In this week’s Sleep Diaries, a 66-year-old complementary therapist wonders if melatonin tablets could be the answer to her sleep problems.

A little about me:

Age: 66

Occupation: complementary therapist

Number of hours sleep you get each night: 5 hours

Number of hours sleep you wish you got each night: 8 hours

Any officially diagnosed sleep-related problems: Hashimoto’s disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)

How much water you drink on average per day: 2 litres

How much exercise I do on average per week: 1-2 hrs per week normally but currently in front of computer a lot more due to workload

Day 1

It’s Sunday, which means I sit down to a large lunch. Come the evening, I don’t feel like I want a large meal so just have some cheese and biscuits and water.

I then settle down to watch three episodes of a series on TV, before heading to bed where I spend a bit of time catching up with social media on my iPad. I have a heavy workload at the moment but am not aware of being particularly stressed – I fall asleep around 10pm without any issues.

Unfortunately, I suffer from acid reflux and I am woken up around five times during the night. I always keep a glass of water by my bed and drink this when I wake up, but I also do a bit of reading and learn that dairy can exacerbate acid reflux. Just like that, I decide that I’m going to try to change my diet and give up dairy products (unfortunately, that also includes chocolate!).

“Should I take melatonin tablets?” A sleep expert answers your questions