March 20, 2025

26 minutes

Available for over a year

We spend around a third of our lives sleeping. But many people struggle with insomnia or have difficulty staying asleep, and research shows that bad sleep can increase the risk of multiple health conditions. How harmful is bad sleep to our health? And what can we do about it?

Jonny Dymond speaks with Professor Russell Foster, Director of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, and author and sleep expert Dr Nerina Ramlakhan about how people can get enough sleep.

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Producers: Alice Aylett Roberts and Beth Timmins

Sound engineers: Mike Regaard

Assistant editors: Richard Fenton-Smith and Sergi Forcada Freixas

Senior news editor: China Collins