Episode 1 Goodnight Britain

All is not well in the bedrooms of Britain.

What's happening? What's happening?

We're a nation in the grip of a sleep crisis.

SHE YAWNS LOUDLY

More than 10 million prescriptions for sleeping pills

were issued last year.

SNORING

And tired workers cost business £1.6 billion.

After spending more than a decade

getting up before 4 o'clock in the morning to present BBC Breakfast

and growing up with a dad who did shift work, I know how difficult

it can be sometimes getting through the day with not enough sleep.

But it can be a problem that affects the entire family

and can ruin lives.

Oh dear.

Meet five Britons at the end of their tether.

Each suffers from one of the most common sleep problems.

Ranging from the all too common...

HE SNORES

You see what it's like - loud, isn't it?

..to downright odd!

Can you find a blue... a navy-blue rugby sock?

I scream, I shout, I think something's in my bed.

The whole normal night - no, just doesn't happen.

And they're all desperate to find a cure.

I've tried no alcohol, so we've just gone back to alcohol.

Sex, no sex!

Enter two of the UK's leading sleep experts.

From their mobile lab they'll use infrared cameras to observe

how the volunteers sleep - or not - in their very own homes.

It's not common to get up and bake in the middle of the night.

They'll put them through some rigorous medical tests.

I think I'm looking like a Cyberman!

And use cutting edge therapies...

ALARM BLARES

..that'll push the volunteers to the limit.

You're like Darth Vader!

But can they be freed from the broken sleep

that plagues their lives, and in the process offer some hope

to the millions of others who crave a good night's sleep?

Sleep is the most natural thing in the world -

just close your eyes and drift off.

But for millions of us, that's just a dream.

We're about to change all that.

This is our sleep house. It's part of an ambitious project

to give five of Britain's worst sleepers

the restful night they so desperately need.

Meet neurologist Dr Kirstie Anderson

and psychologist Dr Jason Ellis.

Between them, they've spent 24 years

investigating the hidden causes of poor quality sleep.

Their challenge is to find cures for our sleep-deprived five.

People might not realise -

you can go longer without food than you can without sleep.

Our bodies really must have it - it's absolutely vital.

The sad thing is, millions of people in the United Kingdom

suffer in silence.

We know that we can help, and help well.

One of the biggest obstacles Jason and Kirstie face

is that sleep problems happen at night

in the private world of the bedroom.

But we have a solution for that.

This is Kirstie and Jason's secret weapon, the sleepmobile.

A specially-designed surveillance vehicle that will take our experts

out on the road and into the bedrooms of Britain.

Normally, patients have to come to see us,

but now we're going out to see them in their homes,

in their normal sleeping space, with the people they're normally with,

and also to look at them over a long period of time,

to work out what changes day to day and night to night.

So what difference is there, then, Jason, viewing people

in their own habitats as opposed to looking at them in a lab?

We're actually getting to see how they interact with their family,

with their friends.

What actually happens in the bedroom?

You can't transport somebody's bedroom into a lab, so you don't

know quite what's going on in there that might be influencing the sleep.

Do you think, with the footage you get, you're going to be able

to look at it and think, "I know how we can help them"?

-Absolutely.

-Definitely.

-Yeah.

So the first part of Jason and Kirstie's mission gets underway.

They've chosen five volunteers from the problem sleepers

all over Britain who approached us desperate for help.

Their first port of call is London and the intriguing and alarming case

of sales consultant Kathryn.

By day, Kathryn is completely in charge of her hectic life.

But about once a fortnight, her nights spiral out of control.

I scream, I shout, I think something's in my bed, I'll pull

all the covers off, I'll go to the window, or run outside my room.

Other people have said that I'm scared,

I'm really scared of something, I look terrified.

The morning after these episodes,

Kathryn has no real memory of her worrying behaviour.

But it's a different story for her flatmate, Alison,

who's regularly woken by Kathryn barging into her room.

SHE SCREAMS

And her eyes would be really predominant white as if she is...

she's seen a ghost.

But it's scary for me.

She is that petrified

that if someone was to go near her, which she thought was in her dream,

you just don't know what would happen.

Jason and Kirstie need to see what's going on for themselves,

so they're rigging Kathryn's flat with infrared cameras.

Night-vision footage

gives us not only a longer-term view on somebody's sleep,

but we get to see how people use other rooms in the house.

Kathryn, for example, claims to walk around a bit, and so we want

to see whether she's leaving the bedroom and where she's going.

So as well as fitting two cameras in her room,

we're also fitting rigging one in flatmate Alison's room, next door.

For the first time,

we'll actually be able to show her what she does,

and give her some idea of how much trouble that might be causing

other people in the house.

Seeing myself in my night-time antics is going to a bit weird.

Because, like... you know what I'm like.

-Hm.

-But for me, seeing myself is just going to...

I think it's going to shock you.

I think it's going to really surprise you at how

-scared you are when you see yourself.

-Hm.

Kathryn and Alison are off to bed.

The night-vision cameras will now record their every night-time move.

In the sleepmobile, Jason and Kirstie settle down

to review the night's action.

-So lights off around 11.

-Mm-hmm.

She does look well settled for the night.

Hm, she looks a good sleeper.

-Hm.

-Hm.

But, after an hour...

..Kathryn appears to wake up.

Thanks. Thanks. You're my fibble, you're my fibble.

Game.

Hello.

All right. Let's just log the time there.

Kirstie and Jason are almost certain she's still sound asleep.

Can you find a blue... a navy-blue rugby sock?

So within the first hour and a half, really abrupt arousal,

-it looks like typical sleep talking, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Can you help me get it out?

-A bit more shouting.

-Hm.

SHE SINGS

The singing may be a bit off-key,

but it's still hardly the stuff of nightmares.

Until...

Wah! What's happening?

Dad! Mum! Dad! Mum! Quick!

Big scream.

And within seconds, Kathryn's up and out of her room.

Even though she's still asleep.

OK. Look at me, look at me.

It's so dramatic for other people, it's so disconcerting.

-Yeah.

-I'm frightened.

-Hm.

The conversation is upsetting,

but the experts are even more worried by Kathryn's sleepwalking.

Sleepwalking is common. About 5% of adults will very occasionally

sit up, maybe be pushed back into bed by a partner -

and it's often considered a bit of a joke symptom.

But in fact, people go out of the house, people get into cars.

One of my patients went on holiday with friends, he walked all

the way out of the hotel room, he walked down two flights of stairs,

he climbed up two storeys and he jumped off,

and he broke both ankles.

So it is a potential risk.

The job now for Kirstie and Jason

is to find out the cause of Kathryn's behaviour.

And then try to stop it.

Kathryn's video footage has been really helpful.

It looks really typical of something we'd call a parasomnia.

There's a huge range of activities that covers -

from horrible nightmares, acting out your dreams,

sleepwalking.

Sleep talking, people who eat during sleep.

That's all part of parasomnia.

It's clear that this is a case that'll need further

in-depth investigation at the sleep house.

Kathryn's story may seem unusual,

but it's actually not that rare. More than half a million

British adults experience some form of parasomnia.

Our next case, though, is something almost all of us can relate to.

It affects some 15 million people,

making it Britain's most common sleep problem.

Paul Ashbury from Norfolk refused to believe his snoring was an issue.

RECORDED SNORING

That is...!

As well as recording him on her phone,

partner Clare's been gathering video evidence.

You see what it's like - loud, isn't it?

HE SNORES LOUDLY

Snoring has been quoted as a common cause of divorce.

I am really tired. I haven't had a proper night's sleep

ever since I can remember.

It's constant. It's a constant snoring and it doesn't let up

and when I wake up I'm still tired.

And she's not the only one.

Although it looks like Paul gets a solid night's sleep,

he feels just as exhausted as Clare.

At times, he can barely keep his eyes open.

And because he's a van driver, it's becoming a major concern.

I do worry about getting tired during the day, you know,

you kind of have these little flashes where you think,

you know, "Oh, God, did I just close my eyes there?"

Just that second could cause an accident,

you know, you can drift over, kill someone.

So the sleepmobile is on its way to Norfolk to investigate

both Paul's snoring and his exhaustion.

Jason and Kirstie suspect the two conditions may be linked.

Most people have had it for a long time - years and years -

don't associate their snoring, which they've done forever,

with this increasing feeling of fatigue and sleepiness.

So - time for the cameras to go in.

SHE YAWNS

And by 10 o'clock, both Paul and Clare are in bed.

THEY KISS

But Paul's promise doesn't last long.

HE SNORES

Clare has been awoken.

That is disturbing her.

Yeah.

OK - not a great start.

And the cameras have now captured a bigger problem.

Between two snores, Paul has entirely stopped breathing.

The snoring stopped.

But, in fact, there was a pause in the breathing

and that went on a little bit longer than I'd be comfortable with.

That's not good.

If someone stops breathing while asleep,

their brain will wake them to get the breathing started again.

So this pause could be a vital clue

to van driver Paul's chronic tiredness.

These are people who could be having pauses in their breathing

that wake them up 30, 40, 50 times an hour.

So if you can imagine being briefly woken that amount of times,

you know, you wake up feeling as if you have not been to bed at all.

HE SNORES

And if Paul waking himself up isn't enough...

..Clare's now doing it too.

-Leaving the bedroom.

-Hm.

To the sofa.

The night-vision cameras have captured enough

to give the experts real cause for concern.

HE SNORES

So our experts are genuinely worried about Paul's health,

but it's only when he comes here to the sleep house

that they'll be able to run a full set of clinical tests.

Before that they've got to meet the rest of our problem sleepers.

# Good night, sweetheart

# Till we meet tomorrow... #

This bed I refer to as a bed of thistles.

It's MY bed of thistles, that's how I see my bed at night.

Gwen Young from Peebles in the Scottish Borders

hasn't slept properly for 30 years.

I'd like to be able to go upstairs and think - bedtime,

going to fall asleep, have a lovely night,

wake up in the morning feeling 100%.

But that doesn't really happen for me.

Gwen and her long-suffering husband Derek have tried everything.

But her problem is actually getting worse.

Tapes, relaxation tapes, whales and things going through the sea.

-Various exercises you tried...

-Yeah.

-..all about deep breathing

and relaxing from the toes up through the body.

We've tried no alcohol,

so we've just gone back to alcohol again cos it makes no difference.

That's right. Sex, no sex!

So the sleepmobile is heading north to investigate

Gwen's inability to sleep.

It's a plight that plagues over a third of adults in Britain.

The infrared cameras will give the experts their first look

into the world of an insomniac at home.

By 10.30, Gwen can barely keep her eyes open.

What we commonly see is, the individual will be on the couch,

early evening and they'll have this nodding,

-the nodding dog behaviour.

-Yeah.

It's time to go to bed cos I feel so tired.

By 11 o'clock, Gwen and Derek are both in bed.

It seems like Derek has gone straight out to sleep.

But this is when the problems start.

Gwen's having a bit of a difficult time...

..getting herself all worked up.

-She looks cross, doesn't she?

-Hm.

Gwen now moves to the spare room.

It's where she's ended every night for the last 10 years.

I wonder if she'll do any better here.

Try as she might, sleep simply will not come.

Jason and Kirstie now understand why Gwen feels her bed

is made of thistles.

It just didn't look like she fell asleep at all there.

No. She looks miserable.

By the end of this tortured night,

Gwen has had three hours of broken sleep.

It's been the same for years.

It's like moving through jelly, it's, oh, it's just slow,

everything's slow and I'm slow today.

I should be able to get up and go, but today I can't.

And actually I think I'm going to cry, it's awful.

Long-term insomnia can have a devastating effect on mood,

health and relationships.

It's no wonder Gwen is at her wits' end.

One of the important things about doing the sleep house

with Gwen is rule out what's happening during the night.

Is there something that is waking her up, is there something

that's physically preventing her from getting to sleep?

That's where we're going to get some really good information

about the potential causes.

But what if you don't seem to need any sleep at all?

Our next case also seems to be an instance of horrible

sleep deprivation, but perhaps there's more to it than that.

To look at Sheila Bowie,

you wouldn't think she had a sleep problem at all.

Wuzzy-wuzzy-wuzzy!

A wife, mother of two, and a town councillor,

her life is all about being busy.

But she doesn't switch off at night.

The whole normal night...

No, it just doesn't happen.

SHE CHUCKLES

No, I don't get normal.

My worst nights are when I literally don't sleep at all,

I mean, you know, I literally get into bed

and I'm awake and watch the sun come up.

Sheila now survives on an average of just three hours a night

and her family are getting worried.

She always seems to be tired when she wakes up,

huge big purple bags under her eyes

and she looks like a Walking Dead zombie.

'I struggle to concentrate.'

So what are you going to make us for breakfast?

I sort of reach a point where I'm sort of, literally,

if I don't get a sleep I'm going to sort of either pass out or throw up.

Two or three hours of sleep, it's clearly not enough.

She is absolutely exhausted, she's very, very tired.

What's wrong with her? Is, is she poorly or something?

Cos... Cos if you keep getting kept awake,

there's something wrong with you

and I was wondering, is Mummy all right?

Time for Jason and Kirstie to investigate.

The cameras are going into Sheila's very own nocturnal lair.

Years of odd night-time antics

means she no longer sleeps with husband Neil.

But she does still have a bedtime companion.

There's a dog on the bed.

And Boo the dog isn't the only thing vying for Sheila's attention.

Wool and craft things there.

It's a really busy bedroom, I bet she's not sleeping at ten o'clock.

And indeed, three hours later,

Sheila is showing no signs of sleep.

She's fixed herself a snack.

Where's she off to now?

She's about to make some...

something to eat.

Then, Sheila does something the experts have never seen before

in one of their sleep labs.

Not common to get up and bake in the middle of the night.

It's not a normal behaviour

-that we would see within our insomnia populations.

-No.

They're more likely to be fretting in bed.

Yes, exactly.

-I mean, she doesn't look groggy, she doesn't look like...

-No.

..she's doing it on autopilot.

-No.

-She looks as if she's wide awake.

I'm really hungry, those cakes look fantastic, don't they?

She looks pretty good at this.

Two hours and three dozen cupcakes later,

Sheila heads back to bed and finally gives in to sleep.

I think it's going to be really important

to look at Sheila in the sleep house.

I want to know if there's anything physical stopping her

getting off to sleep in the first half of the night.

How is she going to manage without all of that electrical equipment

she was using at night?

Is she actually going to get off to sleep?

For Sheila, going to sleep seems like a choice,

but, for many of us, getting to bed at odd hours

is something we have to do in order to earn a living.

The UK is now a 24/7 society

with some 3.5 million of us regularly working shift patterns.

And that can play havoc with our sleep.

Our final volunteer, Chris Lockley, from Bedfordshire,

has been a shift worker for the last 30 years.

But he's finding it increasingly hard.

Twenty to six,

just about to get up to go to work.

It's half past seven in the evening and I'm going to bed,

cos I've got to be up for midnight.

It's 11:30 and I'm going to go and work and see how I get on.

HE YAWNS

To be honest with you,

last night I spent some of the time in bed

wondering what day it was.

cos working these night shifts has confused my body somewhat.

Chris feels permanently exhausted,

but he also finds it difficult to sleep when he's not working.

You go to bed and, all of a sudden, your brain switches on

and it goes round and round with random thoughts,

and you think, "I just want you to turn off so I can go to sleep."

It's not going down well with his new partner, Charlie,

who's recently moved in.

I'd like there to be a way that you could just...press a button

-and Chris would just go to sleep and then, I could go to sleep...

-Yeah.

..and then, you could press another button

and he'd just wake up refreshed.

Chris has coped with shift work for decades.

It's this new exhaustion that makes Kirstie and Jason suspect

this is a complicated case.

They'll need to unpick Chris's problems layer by layer.

Starting with his ever-changing work schedule.

We are programmed to feel awake in the day and to feel sleepy at night.

So if you do shift work,

you are fighting against your biological clock.

Chris needs to be up at a quarter to three in the morning

for an early shift,

so, while most of Britain enjoys their evening, he heads to bed.

But going to bed and going to sleep are two very different things.

-He just looks restless and awake, doesn't he?

-Yeah.

At ten o'clock, Charlie joins Chris and things seem to settle down.

But once they're both asleep, the experts discover another problem.

HE SNORES

OK, we're getting a bit of snoring.

-'Hm.

-Charlie's awake.'

I have to say it doesn't look to be bothering him,

-it's more Charlie getting increasingly...

-No...

Yeah, Charlie's actually moving him this time.

It seems it's not just the shift work

that's disturbing Chris's sleep.

He looked, before he woke up because of his snoring,

-to be sleeping quite well.

-Yeah.

-He's been kicked out there though.

-That's the thing.

Go and sleep on the sofa.

After just five hours of broken sleep,

it's time for a disorientated Chris to go to work.

-I think Chris is going to be quite a tough one.

-Hm.

-There's so many different things going on.

-Absolutely.

-There's behaviour.

-Mm-hm.

-There's biology.

-Hm.

You know, and environment.

HE SNORES

With a bit of insomnia, er...snoring, restlessness

and slightly...strange shifts.

I'd imagine I could be a challenge to cure.

HE LAUGHS

Good luck to you, experts, that's all I can say.

HE LAUGHS

The sleepmobile has given the experts some clues

into what's been plaguing our problem sleepers.

Tomorrow, they'll come here to undergo a series of rigorous tests,

and it's those, together with the surveillance footage,

which will help Kirstie and Jason find out exactly what's wrong

and how to fix it.

All five of our volunteers pose their own special challenges for our experts.

-Take care.

-Hm.

See you soon.

I'll see you soon!

Their problems are typical

of the sleep issues endured by millions of us.

The sleep house we've created has the perfect conditions

for a good night's sleep.

All the rooms are free from the distractions of modern life,

they're quiet, calm and clutter free.

And tonight, we won't just be watching them on night-vision cameras,

we'll also be using a whole raft of sophisticated scientific equipment

to monitor what happens to our volunteers throughout the night.

We'll be looking at their brain and their heart and their muscles

and getting a really detailed picture

so that we can inform the treatment.

First to arrive is the case that worries Kirstie and Jason the most -

van driver Paul, a man whose snoring could wake the dead.

Oh, oh, this is lovely.

I should think I should get some sleep on here tonight somehow.

Next is shift worker Chris,

who seems to have all sorts of sleep problems.

They can actually work out what they need to do to improve my sleep.

Cos I must admit I'm at my wits' end now.

I really hope they can sort it out

cos I don't like sleeping on the sofa.

HE CHUCKLES

For insomniac Gwen the question is,

can she be cured of a problem that's blighted her life for 30 years?

It's certainly a lovely bedroom,

it lends itself to a lovely night's sleep you would think, erm,

but we'll see how expert they are.

There's also cake-baker Sheila.

A woman who'll do anything at night except sleep.

It's a power cord for me to do me bits if I'm not sleeping,

make me key rings and things, so...

As I wasn't allowed to bring the real Boo, I brought the little replacement.

I might have to go and check out the kitchen

to see what supplies they've got in,

just in case I do, you know, get the midnight wandering.

And finally, there's Kathryn -

with her sleep talking, sleepwalking night terrors,

she's the most extreme case of the five people staying at the house.

Very nice.

The bed, it seems very nice and comfy.

Oh, yes, I think I'll sleep very well in here tonight.

Yeah, very, very nice.

But Kathryn seems to think she doesn't have a sleep problem at all.

And that may be because she's never seen her night-time behaviour.

Our cameras have now captured

two weeks' worth of Kathryn's parasomnia.

Kirstie and Jason want her to see the evidence.

-Come and take a seat.

-Hi, Jason.

-Hello, Kathryn.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Shall we have a look?

-OK.

THEY CHUCKLE

'Thanks...'

Nice fibble, you're my fibble.

SHE CHUCKLES

SHE LAUGHS

..baked in the oven.

Oh, no!

Oh, no.

Oh!

SHE SCREAMS

Calm down, wait, look at me.

I need my mum and dad.

Something really weird happened.

Wake up.

Are you OK?

'Poor Al.'

So, Kathryn, what was your reaction?

-It's quite shocking seeing yourself in a subconscious state.

-Hm.

And hearing what you say, it's a bit weird to...

to see that and it's a bit weird to do it as well.

Seeing the footage has suddenly made Kathryn nervous

about what tonight's investigations will reveal

about the cause of her strange behaviour.

I feel a little bit worried that they tell me

that there's something really bad or really wrong up there,

'something not working properly.

'It would be fantastic if it could be resolved.

'But time will tell.'

We now have five of Britain's worst sleepers

about to spend the night together.

What'll happen is anyone's guess.

Welcome to the sleep house.

You've all come here because you've been sleeping badly for years

and are exhausted, so we're going to try to sort out

your sleep problems for good.

Our experts have been monitoring your sleep,

they know how difficult your nights are

and now, they're going to try to find out why.

-I'll be getting straps in a minute.

-I might have to hold your hand.

THEY LAUGH

All these wires and sensors are part of a polysomnogram test.

Is this going to hurt?

We'll be very kind.

-It's not pulling tight anywhere?

-No, it's OK.

It'll allow Jason and Kirstie

to monitor each volunteer's breathing, brain activity, eye movement

and even how much they toss and turn throughout the night.

Polysomnogram is the gold standard of sleep tests.

So the electrodes going on

are recording the brainwave activity, the EEG,

so we can precisely determine when someone's awake,

when they're asleep, and what type of sleep they're having.

So, Paul, how are you feeling?

Bit worried at the moment now. I feel like Hannibal Lecter, actually.

Do I look like that?

SHE LAUGHS

THEY ALL LAUGH

Insomniac Gwen is already nervous about the night ahead,

but now, it's just all too much.

SHE SIGHS

-I'm just not feeling very well.

-OK.

From his years of experience,

Jason knows how daunting this must be for her.

It's OK, carry on.

-You sure?

-Mm-hm.

Sleep problems are debilitating,

people suffer and, in a lot of cases,

they're suffering in silence, because they don't know what to do.

If you can actually fix someone's sleep,

you pretty much give them a lot of their lives back.

The equipment won't go live until they go to bed -

until then, there's a chance to swap sleep stories.

No, no, cos I'm very quiet.

How do you have a quiet mixer?

-No, I don't have a mixer.

-Do you do it by hand?

I've got an arm. I use my arm.

-..stand there and...?

-Yeah.

I, I'm an old-fashioned kind of girl, me.

I can quite often stay in hotels

and I think I have, at some point, screamed in my sleep

and, you know, been up in my room.

The poor people sleeping in rooms next door to me...

must have thought, "Oh, she's having a good time."

THEY LAUGH

Good night, everyone.

It's bedtime,

but will Kathryn's screaming keep our two insomniacs awake?

And how will they all cope with our two world-class snorers?

Will anyone get any sleep with the amount of kit they're connected to?

I think I'm looking like a Cyberman.

It is quite nerve-racking,

cos you just don't know what the...what they'll find.

They're testing me for near enough everything here,

see if my brain works properly, whether my heart works properly

and whether I do kung-fu kicks in bed as well.

Could be a very interesting night, I'd say.

All the data will be fed out into the sleepmobile.

So far, Jason and Kirstie have hunches,

but the polysomnogram, or PSG, will give them answers.

And to get those, they'll have to track all five volunteers' readings throughout the night.

We typically think about sleep as an on-off, almost like a switch.

But sleep doesn't work like that,

there are various stages of how deep and refreshing sleep can be,

and how recuperative it can be,

and so, a PSG allows us to look at exactly how much each of those stages the individual is getting.

And so, their long night starts with everyone getting into bed quickly -

apart from our night owl, Sheila.

There's been so much going on today, I'm pretty wired so...

so it doesn't take much to put me off, really.

Surprisingly, a short while later,

insomniac Gwen is one of the first to turn out the lights.

-She looked tired just sitting downstairs, didn't she?

-Yeah.

The readout suggests Gwen could already be entering

the lightest stage of sleep.

Maybe the calm quiet surroundings of the sleep house are having an effect

because, down the hallway,

sleepwalker Kathryn is now also in the land of nod.

She's got really nice sleep staging, very even.

-And she looks very content.

-Hm!

She's pretty much out for the count.

According to the polysomnogram,

Kathryn is already into deep sleep.

Thanks to the cameras at Kathryn's house,

Jason and Kirstie expect that her strange behaviour should happen

during her first two hours of sleep.

So this is when the other volunteers are most at risk

of an unexpected visit.

-It's early days.

-Hm.

But, you know, we should be seeing something,

if we are going to see it,

in the first third of the night.

HE SNORES

By 11:30, shift worker Chris is out too.

So is lorry driver, Paul.

HE SNORES

Oh, the snoring is coming in for Paul there.

-I can just see the pressure sensors starting to pick it up.

-Hm.

HEAVY SNORING

And that means trouble for Gwen in the room next door.

SNORING

She may have dozed off for a while, but she's wide awake now.

Jason and Kirstie can see from the readouts

that she hasn't achieved any deep sleep so far.

Gwen's trying and she's trying and trying and trying

and I think it's eluding her more and more and more.

Jason and Kirstie suspect both men's snoring

could be a major cause of their sleeping problems.

HE SNORES

They're now paying close attention

to the sensors measuring Paul and Chris's breathing,

starting with shift worker Chris.

You can see bouts of snoring going on,

but there's no pressure and air flow issues.

Shift worker Chris gets the all clear.

But for lorry driver, Paul,

it's a very different story.

The snoring has got louder

and, look, the breathing's just started to tail off.

HE SNORES HEAVILY

Paul stops breathing for almost ten seconds before he wakes himself up.

HE SNORES

-That's the first convincing prolonged apnoea I've seen.

-Yeah.

The sensors confirm Jason and Kirstie's suspicion

that Paul has a condition called, sleep apnoea,

where a sufferer's airway relaxes too much during sleep and shuts,

stopping his breathing.

For the rest of the night,

our experts will be paying very close attention to this patient.

HE SNORES

It's now 1:30,

and Sheila is at last in bed.

Or, at least, on it.

She's not really trying to sleep.

Sheila may not be bothered about being awake.

But insomniac Gwen certainly is.

-Almost like it's typical for both of these women...

-Hm.

..but in very different ways.

-Hm.

-Sheila seems very content

with this, you know, up and down, up and down.

She wasn't trying to get into bed early at all.

And then, you've got Gwen, who's in and out of bed...

-Hm.

-..in the vain hope that sleep will come.

HE SNORES

Down the hall, shift worker Chris is still in a deep sleep.

The fact he's alone may be a vital clue for Kirstie and Jason.

Well, this is interesting,

-because the quality of it is really rather good.

-Yeah.

-And he's not sleeping with Charlie.

-Hm.

-So maybe this is the occasion where she'd be waking him up with the...

-Could be, yeah.

..the little pat on the side.

HE SNORES

At home, lorry driver Paul would also be on the sofa by now.

Our concerned experts are now waiting for his dream sleep -

when the body's muscles are at their most relaxed.

This is when sleep apnoea is at its worst.

-He looks deep into dream sleep there and...

-Oh, yes.

-..it's all worse and the breathing's worse.

-Hm.

HE SNORES

Paul stops breathing for an alarmingly long time.

HE SNORES

-That's...25 seconds, that one.

-OK.

This really worries Jason and Kirstie.

Paul's condition affects 4% of British men

and it's been linked to all sorts of life-threatening complications.

I mean, the long-term effects of sleep apnoea,

it's not just the fact that you feel rotten and you're sleepy,

these are people with high blood pressure

and an increased rate of things like heart attacks and strokes,

when sleep apnoea is really severe.

HE SNORES

They may have identified the root cause of Paul's problem.

But there's no rest for Kirstie and Jason,

they've now got night-baker Sheila to deal with.

So lights off at around...two,

but she's not asleep...

-I mean, those are wide awake rhythms, aren't they?

-Hm.

She's disappeared off, she's out of the bedroom now.

Where's she going?

Oh, she's into the kitchen now.

Oh, she looks very content.

-Hm.

-Pottering around.

Not satisfied with cupcakes,

a wide-awake and busy Sheila has gone

for the full Victoria sponge.

It's now the wee small hours of the morning

and it should be the most peaceful time in Britain's homes.

HE SNORES

But not here.

The whole building is filled with the sounds of snoring,

cooking and general activity.

Maybe we shouldn't have called it the sleep house after all.

Sheila heads back upstairs.

And now, it's Gwen's turn to set off for the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Sheila is finally calling it a night.

I mean, she's only just settling, look, now four in the morning.

HE CHUCKLES

-OK.

-So, boy, she's gone straight into deep sleep though, she's...

Like you would.

According to the monitors,

Sheila has dropped almost immediately into deep sleep.

And Kirstie thinks she's worked out just what's going on.

-So it's two different sleep disorders here, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Typical insomnia with nothing physical to disrupt her sleep.

-No.

And then, this is someone

who's doing lots of things she shouldn't around bedtime

-and isn't even trying to fall asleep till about four in the morning.

-Yeah.

Sheila finally joins our two snorers

in the land of nod.

Along with sleepwalker Kathryn, who hasn't stirred all night.

Only poor Gwen is still awake.

For her, the night has been a disaster.

Gwen's tried to get back to bed.

-Hm.

-And you can see some slow rolling eye movements.

-She's drowsy.

-She's drowsy, but there's...

-she's just not connecting into the sleep.

-Hm.

It's a quarter to six in the morning before Gwen finally falls asleep.

Morning in the sleep house

and our five volunteers are waiting for their diagnosis.

For Jason and Kirstie,

the time and effort they've put into the night have been worth it.

Hi, guys!

How do you think it's gone in the sleep house?

I think it's gone really well.

It's been really tiring for us and our contributors,

but what we have is five definite sleep disorders.

We know exactly what we have to do.

How hard are they going to have to work

in order to solve these sleep problems?

They're all going to have to work hard,

I suspect they don't know quite how hard just yet,

but we just have to keep the explanations really consistent

about long-term gain for short-term pain.

Jason and Kirstie may feel optimistic,

but, for insomniac Gwen,

the whole sleep house experience has been a nightmare.

'I feel like I've never had such a bad night's sleep.'

Sheila, God bless her, I could,

I could smell the cakes that she was making at, I think it was about two.

And I feel terrible.

In fact, I feel so bad er, I think I'd just like to go home.

SHE CHUCKLES

But Jason swears that he can help me, so...

..so here's hoping, fingers crossed.

30 years of bad sleep have made Gwen suspicious of any treatment.

But the polysomnogram has recorded some surprising details

about what Gwen did last night.

-Hello, Gwen.

-Hello.

Hello, hello.

So what this tells us

is that actually you spent quite a lot of your night awake.

-Mm-hm.

-Which, I think, you probably know that?

Yeah, I do, yeah.

And then, there's quite a big portion here

of very, very light sleep.

Gwen actually dozed off numerous times during the night -

she was officially asleep for a total of four hours.

So those four hours that you see,

which I'm quite shocked at that it was four hours,

so could they be sort of...ten minute slots or...?

-Absolutely.

-That's not like I'm sleeping for four hours.

-No.

-Not at all.

She's never achieved the deep, refreshing sleep we all need.

So a rotten night's sleep,

but still, in fact, you're sleeping

for just over 50% of the time you're in bed.

That, that amazes me that I actually slept for four hours because...

I think one of the... Yes, absolutely.

You don't remember being in the lighter stages of sleep sometime.

This surprising result gives Jason hope that a cure is not so far away.

He believes if he can make those four hours one continuous block of sleep,

Gwen will make a breakthrough.

We're going to squash it so that it's a consistent period of time

and that'll actually lead you, hopefully,

to feeling, "I've had some sleep."

That's, that's the...

HE CHUCKLES

..that's all I wanted to hear actually that, that, erm...

you can help me, that's all I want at the end of the day.

Someone who stayed up most of the night

was phantom cake-baker Sheila.

-Right, let's start getting this off.

-Yeah.

In spite of just a few hours' sleep, Sheila seems remarkably chipper.

So what sort of night did you have, did you get any sleep?

Erm, I think I got some, around two and a half hours, I think,

but erm, you know, there was this strange apparition in the kitchen at one point

making Victoria sponges.

SHE CHUCKLES

-Oh, I noticed the Victoria sponges downstairs.

-Yeah, they're nice. Bizarre, you know.

The overnight study has convinced the experts

that Sheila doesn't have insomnia, like Gwen.

So you can just about see you in the bed there.

But can the polysomnograms solve the puzzle

of why she stays up all night and how she survives on so little sleep?

So, last night, when we did the overnight polysomnogram...

Yeah.

..you actually slept for only two and a half hours.

I know, it wasn't good.

But I will put a caveat in that.

-Mm-hmm.

-The two and a half hours you got,

-that we monitored through all of those wires...

-Yeah.

..was actually of really good quality.

When you do sleep, you sleep very well.

I think you've acquired a really disrupted sleep pattern...

-Yeah.

-..and very much a broken clock.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

It means that the body clock is not really giving you the right signals

as to what time you should be in bed and what time you should be awake.

Kirstie and Jason realise Sheila has no problem

getting good quality sleep,

but her broken body clock means

she doesn't follow the normal daily cycle

of feeling sleepy when darkness falls.

To make matters worse,

she's filling more of the night with busy pastimes,

so much so she's running out of time to sleep.

You're just about managing,

but I think the cracks are starting to show.

They are, that's right.

-So there's lots that we need to get in there and fix.

-Definitely.

Otherwise, I think you're really going to struggle.

If the experts are to cure Sheila,

it'll mean changing habits that have developed over years.

Right, so I'll just take these...

One of the shocks of the night has been shift worker Chris.

He's had one of his best sleeps in a long time.

I look dead.

SHE LAUGHS

-We haven't pressed play yet...

-Oh.

-Don't worry.

THEY LAUGH

You fell asleep at midnight.

Yep.

-You took less than ten minutes to fall asleep.

-Mm-hmm.

-And you woke just after six, so you had six hours' sleep.

-Mm-hmm.

And it was really good quality sleep.

-You take a chance to sleep well when you can.

-Yeah.

But Jason and Kirstie have seen that, at home,

those chances are few and far between.

As well as his shift work,

his snoring is annoying new partner Charlie,

and nights on the sofa are fast becoming the norm.

How often is it that you're actually ending up in the couch?

It, it seems to happen quite often now, yeah.

So how often, how many nights a week?

-Five.

-About five out of seven?

Four or five, yeah.

Chris, what did you think when you saw that video footage,

the night footage back?

I must admit, I did actually start to think to myself,

-"Am I really that bad?!"

-Really?

And er, I didn't realise I disturbed Charlie so much in the night,

it was quite, quite an eye-opener actually, yeah.

When I am sleeping, the quality of sleep I'm getting is really good,

but the thing is it's just a matter of making Charlie as well

getting a good night sleep as well, from me not snoring, so...

If they can solve those issues, then I'll be a happy man.

Sleepwalker Kathryn didn't exhibit any unusual behaviour last night,

but, on the basis of the footage recorded at her flat,

Jason and Kirstie have a definitive diagnosis.

You're much more likely to have trouble in the first couple of hours,

and we know that you're very likely to be in your non dream,

your slow-wave sleep.

You're coming out of this stage of sleep,

so body awake, brain not really.

What are the options for, say, treatment,

if you wanted to go down that route?

There's certainly medication that we prescribe -

-Temazepam, Clonazepam, drugs you might have heard of...

-Hm.

..are effective for a large number of sleepwalkers.

Of course, you have to weigh that up

against the potential side effects of tablets.

I mean, I don't, I don't want to take any drugs for this.

With drugs not an option,

Jason and Kirstie will need to come up with a creative solution

to make sure Kathryn is kept safe while she sleep walks.

That leaves Paul,

the last of our volunteers to get his results.

He came to the sleep house hoping to find a cure for his snoring.

But the night study has confirmed

there's something much more serious going on.

These bands down here were the monitors

-around your chest and your abdomen.

-OK.

And, normally, you'd expect those to move gently up and down.

In fact, there's quite a prolonged pause where it doesn't move at all.

Mm-hmm.

You've completely stopped breathing there.

Right, OK. A bit worrying.

And if we look, the oxygen level is starting to drop.

96, 95, 94...

And we absolutely know the reason,

-the pressure builds up as you snore.

-Mm-hm.

All of those soft tissues at the back of your throat close.

Right.

-And there's a big snort and a jerk and you wake up again.

-Mm-hm.

This is happening between 15 and 20 times an hour

and each time you are waking.

I'm real...really worried, to tell you the truth.

HE CHUCKLES

And if that wasn't bad enough,

this condition puts Paul's career as a lorry driver in jeopardy.

Obstructive sleep apnoea is something

you HAVE to let the DVLA know about.

They know that people with untreated sleep apnoea are worse drivers.

From this point on, Paul can no longer work.

-It's a lot to take in...

-It is, yeah.

..when you thought this was just rotten snoring.

It's devastating news.

I've been driving lorries for 22 years now.

Er... It's like the only job I know I can do properly,

give 100% commitment,

so...and a major shock to my system

to think, you know, "What am I going to do now?"

Paul may be leaving in shock,

but he's not leaving without hope.

Like all our volunteers, Kirstie and Jason have a treatment plan for him.

But it isn't going to be easy.

HEAVY BREATHING

Next time...

It is really daunting to see something like that.

Night-night, Darth Vader!

The five volunteers begin some bizarre new sleep regimes.

ALARM BLARES

It's like a medieval means of torture.

-Let's go into the bedroom.

-Yes, let's.

But can they change the habits of a lifetime?

No, the irony is, it's been worse since he got back from sleep house.

ALARM GOES OFF

SHE SCREAMS

You actually need to get your mum not to cook at night.

CHILDREN: Oh!

And will they finally be able to get a good night's sleep?

You're a very nice man, but I really don't like you very much.

SHE LAUGHS

If Jason and Kirstie manage

to give our sleep-deprived five a good night's rest,

then, maybe there's hope for us all.

But that's in the next programme.

Until then, good night, Britain.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd