If Friday hasn’t come soon enough and your big weekend plans all involve your duvet, maybe tiredness is becoming an issue.

Tiredness is often due to stress, not enough sleep, poor diet and other habits. Try these self-help tips to restore your energy levels an get a better nights sleep.

If you feel you’re suffering from fatigue, which is an overwhelming tiredness that isn’t helped by rest and sleep, you may have an underlying medical condition. Consult a GP for advice.

Eat often to beat tiredness

A good way to keep up your energy is to eat regular meals and healthy snacks every 3 to 4 hours. This can be in place of a large meal less often.

Get moving

Exercise might be the last thing on your mind but even a 15-minute walk can give you an energy boost, and the benefits increase with more frequent physical activity.

Take time to relax

Learning how to relax takes practice, but over time it can help release tension in your body, calm your mind and improve your mental wellbeing.

There is a really useful bedtime meditation video where you can let the instructor’s soothing words and relaxing moves, help you leave the stresses and strains of the day behind and prepare for restful sleep.

Although this video is ideal at bedtime, you can follow it whenever you need to take time out to relax. All you need is a blanket, some cushions and a mat if useful, the most important thing is to be comfortable.

These fitness videos have been created by InstructorLive and range from 10 to 45 minutes. Please note that these videos are recorded sessions of previously live webcasts.

Drink more water for better energy 

Sometimes you feel tired simply because you’re mildly dehydrated. Drinking more, especially water throughout the day can increase your ability to have a better nights sleep.

For more tips on getting better night’s sleep visit NHS.uk

Even gentle exercise can improve your health and wellbeing. You don’t have to pay huge sums of money for expensive memberships or equipment or torture yourself doing something you hate. Instead, why not think about trying to add more movement into your life to keep your mind and body happy and healthy.

Top tips

• The best exercise you can do is the one you enjoy and the one you can do regularly. Anyone can do something they dislike every day for a week, if you even last that long! This doesn’t compare to the benefits of doing something you look forward to doing once a week for the next 20 years.
• Physical activity doesn’t have to be structured and formal. It could be a walk around your town, dancing in the living room, stretching, or gardening.
• Choose something that feels good. Who doesn’t want an effective, joyful way to start their morning, decompress after work, spend time with others, or stretch their muscles?
• Aim to meet the recommendations. There are so many ways you might do this.
• Do it with others- with a friend, with family, or join a class. This can add to the enjoyment and keep you accountable.
• Or it could be an opportunity for some time to yourself.
• Learn a new skill, such as Pilates, climbing or golf.
• Reduce your sedentary time. Regardless of how active you are, reducing your time spent sitting still has additional health benefits.
• Snack on activity. Little and often can be easier than one longer session, such as 3 x 10-minute brisk walks rather than 1 x 30-minute walk.

Putting this into action

Having the knowledge and understanding is only part of the puzzle. We all know what we ought to be doing; that doesn’t mean we do it. Take some time to think about the following points so you have a clear plan of what you will do and how.

• What are your reasons to increase activity? More energy, more confidence, or better stress management? Reminding yourself of these will help motivate you. If you have more than one reason for doing it, it is easier to adapt if your circumstances change or your goal shifts.
• What might prevent you from achieving your goal and how you will overcome this. Anticipating problems before they arise puts us in a better position to deal with them.
• Start small and don’t try to change multiple things at once. Changing one thing a small amount is easy to do, immediately rewarding and quickly becomes a habit to build on.
• Set SMART goals

Specific

A specific goal is much more likely to be accomplished than a general one. To help you make your goal specific, think about Who, What, Where, When and Why

Measurable

A measurable goal lets you know if you are making progress. Are you walking faster or longer distances, are you lifting heavier weights, are you active more often or managing the stress of daily life better? When your goal is measurable you can manage your progress. Ask yourself ‘how much’ or ‘how many’?

Achievable

You need to know you will be able to achieve your goals in the given time. They should slightly challenge you but not to an extent that they demotivate you if you are unable to meet your target

Relevant

A relevant goal is one that is important to you. Think about your reasons for making a change.

Time-bound

A time-bound goal helps you to visualise how it will fit into your life. Think how frequently and for how long you will do the activity. E.g. you might start doing something for 20 minutes, twice a week.