Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid reveals she starts the day with 8 cups of coffee

While many of us battle our snooze alarms in the morning, think of Susanna Reid and her 3:45 am alarm clock.

The Good Morning Britain presenter has admitted that she feels “tired most of the time” but is a firm believer in the power of a nap and caffeine.

“I’ve been doing breakfast news for almost 20 years,” the 52-year-old told this newspaper’s You magazine. ‘Early starts are integrated into the job. From the outside it looks like a weird, weird, unnatural time of the morning, but to me it’s just work. You build strategies, habits and rituals to deal with it.’

One of his main coping mechanisms is to drink up to eight cups of coffee to get through the three-hour ITV breakfast show. “Caffeine kicks in at 4:30 am,” Reid admits. ‘When I get here there is coffee on my desk and they keep coming every 15 minutes until 9 in the morning. Cups appear wherever you are in the building. I have about eight but then no more caffeine for the rest of the day.’

Afterwards, the mother of three will happily begin a nap, which can last up to two hours. “Having a guilt-free nap is one of the great joys of my day,” Reid said.

‘I don’t set an alarm. I only see what my body needs naturally… I’ve told myself that as long as I have seven hours in a 24 hour period, I shouldn’t be obsessed with having it all at once.’

As a journalist, Reid is diligent in his research, but there’s one area he doesn’t dare investigate too much: sleep.

“There have been a number of great sleep books recently and I make it a point not to read them,” he said.

“I am concerned that they will say that my sleep strategy is silly, that naps don’t count and that I have caused long-term damage to my health due to chronic sleep deprivation. I do not want to know!