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This week on Health Watch, we’ve been talking about coping with stress. If you’re worried about finances, keeping your home or finding a job, it may be harder to sleep at night, but sleep is important for managing stress.
Dr. Nilesh Dave, a sleep expert at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says you’ll probably sleep better if you don’t take work to bed with you. The bed should be used for sleep and for sex. If you use it for other things such as reading, watching television or working on your laptop computer, those bad bedtime habits could contribute to insomnia. Dr. Dave recommends only going to bed when you’re tired and ready to go to sleep — and if you are tired, go to bed instead of trying to fight it to get more done. You can also help improve your sleep by establishing a calming nighttime routine and avoiding caffeine late in the day.
Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/sleep to learn more about UT Southwestern’s clinical services in sleep.
