Spring Into Better Sleep Habits

Daylight saving time is March 10, 2019. Nelli Gluzman, DO, Pediatric Hospitalist with Garnet Health Doctors shares her sleep tips for patients and community members to prepare for the time change and improve their everyday sleep habits.

Our change to daylight saving time provides the perfect opportunity to examine our habits when it comes to getting enough rest. To better understand how bad sleep habits can affect our health, it is important to know something about the natural process when we go to bed each night.

• Body temperature drops slightly, which helps to synchronize our circadian clocks.
• Melatonin, a hormone which signals to the brain that it is time to quiet down, also begins to course through our bodies.
• Heart rate and blood pressure slow down, our breathing becomes more even and we drift off to sleep.

Unfortunately, many people don’t realize the things they do that interrupt those important biological patterns.

Listen in to Dr. Nelli Gluzman discuss sleep tips on the radio:

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Are Your Bad Habits Preventing You From Getting Sleep?

Bad habits prevent us from falling asleep and staying asleep, and the result is that more and more people are getting less and less sleep every year. Over the past five decades in America, sleep duration for adults during the work week has decreased by an hour and a half, from eight and a half to just under seven hours a night. Children have lost an average of nearly a minute of sleep a year. Teens should be getting eight to ten hours of sleep every night for optimal health. How much sleep are they actually getting?

Some bad sleep habits that negatively impact our health are:

• Inconsistent sleep schedules
• Late bedtimes
• Too much exposure to bright lights before bed
• Consuming large meals
• Caffeine or alcohol too close to bedtime
• Not getting enough exercise
• Perhaps the most familiar culprit, spending time on our electronic devices

Here are three tips that I recommend, which can help you get more sleep, starting tonight.

I urge my patients to keep in mind just how important sleep is to our health. If you value your health, you must focus on the importance of rest. Like air, food and water, it is essential. Unrested, we cannot perform to our fullest capabilities and our bodies cannot repair and replenish themselves.

Rest allows us to remain physically active and mentally alert. In a day and age when over-scheduling seems to have become the norm, we must treasure sleep for the vital aspect of life that it is. We must be focused and dedicated to avoid letting sleep suffer due to our lifestyle choices. So, use these tips to examine your own choices. You may find it is high time you pay greater attention to bedtime.

Nelli Gluzman, DO
Dr. Gluzman is a Pediatric Hospitalist with Garnet Health Doctors.  She received her medical degree from New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Old Westbury and completed her Pediatrics Residency at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, in New Jersey.

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All content presented are provided for informational and educational purposes only, and are not intended to approximate or replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice because of something you have read within the website content. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 immediately.

Originally posted on March 26, 2018. Updated February 27, 2019.