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Planning on giving up smoking, losing weight or spending less money in 2015? Then get more sleep.

A study has shown that our failure to stick to New Year's resolutions each year is simply down to tiredness.

Researchers found that those who got less than seven hours of sleep each night were far more likely to have weak willpower.

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Getting a good night's sleep might be as useful as forcing yourself to the gym in the morning, according to research by psychologists at the University of Hertfordshire who found it can help improve willpower

Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, claims that tiredness erodes self-control.

His findings suggest that using complicated techniques to stick to diets and getting up early to the gym may actually not be helping 

Instead, Professor Wiseman recommends going to bed earlier and trying to go to the gym in the evening rather than first thing in the morning.

He said: '[The brain requires energy] to do something we don't really want to do or find difficult to do.

'If you are sleep deprived, then you don't have the mental energy needed.

'In fact some of the things that people do for their resolutions, like getting up early to go to the gym, leave them more sleep deprived.

'This is why over time they find it harder and harder to keep going.'

In previous research from 2010 Professor Wiseman has found that 80 per cent of people in Briton let their resolutions slip before the end of January.

In the latest study, he asked more than 1,000 people to rate both the quality of their sleep and how successful they were at achieving their New Year's resolutions in an online survey.

More than 60 per cent of those who said they were getting enough sleep - usually regarded to be more than eight hours - were able to achieve their resolutions. 

Dr. Linda Papadopoulos on the importance of sleep routine

Getting up early to go to the gym becomes harder over time as people lose sleep in favour of getting exercise

Unhealthy foods like chocolate and alcohol are the most common things people try to give up each year

This compared with just 44 per cent of those who slept poorly who managed to stick to their resolutions.

Experiments by other groups have shown that in the workplace people who are sleep deprived tend to cut corners more or waste more time browsing the internet when they should be working.

Researchers have also shown that sleep deprivation can lead people to make poorer diet choices, often picking foods high in fat and sugar.

Insomnia can impact both of physical health, the immune system and on mental learning, but the latest findings also suggest it can damage willpower, making it harder to achieve good intentions

Professor Wiseman added: 'At the moment people will planning what they are going to try to achieve this year and how.

'What we have found suggests that they are actually putting in more effort than they need to.

'If they went to bed a bit earlier then it would make it easier to achive their resolutions.'

Around 80 per cent of Britons fail to stick to their New Year's resolutions like losing weight beyond January