This is why you struggle to sleep in a bed that isn't your own

According to science

Do you struggle to sleep in unfamiliar places? Do you toss and turn all night when staying in a fancy hotel? Do you lie there staring at the ceiling just waiting for dawn to break?

There’s a reason for that. It’s all to do with how our brains are wired.

According to a report from Brown University half of your brain stays alert when you try to catch those Zs in a bed that’s not your own.

Associate professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences (say that three times fast) at Brown, Yuka Sasaki, said: ‘The left side seems to more awake than the right side,’ concluding this may be why people tend to feel tried after sleeping in a new place.

Saski and her team of researchers studied the brain wave patterns of 35 students, paying particular attention to ‘slow-wave activity’ which appears during deep sleep.

They found that during a student’s first night in the sleep lab slow wave activity was greater in the right side of the brain than the left. After the first night, the difference went away.

In other words, this means the left half of the brain was more alert during the first night, with those studied more likely to wake from slumber than the subsequent nights.

This could be why you’re such a rubbish sleeper, even in the comfiest of beds.