Radio 1 gets advice from The Sleep Works on how to stay AWAKE for Comic Relief

Radio 1’s Scott Mills and Chris Stark are giving up something very important to support this year’s Comic Relief: sleep.

There will probably also be a good chunk of delirium and a bit of grumpiness too.

We sleep to restore and repair our body and mind and most adults need between 7 and 9 hours sleep a night, but while sleep is essential, missing a day’s sleep to stay up all night telling jokes won’t result in any long term problems.

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“Cortisol is a hormone that gets released if we miss sleep windows, so if we’re lacking sleep we produce cortisol and it can affect us in various different ways,” MaryAnne Taylor, who owns and runs The Sleep Works website, tells Radio 1.

“Once it has been released, it almost takes over from the natural sleep hormone, melatonin.”

MaryAnne tell us that Scott and Chris will find the early hours of the morning the toughest part, when the Radio 1 offices are quiet and there’s no natural light, but once they get to sunrise on Wednesday morning, they’ll be through the worst.

So what can Scott and Chris do during the Lol-A-Thon to keep themselves alert? Our experts have some recommendations.

“You want to keep your mind and body quite active, so you need to move” says MaryAnne.

“They can’t just sit. Sitting is a disaster because that really gives that feeling of lethargy.”

The food they eat during the night will make a huge difference to their energy levels, so pizza and sweets should probably be avoided.

But when it’s all over, Scott and Chris may feel the effects of staying awake for such a long period for the rest of the week.

“Their body clocks will be out of sync and it may take a few days for that to regulate back into a normal pattern,” says MaryAnne.