Circady Insomnia Blog

We’d all love to dictate our work schedules and to have our professional lives sync neatly with our personal, family and health needs. Too often, however, this just not possible.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night in order to function best. But, unfortunately, only about 15% of teens seem to be getting that much. Even worse, in a survey, 60% of children under the age of 18 complained of being tired during the day and 15% said they’d fallen asleep at school.

Wearable devices such as FitBits that help us to (supposedly) track our sleep may actually have the potential to harm sleep, instead.

If you’re reading this from the northern hemisphere, you’re just days from the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. With limited daylight hours and long nights, you’re likely to find yourself sleeping more (or at least wishing you were.)

Every year, approximately 100 million Americans are on the move during the holiday season, says the New York Times, with 97 million traveling at the end of December, alone.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-i) is a technique used to combat insomnia by helping patients get to the root of their sleep issues and learn how to control anti-sleep thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. 

The holiday season is rapidly approaching, bringing with it decorating, shopping, parties, travel, preparing meals, eating meals, and more. Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. At such times, it may be tempting to make time by sleeping less. There are those old sayings, after all: “You can sleep when you’re dead” and “You snooze, you lose.”

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine,  sleep disorders affect men and women differently. What’s at play? Physical differences, lifestyle influences, aging, and more. Recognizing these gender-related factors is important so we can better understand and treat sleep concerns.

Calling all women in their 40’s and 50’s! Did you know that insomnia can be one of the early signs of menopause? Indeed, according the National Sleep Foundation, up to half of all menopausal women experience sleep complications. That’s compared to 15% of the general population. As many as 61% of post-menopausal women report insomnia symptoms. Here’s what’s going on, what to watch for, and how to get rest despite it all.

When I can’t sleep, I’ll try almost anything. But I also don’t want to waste my time on something if it’s simply a passing trend or old wives’ tale. Which got me thinking… Do any of those sleep-inducing remedies my parents talk about really work? I did some research to find out.