I might not possess Cat Deeley’s glowing skin, luscious hair or prowess in front of the camera – but we do have something in common. The This Morning presenter and I both struggle to get to sleep – and, all too often, wake in the night riddled with anxiety. For me, the worries are generally around family, friends and the kids. Have I called my mum often enough? Been there when friends needed me? And most often – ‘Arg! The children will leave home in two or three years! Must do better parenting so they will be better adults!’

For Cat, the difficulty sleeping is around her to-do list. ‘I find it very difficult to turn my brain off,’ she said in an interview. ‘It starts off as really useful stuff. I make a to-do list – did I cancel the boys’ violin lesson? Have I booked tennis? And then it just disappears into this abyss of nonsense and worrying about things we can’t control.’

Whereas I tend to stay in bed, worrying. Cat has a different approach to take control of the night. ‘If I can’t go back to sleep, I get up, do some yoga, have a coffee, so then the ritual feels nicer.’

And she says she finds the usual solutions don’t help. ‘I’ve tried everything: magnesium, salt baths, pillow sprays, sleepy teas, meditation, breathing exercises,’ she says, and adds: ‘I’ve just come to terms with it now and, as long as I get four [hours’ sleep], I’m alright.’ My own benchmark is five.

So where are we going wrong? ‘Waking in the night and finding your mind suddenly racing is incredibly common, and there’s a physiological reason for it,’ says Dr Hannah Burrage, lead GP at Kry Livi. ‘Our sleep pressure – the drive that keeps us asleep – is naturally lower in the second half of the night, which makes it much easier for the brain to rouse itself and start problem-solving. The trouble is, an anxious, half-asleep brain isn’t a rational one; it tends to catastrophise rather than actually resolve anything.’

Her advice echoes Cat’s own instinct. ‘If you’ve been lying awake for more than about 20 minutes, the best thing you can do is get up. Staying in bed while your mind races only strengthens the association between your bed and wakefulness, which makes it harder to fall asleep there in future. Do something calm and boring in dim light – I’d avoid a screen – and only go back to bed once you feel sleepy again, not just tired.

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‘One thing I recommend is keeping a notepad by the bed – not to solve anything in the moment, but simply to write the thought down and give yourself permission to deal with it in daylight. The goal isn’t to empty your mind of every worry; it’s to convince your nervous system that nothing needs solving right now.’

And Dr Burrage has some reassuring words for all us short sleepers. ‘I’d also gently push back on the idea that you need eight unbroken hours to function. Waking briefly in the night is normal sleep architecture, not a failure. Piling pressure on yourself to sleep perfectly is often what turns a normal night-waking into a stressful one – so a bit of self-compassion goes a long way.’

Dr Burrage’s three steps to sleep

‘If you wake in the night, don’t fight it – get up. Lying there willing yourself back to sleep almost always backfires. If 20 minutes have passed, get out of bed. It breaks the cycle of frustration and protects the mental link between bed and sleep.

Keep a notepad by the bed. Jot the worry or to-do item down and tell yourself it’ll keep until morning – you’re not ignoring it, just postponing it to a time your brain can actually deal with it properly.

Keep the lights low and the stimulation lower. Do something calm in dim light – reading, stretching, a few slow breaths. Skip the phone; screens tell your brain it’s time to be alert, exactly when you’re trying to convince it otherwise.’