Hello, I'm Greg Jenna and good news, Your Dead to Me is back for a new series. Here we go. Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dor-Leon with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very quickly knocked down. And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Rihalina. I'm excited. You're dead to me. The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Listen first on BBC Sounds. Hello there and welcome to the Inside Health podcast. I'm James Gallagher. Can I ask you a question? Did you get a good night's sleep? Are you now bright and rejuvenated by a deep slumber? Or did you toss and turn and lie awake in bed all night?

For me, I've got a six-month-old baby, so I think you can imagine what my sleep is like at the moment. But today we're going to be delving into insomnia in one of our special editions of Inside Health. It's one where you've sent in all of your questions you've been getting in touch over the last few weeks. I have a trio of experts just waiting to answer them. So wake-wakey-wakey you a lot. Hello. Hi, James. So we're going to find out when poor sleep becomes something that's damaging our health, why we get insomnia, when we should get help, whether it's actually just something we're stuck with. Let's meet our sleep crew. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to get you to introduce yourselves. And at the same time, tell me what it is you do when you can't sleep. Hi, James. I'm Faith Orchard. I'm a lecturer in psychology at the University of Sussex. When I can't sleep, it's normally because my brain is a bit wired and I'm overthinking. So I tend to pick up a book and just read until I feel ready to relax a bit more. Hi, James. My name's Dr. Ali Hare. I'm a consultant in sleep medicine in London and I'm president of British Sleep Society. When I can't sleep, it's usually because my husband is tossing and turning and snoring in the bed. So I tend to use the sleep divorce technique and I go and sleep in the spare room. And a final contributor? Hi, James. I'm Colin S.P. I'm the Professor of Sleep Medicine at the University of Oxford.

But I don't sleep well. I tend just to get up and go back to bed again to reboot the system.

And it's usually because there's something on my mind. I guess that's true for most people.

Let's hear now from some people have been getting in touch with their experiences of insomnia.

I find that I often seem to sleep lightly, dipping in and out of sleep, with half-form thoughts

going around in my head, partly in my dreams and partly in a waking state.

The impact is absolutely massive. On days when I've had very little sleep, I drink more coffee,

I eat more sugar, I'm definitely more grumpy.

And if I'm at work and I'm in a meeting, I'm constantly trying to pretend that I'm not yawning.

It's a wakefulness in the early hours. It's the worst. My mind races and the anxiety levels about the impact on my health skyrocket.

Colin, what is the tipping point between

I've had a rough night's sleep and it becoming something more? If one bad night turns into

several and several weeks turns into three months or more, we call that insomnia.

Ali, can you answer this question that we had written in from Marianne Conn, she emailed InsideHealth

at BBC.com.com.

And she's had difficulty with her sleep since childhood, says three to four hours a night is a win.

That sounds horrible. She describes it simply as the bane of her life and wants to know,

am I unusual? We know that insomnia symptoms are really, really common. So about 50% of individuals experience insomnia symptoms. But, you know,

such a long period of difficulty sleeping would be more unusual and would definitely merit

clinical attention. As you say, it's just an awful experience not sleeping and sleeping for

such short periods for such a long time has enormous effects on our well-being. So I would definitely,

...