The French writer Georges Perec once kept a record of everything he ate and drank for an entire year. He called it: ‘Attempt at an Inventory of the Liquid and Solid Foodstuffs Ingurgitated by Me in the Course of the Year Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-four’. (If, like us, you struggle to remember what you ate for breakfast this morning, this remarkable feat is especially impressive…)

Let’s imagine that you have done the same, but for just seven days. When you look back over your notes, you discover that during the week you have eaten:

• Lots of fruit and vegetables
• Plenty of wholewheat bread, pasta and rice
• Lots of fish
• Low-fat cheeses and yoghurt
• Dried fruit and unsalted nuts for your snacks
• Low-sugar, wholegrain breakfast cereals

You have drunk:

• Lots of water and fruit juice
• Fruit teas
• One cup of milky coffee each morning

You have avoided:

• Crisps
• Biscuits
• Ready meals
• Sweets
• Chocolate
• Red meat
• Cured meats and sausages
• Full-fat cheese
• Fried food
• Alcohol
• Fizzy drinks

Each night you have been in bed by ten. You have read for a few minutes before switching off the light. By ten forty-five you have been asleep, and you’ve slept right through till seven.

How do you think you’d feel after a week like this? Desperate for a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate, perhaps! But, that aside, probably feeling pretty good: rested, energetic, optimistic.

Now we’re not suggesting you adopt such a spartan lifestyle. Food and drink are two of life’s great pleasures. Enjoying an occasional late night in the company of friends certainly justifies some tiredness the next day.

But we do want to make the point that taking care of the basics, such as diet and sleep, can have a big positive impact on your emotions. Just as the mind can influence the body, so too can the condition of the body influence the mind. Look after your body and your efforts will be well rewarded, physically and psychologically.

This may seem like common sense. Perhaps your parents made the same point once or twice when you were a child! Maybe you’re thinking: ‘I know that.’ However, though most of us are aware that we should be eating more healthily, getting more sleep and exercising regularly, these are the sort of lifestyle changes that it’s easy to neglect. (Many of us have made short-lived New Year’s resolutions on these topics!)

But if we’re serious about increasing our well-being, we need to get these basics in place. The scientific evidence is clear: a healthy diet and plenty of good-quality sleep really can make you feel happier. One fascinating study followed more than 10,000 people in the UK between 2002 and 2004. The researchers found that those who made major improvements in their diet (even without increasing the amount of exercise they took) reported feeling much happier, calmer and more peaceful, and far less nervous and unhappy.

So in this chapter we talk you through what’s best to eat and drink, and how to overcome any sleep problems you may be experiencing. Of course, making any kind of change can seem daunting when we’re feeling down or stressed. But there’s no need to turn your lifestyle upside down: even fairly modest changes will bring benefits. Whatever you can do, no matter how apparently insignificant, is a step in the right direction.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Because your physical condition can exert such a big influence on your emotions, we recommend you start by booking check-ups with your doctor and dentist. Specifically, ask your doctor to check your blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol levels. And if there’s anything in particular that’s concerning you, mention that too.

Chances are you’ll have the satisfaction of walking away with a clean bill of health. But if there are any little niggles that need sorting out, now’s the time. Being ill is not going to make you happier; feeling healthy, on the other hand, will certainly help. And you’ll be rightly proud of yourself to have taken action.

If you’re a smoker, think seriously about stopping. You won’t need us to point out the health problems associated with smoking. In the short term, smoking may be a pleasure; in the long term, it’s likely to bring illness and unhappiness. The sense of achievement you’ll feel when you quit will be a fantastic reward in itself. If you’d like guidance on giving up smoking, have a chat with your GP.

IMPROVING YOUR DIET

We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.
ADELLE DAVIS, PIONEERING US NUTRITIONIST

What exactly is a healthy diet? The fact that there are hundreds of books on the topic might suggest that nutrition is a complex business. In fact, positive nutrition is simple – so simple that it can be summed up in just ten guidelines.

If you want to make changes to your diet, do it gradually. Discarding habits you’ve built up over several years is best tackled step by step. So aim to introduce one change per week – for example, eating more oily fish or opting for a healthier breakfast cereal.

1. Base your meals around starchy foods. Starchy foods like bread, cereals, rice, pasta, and potatoes should make up about a third of our daily diet. They’re a great source of energy, and are rich in fibre, calcium, iron and B vitamins. Go for wholewheat or wholegrain varieties: they contain more fibre and other nutrients.
2. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. Try to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. If you’re not sure how much a portion is, visit www.nhs.uk and search for ‘5 a day’.
3. Eat more fish. Fish contains lots of protein, minerals and vitamins. Oily fish are rich in the omega 3 fatty acids that can help keep our hearts healthy. Aim to eat fish at least twice a week – and make sure that one of those is an oily fish like salmon, mackerel, trout, herring, fresh tuna (not tinned), sardines, pilchards and eels. Women who might want to become pregnant at some stage shouldn’t eat more than two portions of oily fish a week; the limit otherwise is four.
4. Cut down on saturated fat. We all need some fat in our diet, but be wary of saturated fat, which can increase the amount of cholesterol in our blood and escalate the risk of heart disease. Unsaturated fat, on the other hand, lowers cholesterol.
   Foods high in saturated fat include meat pies, sausages, cured meats, hard cheese, butter and lard, pastry, cakes and biscuits, cream, soured cream and crème fraîche. Good sources of unsaturated fat are vegetable oils (including sunflower, rapeseed and olive oil), oily fish, avocados, nuts and seeds.
5. Eat less sugar. Sugary foods and drinks cause tooth decay and are high in calories. Check the labels and watch out for foods that contain more than 5g of sugar per 100g.
6. Reduce your salt intake to no more than 6 grams a day. Eating too much salt increases our chances of having a stroke or developing heart disease. Seventy-five per cent of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy. So again, check the label and go for low-salt options – less than 0.3g of salt per 100g.
7. Drink plenty of water. Aim to drink 1.2 litres of fluid every day to prevent dehydration. Water’s best, but other drinks count too – such as tea or fruit juice. Avoid sugary drinks though.
8. Don’t overdo the caffeine. There are now more than 10,000 chain coffee shops in the UK, not to mention countless independent cafés: proof, if proof were needed, of the nation’s passion for coffee. For increasing numbers of people, coffee is an essential part of the daily routine – and a reliable source of great pleasure.
   If you love your coffee there’s no need to deprive yourself of that pleasure. But be aware that drinking a lot of coffee can raise your blood pressure, trigger feelings of anxiety or irritation, and interfere with your sleep – all of which will have a negative effect on your happiness. Remember too that caffeine is also found in tea, and many cola and energy drinks.
9. Watch your alcohol intake. Alcohol isn’t usually a problem provided we don’t drink too much. Women shouldn’t regularly drink more than 2–3 units per day; for men the limit is 3–4 units a day. More than this on a regular basis can lead to health problems. Alcohol is also high in calories – cutting back is a great way to lose weight.
10. Don’t skip breakfast. Missing breakfast might seem like a sensible slimming technique, but it usually has the opposite effect. Because we’re ravenous midway through the morning, we fill the gap with tasty snacks like biscuits, pastries and chocolate, thereby consuming far more calories than we would have done if we had enjoyed a healthy breakfast. Eat regular meals, including a nutritious breakfast – wholegrain cereal and fruit, for instance – and stave off the snack attack!

IMPROVING YOUR SLEEP

Most of us know from experience that sleep – and sleeplessness – can have a dramatic effect on our mood. And many research studies confirm this: sleeping poorly can make us anxious, depressed and irritable. In contrast, there’s a clear link between good sleep and happiness, particularly pleasure and engagement. Clinical studies show that tackling sleep problems leads to an improvement in mood. And yet, the stresses and strains of modern life mean that increasing numbers of people aren’t getting the sleep they require.

Make sleep a priority. People vary in how much they need, but most adults function best on at least seven or eight hours. Just as important as quantity, however, is the quality of your sleep. Eight hours in bed at night doesn’t necessarily mean eight hours of deep and invigorating rest.

It’s normal to have times when you don’t sleep as well as you’d like, but how can you tell whether you have a real sleep problem? The following questionnaire is a good place to start. It assesses whether you may be suffering from insomnia, the most common type of sleep problem. Insomnia is a general term for a number of issues:

• Struggling to fall asleep
• Finding it hard to stay asleep
• Not having enough sleep
• Not experiencing enough good-quality sleep

Source: Spoormaker, V.I., van den Bout, J., Klip, E.C., ‘Initial validation of the SLEEP-50 questionnaire’, Behavioural Sleep Medicine, 3, 227–46 (2005) © Taylor & Francis Group (http://www.informaworld.com)

Now add up your scores for Parts A and B. You may be suffering from insomnia if you’ve scored:

• 14–18 on Part A and
• 11–14 on Part B

Severe (or clinical) insomnia is likely if you’ve scored:

• 19 or more on Part A and
• 19 or more on Part B

IMPROVING YOUR SLEEP

Blessed be whoever invented sleep, the mantle that covers all human thought, the food that satisfies hunger, the water that quenches thirst, the fire that warms the cold, the cold that cools down ardour, and, finally, the general coin with which all things are bought, the scale and the balance that make the shepherd equal to the king, and the simple man equal to the wise. CERVANTES, DON QUIXOTE

To improve your sleep, try these five techniques:

Exercise every day.

It’s simple: exercise tires us out, and if we’re tired, we’re likely to sleep better.

Avoid caffeine, alcohol and nicotine in the evening.

Develop a relaxing evening routine.

At least half an hour before bedtime, begin winding down. Do something calm and restful: perhaps a warm bath or some time reading or listening to gentle music.

Have a bedtime snack.

A little food about thirty minutes before bed can help with sleep. Go for something healthy and relatively plain: a glass of milk, a banana, or perhaps a piece of wholewheat toast.

Get your bedroom right for sleep.

That means a comfortable bed, and a room that’s quiet, dark and your preferred temperature (around 18°C is usually ideal).

These steps should do the trick, but if your insomnia hasn’t improved it’s time to move on to stage 2. Within a few days of adopting the following guidelines, you should notice a big improvement in your sleep.

Resist the temptation to lie in, and cut out daytime naps

– you’ll only find it harder to fall asleep at night.

Only go to bed when you’re tired.

Switch off the light as soon as you’re comfortable.

Learn to associate your bed with sleep.

Don’t use it, say, for reading, eating, watching TV, or writing a diary. (Sex is permissible, though, because it generally leaves us feeling sleepy.)

Don’t let bedtime be worry time.

Instead, try setting aside twenty minutes earlier in the evening to think through your problems. If you find yourself worrying while you’re in bed, jot the thought down on a piece of paper ready for tomorrow’s worry session and let it go for the night.

If you haven’t fallen asleep within twenty minutes, get up and do something relaxing.

It’s the same if you wake up in the night: if you haven’t fallen back to sleep after twenty minutes, get up and only go back to bed when you’re feeling tired.

WHAT IF YOU’RE SLEEPING TOO MUCH?

Insomnia is sleeplessness. Some people, though, seem to have the opposite problem: too much sleep. Whatever time the alarm goes is too early: they simply ignore it and go back to sleep.

Sometimes oversleeping is a by-product of insomnia – a way of catching up on a bad night’s sleep. For other people, it can be a sign that they’re feeling particularly down (see Chapter 10 for more on this).

Whatever the cause, it’s best to follow the guidelines above for achieving regular, good-quality sleep. Make sure you have something to get up in the morning for – whether that be arriving at work on time, getting the kids off to school, going for a swim, or meeting a friend. Don’t interpret your sleepiness as a sign that you need more rest.

These steps will help you relearn the necessary habit of getting up in the morning. Of course, we can’t guarantee that you’ll greet the morning alarm with glee, but by the time it sounds you will at least have enjoyed a good night’s sleep!

Making even modest improvements to your diet and sleep habits will soon pay dividends. So go for it. You’ll be amazed at how much more positive you feel.