This simple test will reveal if you're sleep deprived

All you need is a spoon and a metal tray

There's nothing worse than curling up into bed after a long, hard day and not being able to simply nod off into the land of slumber. Instead you find yourself lying there, watching the hours passing you by until you have to get up and face the day again.

According to the NHS, one in three of us suffers from poor sleep. Though this is hardly surprising after one recent study revealed that the majority of us only get six hours sleep a night, as opposed to the optimum eight hour recommendation.

If you find that you do have trouble falling asleep, then yoga for insomnia might just be the way forward. For those of you who have no problem drifting off but suffer from a restless night sleep then we'd recommend taking a look at how to solve weird sleep disorders to work out what you're suffering from and how to fix it.

As well as causing bad moods and an inability to focus, sleep deprivation can also lead to serious health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. But how do you work out if you're actually sleep deprived or just a bit tired?

Well, according to Dr Michael Mosley, all you need is a spoon and a metal tray to find out the answer.

Developed by researcher Nathaniel Kleitman at the University of Chicago, The Sleep Onset Latency Test is thought to reveal if you are suffering sleep deprivation.

'It's based on solid science,' Mosley writes in The Mail.

To try the experiment 'you need to lie down in a quiet, darkened room in the early afternoon clutching a spoon, which you hold over the edge of the bed,' he explains. 'You put a metal tray on the floor by your bed, then close your eyes,' Mosley adds.

The test is designed to find out if you fall asleep and, if so, how soon after lying down you drift off.

The idea behind the experiment is that once you do nod off, the spoon will drop from your 'senseless fingers' and onto the metal tray below with a nice loud clang. The noise should then wake you up, unless you happen to be a very heavy sleeper.

As soon as you're awake you should check your clock to see how much time has elapsed since you closed your eyes (so make sure you also check the time when you start this experiment).

If you managed to fall asleep within five minutes of closing your eyes then chances are you are severely sleep deprived. If you drop the spoon with ten minutes then results suggest you have trouble getting a good night's rest, and any time over fifteen minutes implies you're ok.

Simple, hey?