the body in ways that disrupt sleep, which helps explain why smoking is correlated with National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.See Full Reference .

Reduce Alcohol Consumption: Alcohol may make it easier to fall asleep, but the effect wears off, disrupting sleep later in the night. As a result, it's best to moderate alcohol consumption and avoid it later in the evening.

Cut Down on Caffeine in the Afternoon and Evening: Because it's a stimulant, caffeine can keep you wired even when you want to rest, so try to avoid it later in the day. Also be aware if you're consuming lots of caffeine to try to make up for lack of sleep.

Don't Dine Late: Eating dinner late, especially if it's a big, heavy, or spicy meal, can mean you're still digesting when it's time for bed. In general, any food or snacks before bed should be on the lighter side.

Restrict In-Bed Activity: To build a link in your mind between sleep and being in bed, it's best to only use your bed for sleep with sex being the one exception.

Optimize Your Bedroom

A central component of sleep hygiene beyond just habits is your sleep environment. To fall asleep more easily, you want your bedroom to emanate tranquility.

While what makes a bedroom inviting can vary from one person to the next, these tips may help make it calm and free of disruptions:

Have a Comfortable Mattress and Pillow: Your sleeping surface is critical to comfort and pain-free sleep, so choose the best mattress and best pillow for your needs wisely.

Use Excellent Bedding: The sheets and blankets are the first thing you touch when you get into bed, so it's beneficial to make sure they match your needs and preferences.

Set a Cool Yet Comfortable Temperature: Fine-tune your bedroom temperature to suit your preferences, but err on the cooler side (around 65 degrees fahrenheit).

Block Out Light: Use heavy curtains or an eye mask to prevent light from interrupting your sleep.

Drown Out Noise: Ear plugs can stop noise from keeping you awake, and if you don't find them comfortable, you can try a white noise machine or even a fan to drown out bothersome sounds.

lavender Try Calming Scents: Light smells, such as National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.See Full Reference , may induce a calmer state of mind and help cultivate a positive space for sleep.

Is Sleep Hygiene the Same For Everyone?

The basic concept of sleep hygiene - that your environment and habits can be optimized for better sleep - applies to just about everyone, but what ideal sleep hygiene looks like can vary based on the person.

For that reason, it's worth testing out different adjustments to find out what helps your sleep the most. You don't have to change everything at once; small steps can move you toward better sleep hygiene.

It's also important to know that improving sleep hygiene won't always resolve sleeping problems. People who have serious insomnia or sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea may benefit from better sleep hygiene, but other treatments are usually necessary as well.

In other words, even though it may be beneficial, sleep hygiene alone isn't a panacea. If you have long-lasting or severe sleeping problems or daytime sleepiness, it's best to talk with a doctor who can recommend the most appropriate course of treatment.

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References

1. Gardner, B., Lally, P., & Wardle, J. (2012). Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 62(605), 664-666.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23211256/

2. National Institutes of Health (NIH). (2012, January). NIH News in Health: Breaking Bad Habits., Retrieved July 10, 2020, from
https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2012/01/breaking-bad-habits

3. Irish, L. A., Kline, C. E., Gunn, H. E., Buysse, D. J., & Hall, M. H. (2015). The role of sleep hygiene in promoting public health: A review of empirical evidence. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 22, 23-36.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25454674/

4. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. (2011, September). In Brief: Your Guide to Healthy Sleep., Retrieved June 15, 2020, from
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/files/docs/public/sleep/healthysleepfs.pdf

5. Zandy, M., Chang, V., Rao, D. P., & Do, M. T. (2020). Tobacco smoke exposure and sleep: estimating the association of urinary cotinine with sleep quality. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, 40(3), 70-80.
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/health-promotion-chronic-disease-prevention-canada-research-policy-practice/vol-40-no-3-2020/tobacco-smoke-exposure-sleep-study.html

6. Koulivand, P. H., Khaleghi Ghadiri, M., & Gorji, A. (2013). Lavender and the nervous system. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2013, 681304.
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/681304/

Other Articles of Interest

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What Is Sleep Hygiene? | Sleep Foundation

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Matthew Walker is one of the world's leading experts on sleep. He was born in Liverpool and graduated in neuroscience and neurophysiology in Britain before going on to become a professor at Harvard University, where he became fascinated by the science of why we sleep. He moved on to the University of California, Berkeley, where he is currently professor of neuroscience and psychology, and director of the Centre for Human Sleep Science.

Do you think you got enough sleep this past week? Can you recall the last time you woke up without an alarm clock feeling refreshed and not in desperate need of caffeine?

If the answer to either of these questions is 'No', you are not alone. Two-thirds of adults throughout all developed nations fail to get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night.

I doubt you are surprised by this fact - but you may be surprised by the consequences.

Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system and more than doubles your risk of cancer.

Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer's disease. Even moderate reductions in sleep for just one week disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly that you would be classified as pre-diabetic.

Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path towards cardiovascular disease, stroke and congestive heart failure.

Sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety. It can even lead to suicide.

Perhaps you have also noticed a desire to eat more when you're tired? This is no coincidence. Too little sleep swells concentrations of a hormone that makes you feel hungry, while suppressing a companion hormone that signals food satisfaction.

Despite being full, you still want to eat more. It's a proven recipe for weight gain in sleep-deficient adults and children alike.

The danger of 'sleep debt'

When you add up all of the above health consequences, a proven link becomes easier to accept - the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span. The old maxim 'I'll sleep when I'm dead' is therefore rather unfortunate.

And it is no coincidence that countries where sleep time has declined most dramatically over the past century, such as the U.S., the UK, Japan, South Korea, and several other nations in western Europe, are also those suffering the greatest increase in rates of the aforementioned physical diseases and mental disorders.

Scientists such as myself have even started lobbying doctors to start 'prescribing' sleep. As medical advice goes, it's perhaps the most painless and enjoyable to follow.

There does not seem to be one major organ within the body, or process within the brain, that isn't enhanced by sleep (and impaired when we do not get enough).

That we receive such a bounty of health benefits each night should not be surprising.

After all, we are awake for two-thirds of our lives, and we don't just achieve one useful thing during that time, but rather myriad accomplishments that promote our well-being and survival.

Why, then, would we expect sleep - and the 25 to 30 years, on average, it takes from our lives - to offer one function only?

Sleep dispenses a multitude of health-ensuring benefits - and they're yours to pick up as a repeat prescription every 24 hours, should you choose.

It enriches a diversity of functions within the brain, including our ability to learn, memorise and make logical decisions.

Sleep also recalibrates our emotional brain circuits, allowing us to navigate the social and psychological challenges of the next day with cool-headed composure.

We are even beginning to understand the most impervious of all conscious experiences: the dream.

Dreaming provides a unique set of benefits, including soothing painful memories and inspiring creativity, as I will be explaining next week.

Downstairs in the body, sleep restocks the armoury of our immune system, helping to fight malignancy, preventing infection and warding off all manner of illnesses.

Sleep also reforms the body's metabolic state by fine-tuning the balance of insulin and circulating glucose. It regulates our appetite, helping to control body weight by encouraging healthy food selection rather than impulsive choices.

It is also needed to maintain a flourishing microbiome within your gut, where so much of our nutritional health begins.

Adequate sleep is also closely tied to the fitness of our cardiovascular system, lowering blood pressure while keeping our hearts in fine condition. (See the box overleaf for more information.)

It is difficult to imagine any other state that offers a more powerful redressing of physical and mental health. I love sleep (and not just my own, though I do give myself a non-negotiable eight-hour opportunity for it each night).

I want to discover all that remains unknown about it, and I hope to find any and all methods for reuniting humanity with the sleep it so desperately needs.

I was once fond of saying: 'Sleep is the third pillar of good health, alongside diet and exercise.' I have since changed my tune. Sleep is more than a pillar - it is the foundation on which the other two health bastions sit.

A balanced diet and exercise are vital, yes. But we now see sleep as the pre-eminent force in this health trinity.

Take the bedtime health test...

your total.....................

0 = Poor sleep health

10 = Good sleep health

The physical and mental impairments caused by one night of bad sleep dwarf those caused by an equivalent absence of food or exercise. Take away the bedrock of sleep, or weaken it just a little, and careful eating or physical exercise become less than effective.

Recall the last time you had the flu. Miserable, wasn't it? Runny nose, aching bones, sore throat, heavy cough and a total lack of energy. You probably just wanted to curl up in bed and sleep. As well you should.

Your body is trying to sleep itself well. Sleep fights against infection and sickness by deploying weaponry from your immune arsenal and cladding you with protection.

When you do fall ill, the immune system actively stimulates the sleep system, demanding more bed rest to help reinforce the war effort. Reduce sleep for even a single night, and that invisible suit of immune armour is rudely stripped from your body.

To investigate this, my colleague Dr Aric Prather at the University of California, San Francisco, measured the sleep of 164 healthy men and women for a week. He then quarantined them, and proceeded to squirt a good dose (or rather a live culture) of rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, straight up their noses.

Dr Prather then kept them in the laboratory for the following week, monitoring them intensely.

There was a clear, linear relationship with infection rate and sleep: the less sleep an individual was getting in the week before facing the active common cold virus, the more likely it was that they would catch a cold.

In those sleeping five hours on average, the infection rate was almost 50 per cent. In those sleeping seven hours or more a night, the infection rate was just 18 per cent.

Infectious illnesses, such as influenza and pneumonia, are among the leading causes of death in developed countries. Doctors and governments would therefore do well to stress the importance of getting sufficient sleep during the flu season.

Perhaps you are the sort of responsible person who gets a flu jab each year, boosting your own resilience while adding strength to the immunity of the herd - your community. However, that flu jab is only effective if your body actually reacts to it by generating antibodies. A remarkable discovery in 2002 demonstrated that sleep profoundly impacts your response to a standard flu vaccine.

In the study, healthy young adults were separated into two groups. One had their sleep restricted to four hours a night for six nights, and the other group got between seven-and-a-half and eight-and-a-half hours in bed each night.

Why heart attacks spike when clocks go forward

Everyone was then given a flu jab. In the days afterwards, researchers took blood samples to determine how effective each person was in generating an antibody response, working out whether or not the vaccination was a success.

Those participants who had the greater amount of sleep generated a powerful antibody reaction. This reflects a very robust, healthy immune system.

In contrast, those in the sleep-restricted group produced less than 50 per cent of the immune reaction their well-slept counterparts did.

Similar consequences of too little sleep have since been reported for the hepatitis A and B vaccines.

Perhaps the sleep-deprived group could still go on to produce a more resilient immune reaction if only they were given enough sleep recovery time? It's a nice idea, but a false one.

Even if someone is allowed two or three weeks of recovery sleep to get over the effects of one week of short sleeping, they never go on to develop a full immune reaction to the flu jab.

In fact, certain immune cells are still diminished up to a year after just a minor, short amount of sleep restriction.

It doesn't require many nights of short sleeping before the body is rendered immunologically weak - and here the issue of cancer becomes relevant.

Natural killer cells are an elite and powerful squadron within the ranks of your immune system. Think of them as the secret service agents of your body, whose job it is to identify dangerous foreign elements and eliminate them - 007 types, if you will.

One such foreign entity that natural killer cells will target are cancerous tumour cells. Natural killer cells will effectively punch a hole in the outer surface of these cells and inject a protein that can destroy the malignancy.

What you want, therefore, is a virile set of these James Bond-like immune cells at all times. And that is precisely what you don't have when you sleep too little.

Dr Michael Irwin, at the University of California, Los Angeles, has carried out landmark studies revealing just how quickly and comprehensively a brief spell of short sleep can affect your cancer-fighting immune cells.

Examining healthy young men, Dr Irwin demonstrated that a single night of four hours of sleep - such as going to bed at 3am and waking up at 7am - swept away 70 per cent of the natural killer cells circulating in the immune system, relative to a night of a full eight hours of sleep.

That is a dramatic state of immune deficiency to find yourself facing after essentially one 'bad night' of sleep.

You could well imagine the enfeebled state of your cancer-fighting immune armoury after a week of short sleep, let alone months or even years.

Well, we don't have to imagine. A number of prominent epidemiological studies have reported that night-time shift work, and the disruption to circadian rhythms and sleep that it causes, considerably ups your odds of developing many forms of cancer.

These include breast cancer, prostate cancer, endometrial cancer and colon cancer.

As if that were not enough, a recent study by Dr David Gozal, from the University of Chicago, showed that sleep-deprived mice suffered a 200 per cent increase in the speed and size of cancer growth, relative to those mice who were well-rested.

Worse, when Dr Gozal performed postmortem examinations on the mice, he discovered that the tumours were far more aggressive in those who were sleep-deficient. Their cancer had metastasised, spreading to surrounding organs, tissue and bone.

Indeed, the scientific evidence linking sleep disruption and cancer is now so damning that the World Health Organisation has officially classified night-time shift work as a 'probable carcinogen'.

Adapted from Why We Sleep: The New Science Of Sleep And Dreams by Matthew Walker, published by Penguin Books at £9.99. © Matthew Walker 2018. To buy a copy for £7.99 (20 per cent discount), call 0844 571 0640 or go to mailshop.co.uk/books. P&P is free on orders over £15. Offer valid until August 11, 2018.

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Damage done by just one night's bad sleep can leave you vulnerable

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Matthew Walker is one of the world's leading experts on sleep. He was born in Liverpool and graduated in neuroscience and neurophysiology in Britain before going on to become a professor at Harvard University, where he became fascinated by the science of why we sleep.

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