Can’t get to sleep? Ask yourself a few questions the next time you can’t get to sleep.   1) Did you check your phone right before bed? 2) Are you going to bed at different times every night?  Where you in bed by 11 last night and trying to get into bed at 9 tonight? 3) Did you have that super yummy coffee on your lunch break? Or even later? 4) Is your bed comfortable?  5) Are you hot? Or is there a ton of light in your room? Any of these factors can lead to struggling with falling asleep.  Make...

Are you stressed?  Listen to your body and find out if you are stressed.  Signs that you are too stressed include your mind is racing and you just can’t stop thinking, extremely tense muscles, and racing heart. If you have any of these problems your stress may be preventing you from sleeping.  De-stress So you’ve determined that you are stressed and it is probably keeping you from sleeping well, so now you’re stressing about your stress, which leads you to lose sleep and then the lack of sleep leads to more stress.  It is a horrible cycle.  What can you...

Your body’s natural clock In our last blog, we discussed jet lag and the effects of travel on our body’s natural “clock”.  Let’s learn more about that natural clock and how it effects our sleep.  What is our natural clock?  Our body’s natural Circadian Biological Clock regulates the timing of periods of sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the day.  Your body’s circadian rhythm dips and rises throughout the day.  Adults usually experience the largest dips during early morning times around 2 to 4 am and afternoon. Making sure that you have had plenty of rest will help you to avoid a serious dip in...

What is Jet Lag? Jet Lag is a very common temporary sleep disorder.  Most people have experienced this disorder while traveling.  It’s not only for those flying long distances but for driving and any sort of travel that takes you from your usual time zone.   What causes Jet Lag? Circadian Rhythms are the key to jet lag. Our exposure to sunlight helps to determine our sleeping patterns.  Jet lag comes from your body’s natural biological “clock” becoming thrown off from the time zone changes.  Your body has a natural “clock” where it is used to the sun going down, then bedtime. ...

Sleep Environment Your sleeping environment can be a huge key to your successful night’s sleep.  If you’re uncomfortable in your space for any reason, or it just isn’t relaxing enough it may actually be key to that poor sleep. Visual What you see is a large part of creating your ideal sleeping environment.  Is there too much light? Do you have electronics that immite blue light? This can interfere with your body’s natural melatonin production.  Having your room dark is absolutely best for sleeping.  Having a peaceful room with simple flat paints in colors that are relaxing such as blues...

Connecting Sleep to Anxiety When we sleep our brains clear out the clutter.  It gets rid of the chaos of the day and gets our brains ready for the next day.  When your sleep is disrupted and you’re waking often in the right it can cause your thoughts to become stuck in a pattern of negative thoughts.  This leads to an increase of feeling anxious.  Connecting Anxiety to Sleep Anxiety is a terrible feeling to battle.  When you are feeling anxious it can cause you to have a difficult time sleeping.   As you’re struggling with sleep, the lack of sleep...

Q&A Many clients all have a very important question that they ask.  How much sleep do I actually need?  I feel fine after just sleeping for 6 hours while my partner seems to sleep forever! How Much Sleep Do You Need? How much sleep each person needs varies slightly from person to person.  Most adults need a minimum of seven hours of sleep to be able to function correctly and feel rested.  Some adults do need more and very few need less sleep.  A sleep journal is a perfect way to find out how many hours you need to sleep. Finding...

Pets! Let’s talk about pets.  We all love our fluffy family members! They provide unconditional love and great cuddles.  But what do they have to do with sleep?  A lot. Sleeping with Pets According to research done by the Mayo Clinic pets can be great and terrible for sleep.  Their research showed that people who sleep with their furry family members in their bedroom had a higher quality of sleep.  However, they also found that if you let those fluffy little pets under your covers to sleep you may end up suffering from a poor quality of sleep instead.  So...

New Year, New Goals With the New Year, everyone has been focusing hard on those New Year’s Resolutions!  How are you doing on yours?!  I hope it’s going great for you!  I wanted to take a little time today and talk to you about a super important topic that I believe should absolutely be a goal for everyone this year.  Getting more sleep. Get More Sleep Life is busy and a lot of times we just grab that extra cup of coffee and yawn throughout our day.  Sleep isn’t really one of those things we think of as a goal. ...

Dr Abid Bhat has been in the practice of Sleep Medicine for over 10 years. He has provided medical care to people with various sleep disorders, including insomnia (difficulty falling sleep or staying sleep), sleep apnea (a person snores loud and stops breathing in sleep), parasomnia (sleep walking), restless legs syndrome (urge to move legs while trying to fall sleep) and a number of other related conditions. Millions of Americans continue to suffer from sleep disruption but, unfortunately, majority of them are undiagnosed. Sleep is quintessential in preventing chronic ailments like obesity, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Dr...