How Night Shift Workers Can Reset Their Body Clock for Better Sleep

From usmagazine.com

About 15 million Americans clock in when the rest of the country is winding down, and the toll on their bodies is steeper than most people realize. Working against your body’s natural clock creates a compounding cycle that affects everything from mood to long-term health — and the challenge of night shift sleep goes well beyond just feeling tired.

The good news: researchers have identified which strategies actually help reset the body clock, and which popular fixes are wasting your time.

What Night Shift Work Actually Does to Your Body

Your body runs on a roughly 24-hour internal clock, and night work forces it to be alert during hours it’s built to sleep. Long-term night shift work is associated with a significantly elevated risk of cardiovascular disease — up to 40 percent higher than day workers — as well as increased rates of metabolic disorders, depression and anxiety. Night shift workers also produce 34-54 percent less melatonin over a 24-hour period compared to day workers, with the steepest drop among people who are naturally early risers.

The clinical version of this struggle has a name: Shift Work Sleep Disorder, or SWSD — persistent insomnia or excessive sleepiness tied directly to a work schedule lasting more than three months. A March 2025 study in Clocks & Sleep found it affects anywhere from 26-48 percent of night shift workers.

Why Resetting Your Body Clock Is Harder Than It Sounds

Most shift workers assume their bodies will eventually adjust if they stick with it. The reality is messier. New night workers typically take two to four weeks to even begin adapting, and full adaptation rarely happens for people on rotating schedules. Permanent night workers fare better — a fixed schedule, even an unusual one, is easier on the body than one that constantly changes.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Morning light on the commute home can undo body clock progress made overnight by suppressing melatonin right when it should be rising, and family obligations on days off pull workers back toward daytime rhythms. A January 2026 BMJ Open analysis confirmed shift work is linked to extensively disrupted sleep — especially for permanent night workers.

How to Use Light to Your Advantage

Light is the single most powerful tool shift workers have, and using it well comes down to timing. Bright light during the first six hours of a night shift keeps melatonin suppressed and alertness sharp. A January 2025 meta-analysis in Scientific Reports found light therapy significantly improved total sleep time and sleep efficiency in shift workers.

The flip side matters just as much — blue-light blocking glasses worn on the morning commute home help prevent sunlight from triggering wakefulness before you’ve slept. Once home, blackout curtains, a sleep mask and a cool room around 65 degrees Fahrenheit protect daytime sleep from the cues that signal “wake up” to the brain.

The Right Way to Use Melatonin for Shift Work

Melatonin is widely available and widely misunderstood. Timing matters far more than dose — taking 0.5-3mg about 30 minutes before intended daytime sleep helps initiate rest, and most clinical studies supporting its use work in that range, not the larger amounts often sold at drugstores. For rotating shift workers, a low dose on days off can ease the transition back toward a daytime schedule.

One important note: melatonin is a timing tool, not a sedative. It won’t overcome a bright room or a noisy house, and it works best as part of a broader routine. If symptoms of SWSD persist for months, that’s worth a conversation with a doctor.

Daily Habits That Make the Biggest Difference for Night Shift Sleep

A 20-30 minute nap before or during a night shift sharpens alertness without leaving you groggy — longer naps tend to backfire. Caffeine works best at the start of a shift rather than throughout, and cutting it off four to six hours before sleep keeps it from circulating when you need to rest.

Consistency on days off is one of the most underrated strategies available — shifting sleep time by no more than an hour or two protects whatever adaptation has been built, while large swings back to a daytime schedule create fresh disruption every week. Two habits worth avoiding: being awake for 17 hours impairs judgment to the equivalent of a 0.05 percent blood alcohol level, and alcohol — though it feels sedating — reduces sleep quality overall.

The path forward for most shift workers isn’t perfection. It’s building a few consistent, evidence-based habits and knowing when persistent symptoms are worth bringing to a doctor.

https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/how-night-shift-workers-can-reset-their-body-clock-for-better-sleep/ 

How to Stop Taking Pills Without Relapsing into Insomnia

From todoalicante.es

By Doménico Chiappe, Madrid

Patients arrive medicated from primary care when the condition is chronic. Three specialists discuss how they help patients stop taking medication

More than six million people in Spain regularly consume hypnotic sedatives, such as sleeping pills or benzodiazepines. This is especially prevalent among women, increasingly younger, according to data from the Ministry of Health's Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs. "We live in a country where more sleeping pills are consumed than anywhere else. The problem is that higher doses are needed over time due to tolerance, leading to abuse. In this case, the patient faces two issues: insomnia and abuse," says Carlos Egea, president of the Spanish Federation of Sleep Medicine Societies (Fesmes). "Each year, the proportion of people taking them increases," confirms Ainhoa Álvarez, president of the Spanish Sleep Society. "Most drugs used for insomnia, though not all, are benzodiazepines, which cause dependence and tolerance."

When they reach the specialist, patients with sleep problems are already medicated. "An insomnia patient sleeps poorly or little, struggles to fall asleep, or wakes up and cannot return to sleep, and then feels unwell during the day. A diagnosis must rule out other sleep disorders and confirm insomnia," Álvarez continues. "The issue is that by the time they reach the Sleep Unit, they have often already been through primary care and have been prescribed medication, which is the quickest way to sleep."

The use of these drugs begins before the age of 15 in Spain, with an average age of 46. The groups with the highest consumption have low educational levels and work in unskilled manual jobs, administrative roles, rural areas, social services, or are unemployed, according to the 'Conclusions of the Gender Working Group of the Spanish Council on Drug Addiction and Other Addictions'. "If after an evaluation we diagnose chronic insomnia, the first-line treatment is cognitive-behavioural therapy. If there is no response, it is combined with pharmacological treatment to address the underlying mechanisms and correct the disorder with medication," recommends Adolfo Alcoba, a member of the Sleep Alliance. "The question is what to do if there is already dependence and the patient has been taking medication for a long time and developed tolerance."

"There are two public health issues: general sleep problems and the high consumption of hypnotic sedatives."

The most common drugs for insomnia cause cognitive decline in the elderly, affect memory, create dependence, and require increasingly higher doses until they become ineffective, Alcoba states: "Here are two major public health issues. First, general sleep problems, affecting 40% of the population; and second, the high consumption of benzodiazepines and hypnotic sedatives. We need to reduce this percentage to a minimum. But if someone goes to their GP and says they can't sleep or wake up very tired, they are often given a pill by default. Can they stop taking it later?"

                                                                   A person sitting on their bed at night. (R. C.)

This week, the Sleep Alliance presented the 'Practical Guide to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Chronic Insomnia', on psychological intervention in these cases, as the first level of care and to help stop these drugs. This guide outlines several steps: the patient must learn what induces sleep and how to manage these factors, develop a "sleep hygiene routine", control alert stimuli, and apply various measures during insomnia, restrict time in bed, and feel the "pressure of sleep, because if a person doesn't go to sleep and watches TV or uses their phone, they won't sleep and become more alert," says Alcoba, co-author of the study.

"Thoughts about their insomnia problem, which can be intrusive, are changed."

"It has two parts. In the behavioural part, the patient is taught to adopt more suitable behaviours to overcome insomnia, as sometimes we make it worse. For example, staying in bed for too long, hoping to fall asleep. So, we work to change these patient behaviours. In the cognitive part, thoughts about their insomnia problem, which can be intrusive or myths about sleep, are changed," Álvarez explains about a treatment that "is often not offered in the National Health Service. Ideally, this therapy would be provided in primary care."

Years Go By

Something that is not a myth is that insomnia increases with age. "Yes, because we have more problems as we age. Mr. Prostate, Mrs. Hot Flushes, Mr. Pain. Older people have fragmented sleep and not the continuous sleep we all desire. It's more complicated," Egea states. "The age range for sleeping seven to nine hours starts at twenty and goes up to 65, pressured by our working lives. Then comes retirement, which allows more time for sleep, but there are also doctors, anxiety... Each stage has its general problems."

With age, night-time awakenings become more frequent and especially "longer," says Álvarez. "When you're young or a child, you wake up several times at night; it's normal to wake up three or four times. But we turn over, go back to sleep, and don't remember because it lasted thirty seconds or a minute. But when awakenings are longer, we are more aware and have less deep and shorter sleep. Sleep also changes with age. An elderly person may sleep less than two hours at night but take one or two naps, mid-morning and mid-afternoon."

One or Two Naps

Is it beneficial and advisable to take a nap? The experts' answer is 'yes'. "Napping is good, but always short. Less than 30 minutes," Álvarez maintains. "Our brain is programmed to nap, but if it's too long, it will take away from night-time sleep. We tell insomnia patients not to nap for more than 30 minutes, although it depends on each case. Some people work nights, sleep little, and then take a long nap. So, everyone has to adapt their lifestyle."

Egea agrees: "It's only good for about half an hour. The nap complements a little but doesn't replace night-time sleep. It doesn't take away from night-time sleep afterwards, but if you're an insomniac, we don't recommend it."

https://www.todoalicante.es/english/stop-taking-pills-without-20260430100423-nt.html

Why Your Brain “Dreams” Even When You’re Awake

From neurosciencenews.com 

Summary: We usually think of wakefulness and sleep as two separate worlds, but new research proves the boundary is an illusion. Using an experimental setup inspired by Thomas Edison, researchers analysed 92 participants drifting into sleep and found that “dreaming” isn’t exclusive to the night.

By identifying four distinct mental states, including a “bizarre” dream state, the team discovered that these experiences occur across all levels of alertness. Whether you’re fully awake or in light sleep, your brain can flip into a “dream narrative” at any moment, suggesting that the content of our thoughts is independent of our state of vigilance.

Key Facts

• The Edison Technique: Following the legend of Thomas Edison, participants held a bottle that would drop as they drifted off, waking them at the precise threshold of sleep to report their immediate “hypnagogic” thoughts.
• The Four Mental States: An unbiased AI algorithm identified four distinct clusters of thought:
  • C1: Fleeting, isolated recollections.
  • C2: High connection to the external environment (street sounds, room temperature).
  • C3: The “Dream State”, bizarre, vivid, and spontaneous (e.g., “aliens” or “ants on crossword puzzles”).
  • C4: Goal-oriented, voluntary control (planning tomorrow’s schedule).
• The Major Finding: All four states, including the bizarre C3 dream state, occurred while participants were fully awake, in sleep onset, and in light sleep. You can “dream” while awake and “plan” while asleep.
• Neural Fingerprint of Bizarreness: The dream-like C3 state has a specific brain signature: reduced long-range connectivity between the frontal (reasoning) and occipital (visual) regions. This essentially allows the visual brain to “run wild” without the logical brain’s oversight.
• Paradoxical Insomnia: The study offers a breakthrough for insomnia patients who feel they “didn’t sleep a wink” despite clinical data saying they did. Their brains may simply be spending too much time in the “environment-connected” C2 state, making sleep feel like wakefulness.

By convention, wakefulness and sleep are regarded as physiologically distinct states. It is therefore tempting to assume that the images, sensations, and ideas that cross our minds while we are awake are fundamentally different in nature from those we experience while we sleep, and especially while we dream.

“Yet this is far from obvious. Being awake is not synonymous with being attentive, fully aware of one’s surroundings, or able to act and think rationally,” explains Delphine Oudiette, co-leader of the DreamTeam.

“We now know that there is a continuum between wakefulness and sleep, with intermediate states such as mind-wandering or mind-blanking, during which certain regions of the brain may be asleep. What remained to be determined was whether the content of our thoughts also varies independently of our state of vigilance.”

To answer this question, the researchers chose to study sleep onset, the transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep.

“Sleep onset allows us to capture, within a very short time span, fluctuations in our state of vigilance, from wakefulness to sleep, and to observe the mental experiences associated with them,” says Nicolas Decat, a PhD student at the Paris Brain Institute and first author of the study.

“As we drift toward sleep, sensations, visions, and snippets of speech unfold—what are commonly called hypnagogic experiences. Tracing the evolution from ordinary thought to dream-like narrative can help us understand how a dream emerges.”

Nap experts to the rescue

To explore the transition between wakefulness and sleep, the team conducted a study with 92 participants who were accustomed to napping and trained to report the content of their thoughts upon interruption.

The researchers used an experimental setup inspired by Thomas Edison. According to legend, the inventor had a habit of falling asleep in his armchair while holding a heavy object, the fall of which would wake him at the threshold of sleep; he would then make use of the whirlwind of creative ideas that flooded his mind during this critical moment.

After each interruption of their nap—either by dropping a bottle held in the hand or by an alarm—participants were asked to describe their mental experience of the previous ten seconds, then rate it on four dimensions: bizarreness, fluidity, spontaneity, and perceived level of wakefulness. In parallel, their brain activity was continuously recorded with an EEG cap.

The researchers then let the data speak for themselves, applying a clustering algorithm that imposed no preconceived categories.

“This data-driven approach was essential for us, because in research, there is no consensus on what hypnagogic experiences actually are. It was important not to bias this exploration with our own definitions or beliefs,” says Nicolas Decat.

A brain signature of dream-like states

The analysis revealed not the two mental states one might expect—dreaming and waking thought—but four. The first (C1) was characterized by fleeting recollections (“An image of my dad crossed my mind”); the second (C2), by a high level of connection to the surrounding environment (“I was listening to the street sounds”); the third (C3), by its bizarreness (“I saw images of small aliens”); and the last (C4), by a high level of voluntary control (“I was thinking about what I would do tomorrow”).

Each of these four mental states appeared across all three vigilance stages measured: wakefulness, sleep onset, and light sleep.

“This is the major finding of our study. The mental states traditionally associated with dreaming can arise just as well when we are asleep as when we are awake. In other words, the content of our thoughts does not follow the boundaries between waking and sleep!

“One of our participants, while awake, reported seeing ants crawling on her body against a backdrop of crossword puzzles. Conversely, another participant mentally went through his schedule for the next day while he was fully asleep,” adds the researcher.

The team then went further, searching for neurophysiological markers specific to each mental state. By analysing the complexity of the EEG signal, its spectral power, and the functional connectivity between brain regions, the researchers identified distinctive signatures.

They show that there is a specific brain signature for the “bizarre” C3 mental content—that is, the dream-like state. It is characterized by reduced long-range connectivity between the frontal and occipital regions of the brain.

“This signature may well be the correlate of what we feel in such a state: lucid reasoning is overtaken by a whirlwind of vivid sensations characteristic of dreams,” suggests Nicolas Decat.

Mental activity and introspection

If dreaming is not specific to sleep, why do we have the impression that extravagant mental content occurs only in the depths of the night, when we are oblivious to the world around us?

“This preconception probably stems from a memory bias. We mainly remember dreams that come with strong emotions or those to which we attach particular meaning. Yet it is just as common to dream that we are working!” notes Nicolas Decat.

“Conversely, some people report that fanciful daytime thoughts—elusive, like fragments of a dream—sometimes surface during their everyday activities. Because these thoughts are seen as incongruous, they may well be more frequent than we imagine, but we tend to dismiss them.”

Potential applications for sleep disorders

We are generally not very good at judging our own level of vigilance or describing the content of our thoughts. As a result, some people suffering from insomnia regularly complain of spending entire nights without sleeping, even though polysomnographic measurements taken in sleep clinics indicate otherwise.

This is what we call paradoxical insomnia: a mismatch between the patient’s experience and clinical observations based on conventional sleep-stage criteria.

“These criteria are probably inadequate. Our study proposes a new one—mental content— which may be better aligned with what these patients actually experience. Through this lens, some of them may spend an unusually long time in an alert state (C2), hyperconnected to the outside world, or, conversely, very little time in a dream-like state (C3), blurring the line between their waking and sleeping lives,” explains Delphine Oudiette.

“Beyond giving patients’ reports the weight they deserve, this approach paves the way to identifying objective markers of insomnia.”

Key Questions Answered:

Q: If I’m “dreaming” while awake, why don’t I notice it?

A: We often dismiss these flashes of “bizarre” thought as mind-wandering or simple distractions. Because they are fleeting and lack the heavy emotional weight of a 3:00 AM nightmare, we tend to filter them out of our memory.

Q: Can I use this “Edison method” to be more creative?

A: Yes. The transition state between wakefulness and sleep is a “creative sweet spot.” By catching yourself right as you drift off, you can access the C3 bizarre state where the brain makes unusual associations that your logical, waking brain would normally reject.

Q: Does this mean “daydreaming” is actually dreaming?

A: Scientifically, yes. This study suggests that the brain’s internal narrative doesn’t check your “vigilance status.” If the connectivity between your frontal and occipital lobes drops, you are technically in a dream state, regardless of whether your eyes are open or closed.

https://neurosciencenews.com/dream-continuum-wake-sleep-consciousness-30637/

Three sleep experts warn about what the couch actually does to your night

From futura-sciences.com

Do you ever find yourself falling asleep on the couch after dinner or halfway through a TV series? It may seem harmless, but this habit is one you should try to break as soon as possible. Disrupted cycles, poor conditioning for sleep, and a higher risk of insomnia – dozing off unintentionally can lead to real consequences for your health. Three sleep specialists explain why. 

Many people have experienced this familiar situation: you fall asleep on the living room couch in front of the television after a long day, then wake up and head to bed… only to discover that sleep won’t come back.

But beware. “Falling asleep unintentionally like this is not a good thing,” warns Dr Marc Rey, president of the French National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance. Caroline Rome, a sophrologist specialising in sleep and alertness at the Hôtel Dieu sleep centre in Paris, agrees. “When someone falls asleep like that, overwhelmed by fatigue, they lose control of their sleep – and that’s never a good sign.”

Here is why.

1. It reduces your sleep pressure

Falling asleep on the couch in the evening – especially if it isn’t planned – reduces what specialists call sleep pressure.

In simple terms, sleep pressure is the natural need your body builds up throughout the day to sleep at night. According to Dr Rey, when you briefly fall asleep in the living room and then wake up suddenly to move to your bedroom, you may struggle to fall asleep again.

“When we get home after a long day of work, feeling sleepy is completely normal,” he explains. “But we need to manage sleep the same way we manage food.”

One of the possible consequences is chronic sleep deprivation, because those lost moments of sleep can accumulate over time.

2. You fall asleep in poor conditions

Another problem is the environment in which people usually drift off on the couch. More often than not, it happens in front of a screen – the television, a computer, or even a tablet. And that’s far from ideal.

“It’s very bad to fall asleep in a noisy environment or while exposed to light,” says the specialist.

Our bodies naturally follow a day night rhythm. The hormone melatonin, which regulates sleep, is produced when light levels decrease. Artificial light from screens interferes with this process and can disrupt the body’s natural signals.

There is also the issue of comfort. A couch rarely provides the same support as a proper bed, which means people often fall asleep in awkward positions. And the living room itself is not always an ideal sleep environment.

                             Three sleep experts warn about what the couch actually does to your night © urbazon

Sophrologist Christel Neumager, who specialises in sleep in Chantepie near Rennes, highlights this point: “For good sleep quality, it’s important to sleep in a calm, dark room that isn’t cluttered – a peaceful space dedicated specifically to rest.”

3. It disrupts your sleep cycles

Just like meals, sleep works best when it follows a consistent rhythm. When you accidentally fall asleep on the couch, you might wake up a few hours later. This can fragment your sleep and disrupt your internal schedule.

This phenomenon was widely observed during the first lockdown.

“When people remain inactive and lying down all day, their rhythms collapse,” explains Dr Rey. “They doze during the day and then stay awake and stressed at night.”

Maintaining a clear contrast between waking hours and rest is essential for healthy sleep patterns.

Sleep itself follows specific cycles. First comes slow wave sleep, which allows the body to recover physically. Then comes REM sleep, which helps with memory and mental recovery.

“If you interrupt the first cycle, for example, you don’t simply regain it later – your body moves on to the next cycle,” explains Christel Neumager.

4. It disrupts your conditioning for sleep

Falling asleep in the living room instead of your bedroom can also weaken the mental cues your body associates with sleep.

“We are conditioned for sleep,” explains Caroline Rome. “When you enter your bedroom, your body prepares to sleep. It’s the same way entering the kitchen prepares you to eat.”

If you regularly fall asleep on the couch, these signals become blurred. As a result, the brain may no longer associate the bedroom as strongly with sleep, which can lead to poorer rest overall.

5. It can affect your health

Poor or irregular sleep has clear consequences for overall health.

According to Marc Rey, disrupted sleep can contribute to obesity, weaken the immune system, and increase feelings of irritability or low mood.

Sleep disorders also affect alertness and concentration during the day. Physically, the body does not recover properly.

6. It may reveal a sleep debt

Finally, falling asleep unintentionally on the couch may simply mean one thing: you are extremely tired.

“People who fall asleep like this often have a sleep debt,” explains Christel Neumager.

The key is learning to recognise signs of fatigue and listening to your body’s need for sleep. Ideally, you should go to bed as soon as that need appears.

It is also worth remembering that everyone’s sleep needs are different. Some people function perfectly on six hours of sleep, while others require nine hours to feel fully rested.

https://www.futura-sciences.com/en/three-sleep-experts-warn-about-what-the-couch-actually-does-to-your-night_29422/

Napping has many health benefits, but only if it is done right

From phillyvoice.com

Sleeping for too long or too late in the day can backfire. To reap the rewards, follow some simple guidelines

A siesta may sound tantalizing while sitting in front of the computer after lunch. And while most people can't crawl under their desks at work for a quick snooze, napping has many health benefits. 

Research shows napping can make up for lost sleep, boost cardiovascular health, help lower blood pressure, increase alertness and improve mood.

But napping also can backfire.

Napping too long can lead to daytime grogginess and insomnia at night. Lengthy siestas also have been linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome and death from any cause. 

Also, though research has found an association between planned naps and improved memory, unplanned naps – especially if they are long  – may be detrimental to cognition.

                                                                                                         Nubelson Fernandes/Pexels

To reap the health benefits of a daily siesta, it's important to follow some basic guidelines:

Brevity is best

Pretty much all research on napping shows that keeping naps short is key. The sweet spot is somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes. Napping longer than that can cause sleep inertia – a fancy word for grogginess – which can impact performance after waking up.

Timing is everything

Time naps for the early afternoon, ideally between 1-3 p.m., sleep experts agree. Sleeping after 3 p.m. can disrupt natural sleep-wake cycles and cause insomnia at night. One way to figure out when to nap is to count back seven hours from bedtime: For instance, someone who goes to bed at 10 p.m. should nap no later than 3 p.m.

Location, location, location

Choose a cool, peaceful space for an afternoon nap. Sleep experts recommend drawing the curtains or shades and keeping the room temperature at 72 degrees or lower to get the most beneficial rest.

Skip the decaf

A counter-intuitive hack: Drink a cup of coffee or caffeinated tea before taking a nap. Caffeine will clear out a chemical that builds up in the body during the day, causing sleepiness. A shot of caffeine before a nap improves alertness upon waking.

Excessive daytime sleepiness or an overpowering need to nap may be a sign of a mental health disorder or a physical problem. People who have trouble getting enough sleep at night or those who struggle to stay awake during the day should talk to a health care provider.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/napping-tips-health-benefits-downsides/ 

Finding It Difficult To Sleep Even After A Tiring Day? Try THESE Tips

From onlymyhealth.com

Sleep is essential for overall health and well-being. If you’re struggling to fall asleep even after an exhausting day, these small lifestyle adjustments can make a big difference. Read on! 

After a long, exhausting day, all you want to do is crawl into bed and drift into a deep sleep. But sometimes, no matter how tired you are, sleep just won’t come. If you find yourself tossing and turning despite feeling physically drained, you’re not alone. Sleep struggles can be caused by a variety of factors, including stress, screen time, and even your diet. 

In an exclusive interaction with the editorial team of Onlymyhealth, Dr Nikhil Nayar, Psychiatrist, Sharda Hospital - Noida, shared some science-backed strategies to help you fall asleep faster and enjoy a restful night. Here is what he shared with us.

1. Create a Relaxing Bedtime Routine

Your body thrives on routine. Going to bed at the same time each night and establishing a calming pre-sleep ritual can signal your body that it’s time to wind down. Try activities like reading a book, taking a warm bath, or practising meditation. Avoid stimulating activities such as intense exercise or scrolling through social media right before bed.

2. Limit Screen Time Before Bed

Electronic devices emit blue light, which suppresses melatonin, the hormone responsible for sleep. To avoid this, try to power down your screens at least an hour before bedtime. If you must use your phone or laptop, consider enabling night mode or using blue-light-blocking glasses.

3. Watch Your Caffeine and Sugar Intake

Even if you had your last cup of coffee in the afternoon, caffeine can linger in your system for hours, making it difficult to fall asleep. Likewise, consuming too much sugar before bed can lead to energy spikes and crashes, disrupting your rest. Opt for a light, healthy snack instead, such as a banana or a handful of nuts.

4. Make Your Bedroom a Sleep-Friendly Space

Your bedroom environment plays a crucial role in your ability to sleep. Ensure your room is cool, dark, and quiet. Invest in blackout curtains, use a white noise machine, or try aromatherapy with calming scents like lavender. A comfortable mattress and pillows also make a big difference in promoting quality sleep.

5. Get Some Sunlight During the Day

Exposure to natural light during the day helps regulate your body’s internal clock (circadian rhythm), making it easier to fall asleep at night. Aim to spend time outside in the morning or early afternoon, or keep your workspace near a bright window.

6. Avoid Long Naps

While short power naps (20-30 minutes) can boost energy, long or late-afternoon naps can interfere with your night time sleep. If you find it hard to fall asleep at night, try skipping naps or keeping them brief.

7. Try Herbal Remedies or Supplements

Natural sleep aids such as chamomile tea, valerian root, and magnesium can help promote relaxation. However, it’s always best to consult a healthcare professional before trying any new supplement.

Bottom line

Good sleep is essential for overall health and well-being. If you’re struggling to fall asleep even after an exhausting day, small lifestyle adjustments can make a big difference. By creating a sleep-friendly routine and addressing potential disruptors, you can finally enjoy the deep, restorative sleep your body needs.

[Disclaimer: If sleep problems persist despite trying these tips, you might be dealing with an underlying issue like insomnia, anxiety, or a sleep disorder. Consulting a doctor or sleep specialist can help you identify the root cause and find an appropriate solution.]

https://www.onlymyhealth.com/why-are-you-not-able-to-sleep-even-after-a-tiring-day-tips-to-sleep-peacefully-12977825455

Turns out, napping isn’t just relaxing, it’s great for your heart too

From msn.com/en-my

WHILE napping is a simple way to recharge during the day, aside from opting for caffeine and similar options, research has revealed that it has greater benefits, particularly for heart health.

Sleeping is often linked to improving brain function and energy levels, but Sunway Medical Centre neurologist Dr Mohamad Imran Idris emphasises the critical role of napping in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

LONG-TERM BENEFITS OF NAPPING

Diet and exercise are often seen as the pillars of heart health, maintaining good sleep habits can be just as impactful. Long-term studies tracking nappers and non-nappers over several years have shown that regular nappers have a lower risk of heart disease, according to Dr Imran.

"In cohort studies where researchers followed participants for five to six years, those who napped regularly were less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases compared to those who didn’t,” he said.

This shows that naps not only refresh the body but could also help to maintain healthy blood pressure, reduce stress and promote better heart function over time.

                                                            Turns out, napping isn’t just relaxing, it’s great for your heart too

COGNITIVE FUNCTION AND OVERALL BRAIN HEALTH

Dr Imran added that napping simultaneously benefits the heart and the brain, where reduced stress from napping helps the heart to stay healthy, among many other ways.

Naps help improve memory consolidation and learning ability, making them valuable for short-term and long-term cognitive function.

“In one study, participants were asked to memorise a list of 100 words. One group took a nap after, while the other group stayed awake. Later in the day, they were given a new list of words to learn.

“The results showed that those who napped performed better at learning the new list, proving that naps enhance memory retention and learning," he said.

But do keep in mind that napping requires specific timing in order to be beneficial. Napping too close to bedtime, according to Dr Imran, could reduce "sleep pressure" which would subsequently lead to difficulty falling asleep at night or insomnia.

“You should avoid napping too late in the evening because it can interfere with your natural sleep cycle,” he advised.

Instead, the ideal nap should be: between 1pm and 4 pm, when the body naturally experiences lower alertness and limited to 20-30 minutes to prevent entering deep sleep, which can cause grogginess.

For people with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, dementia, or a history of strokes, Dr Imran reassures that napping could remain beneficial.

"For patients with heart disease, strokes, or even dementia, a well-timed nap can help improve overall well-being rather than cause harm, unless you have insomnia,” he said, adding that insomnia would not help those suffering from it to benefit from napping.

ADOPTING NAPPING AS A HABIT

Napping could be an important habit when done right to support heart health and brain function in the long run, other than being seen as a way to boost energy. Naps being far away from a sign of laziness need to be embraced as part of a healthy lifestyle.

The next time you feel a mid-day energy dip, take a short nap. A well-timed nap isn't just an energy booster—it’s a simple yet powerful way to support long-term heart and brain health.

https://www.msn.com/en-my/health/other/turns-out-napping-isn-t-just-relaxing-it-s-great-for-your-heart-too/ar-AA1yCOCb?cvid=E3916F73E1B94388BF279E96AF6D6F30&ocid=bingnewsserp 

Want to improve your sleep in 2025? These new science-based tips may help

From washingtonpost.com

By Lisa Strauss

New research provides guidance on the effects of caffeine, diet and naps on sleep. Plus there are expanded treatments for sleep apnoea 

Last January, I offered some tips to help reboot your sleep health. That list still contains my top tips. But this year, I want to add to it based on some new findings that may inform your sleep decisions and conversations with your doctor. The information offered here is not a substitute for individualized health care.

Finding a balance with caffeine

People want their caffeine and their sleep. Finding the balance can be complicated because of individual differences in sensitivity to its stimulant effects, rates of metabolism, consumption patterns, brew strength and other variables.

In addition, caffeine can have helpful as well as deleterious effects, even on sleep. For example, some of my patients use it judiciously to help them stay awake until a reasonably late hour, which can support both their desired circadian rhythm and sleep consolidation.

This recent study found that up to 100 mg of caffeine (approximately the amount in a typical cup of coffee) could be consumed up to four hours before sleep with no negative impact. However, 400 mg (as a single dose) up to 12 hours before sleep interfered with falling asleep and caused fragmentation in sleep (and more so the closer to sleep time it was consumed).

A limitation of the study is that it was conducted in young men; older people are more sensitive to caffeine, and women using oral contraception clear it more slowly. The participants were moderately habitual users.

Effects on sleep aside, there is evidence to suggest that limiting caffeine consumption to the morning hours may benefit health and lifespan.

A diet for sleep

Insomnia patients often ask what they should eat to sleep better. This is a challenging question because the scientific consensus is still developing as to what may help and why.

No one food or dietary pattern is likely to be a silver bullet, sufficient to resolve (or cause) insomnia.

Another challenge is that most of the data are correlational, meaning insomnia could be the cause of certain dietary choices rather than a consequence of those choices (or both could be caused by some third factor).

Still, a body of evidence is accumulating that healthful diets such as the Mediterranean diet are associated with a lower risk of insomnia, and unhealthful and high-glycaemic diets with a higher risk. This careful 2024 paper concluded as much after screening more than 16,000 references to find 37 observational studies that met criteria for inclusion in the analysis.

A large-scale epidemiological study published in 2024 showed a correlation between consumption of ultra-processed foods — a broad and controversial category, not all of which may be harmful — and chronic insomnia.

Although the direction of causality cannot be established, this study did find the association regardless of overall dietary quality, mental health, lifestyle and other variables.

Nuances of napping

There is plenty of debate in the sleep field about the benefits vs. costs of napping and how best to structure naps.

This editorial in the journal Sleep by Sara Mednick urges us to take a nuanced view of napping, considering individual and cultural contexts and causes. She delineates the different reasons people nap (for example, as a restorative measure in the context of poor sleep). She notes that only napping for emotional reasons (such as to cope with stress or depression) is associated with poor health outcomes.

This recent study showed that unrestricted napping — even beyond the usual recommendation of 30 minutes — did not interfere with the benefits of cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia, which tends to discourage all but brief naps.

The function of sleep

New research has elaborated on sleep’s role in clearing metabolic waste from the brain, suggesting that it does so by synchronizing brain waves.

There are potential therapeutic implications. In mice, manipulation of brain waves helped to clear amyloid, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Another study, this one in macaques, showed that synchronizing brain waves to reproduce patterns achieved in non-REM (NREM) sleep led to the same subsequent desynchronization and improvements in cognitive performance that were seen after actual NREM sleep.

The finding could have implications for improving human cognitive performance and conferring restoration through means other than sleep.

Expanding treatments for sleep apnoea

There have been a few interesting developments in the past year for patients with sleep apnoea. These are poised to expand treatment options, improve continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) usability and lower barriers to diagnosis.

Medication. The injectable weight-loss drug tirzepatide (Zepbound, with the same active ingredient as the diabetes medication Mounjaro) was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2024 for the treatment of moderate to severe apnoea in patients with obesity.

While the medication provides an alternative to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy (and other standard apnoea interventions such as dental appliances and surgically implanted hypoglossal nerve stimulators), rates of remission or near-remission were higher in those who used PAP therapy along with the medication (50 percent vs. 42 percent in non-PAP users). Weight loss was also greater in those who used both.

Masks. CPAP masks are getting smaller and lighter. To improve comfort and compliance, one recent study looked at customized 3D-printed masks and found better adherence to the treatment.

More research is required on this approach, but custom masks could solve fit problems for many patients before long.

Another promising technology under development, VortexPAP, eliminates the tight seal that most PAP masks require, and indeed barely touches the user’s face.

Furniture. There are now a variety of nightstands that fit CPAP machines so you don’t have to be a carpentry hobbyist to create a cut-out for the tubing. An expensive model generated buzz in 2024, but there are cheaper options such as this one.

Wearable technology. There is a need for convenient methods for detecting apnoea. Still, consumer-grade wearable monitors such as smartwatches should not be considered adequate substitutes for laboratory polysomnography (PSG) or for physician-prescribed home testing for sleep apnoea.

But a variety of wearables are now equipped with FDA-approved software for the detection of apnoea, and the data can kick-start a conversation with a doctor. The software uses variables such as heart rate, movement and wrist temperature. Some devices can detect blood oxygen levels (SpO2), albeit with caveats. They have not generally been validated against gold-standard arterial blood gas measurements or against standard measures of hypoxia.

Machine learning paired with some consumer-grade and newer professional-grade devices can extract patterns from the data, and holds promise for assisting with both diagnosis and individualized treatment.

Lisa Strauss, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in the Boston area. She specializes in sleep disorders.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2025/01/12/sleep-caffeine-diet-naps-apnea/