Sweet Dreams from Healthline Sleep

I never gave much thought to issues like good sleep habits or whether using a device right before bed was exposing me to too much blue light. I was one of those people who could doze off rather quickly. In fact, if I had any sleep problems at all, it was the tendency I had to oversleep when left to my own devices.

I was designed to wake up slowly and have breakfast in bed. I find it incredible that I was ever able to get ready, eat, commute for 45 minutes, and yet arrive at work by 9 a.m. (OK, 9:30 a.m.)

Then I had children.

Everyone will tell you that the first thing you lose when you have a kid is your sleep. I lost count of the number of times I was told to “get your sleep in now,” as if I could save up all those hours and use them as credit later. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust any of those other well-intentioned parents, but parenthood is one of those experiences that you don’t fully understand until you go through it.

I had no idea that the night before I gave birth would be the last time for many, many months that I would get a full eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. The type of bone-deep tiredness that would result from waking up every few hours (or, on some nights, every 45 minutes) for years and months on end was something I couldn’t conceive.

My husband and I had to learn how to get by on less sleep when we first became parents. I kept telling myself that things would improve and that this was merely a phase. Babies are remarkable in that manner, and things did improve, but it still felt like we were taking a chance every night.

My experience may be unique given the difficulties of being a new mom, but research indicates that a startlingly large proportion of Americans don’t get enough sleep.

As stated by the U.S. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, only 22% of high school-aged kids and approximately 67% of adults get enough sleep each night.

In a survey of readers of Healthline, 3 out of 5 said they only receive light sleep, and more than half said they have pain or discomfort that prevents them from falling or staying asleep.

My drowsy friends, Healthline Sleep was created only for us.

Losing sleep

Even though we all know how important sleep is—about 50% of Healthline readers agree that getting good sleep is critical for their general health—very few people really receive the quantity of sleep they require each night.

It is understandable why so many people are restless when we consider our own audience data in the context of the environment in which we live. Due to a pandemic, growing inequality, political upheaval, sadness, and loss, we have all been experiencing increased stress for more than two years.

Our feeds seemed to be full of articles about successful people who start their days before dawn, advice on how to make the most of your waking hours, or catchy slogans like “You have the same 24 hours in your day as Beyoncé,” but even before the pandemic, our culture has long been dominated by the narrative of “hustle now, rest later.”

Rest was a treat that we could only enjoy if we had achieved enough; otherwise, being at rest was considered lazy.

Although getting enough sleep may seem like a luxury, sleep deprivation has considerably higher costs. Consistently getting little sleep over time can compromise your immune system, impair memory and balance, and possibly raise your risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

It’s time to alter the story. The events of recent years have, in many respects, compelled a cultural change in the way we see our health and well-being, including sleep and the idea of rest in general.

Rest and sound sleep are being consciously prioritized as essential components of self-care by an increasing number of people. We are beginning to understand the value of rest, and how our bodies and minds benefit when we take pauses throughout the day and get the sleep we require at night. It supports speedier healing, hormone balancing, cell restoration, and mental wellbeing.

We become better versions of ourselves when we get enough sleep, and this in turn provides us more energy to devote to the people and things we cherish.

Healthline Sleep: Putting sleeplessness to bed

To assist you in getting the rest you require and deserve, Healthline Sleep was established.

We are aware that falling asleep doesn’t merely occur when your head strikes the pillow at night. Healthy daily routines and activities that support your entire well-being and prepare you for better, more restful nights all contribute to good sleep.

It’s about taking care of your mental health and learning how the foods you enjoy might affect how well you sleep. It involves conscious activity and understanding how your sleeping patterns alter as you become older. It’s about developing the ideal bedtime routine and discovering the greatest napping techniques (because naps are productive, too).

Finding solutions that are approachable, realistic, and personalized to you is what matters most. Solutions that fit your particular lifestyle, sleep issues, wellness objectives, and even job schedule.

My own sleep journey reached a turning point earlier this year when my spouse and I decided to stop winging it after a particularly sad night (for both the baby and me). We developed a strategy and began putting it into practice when it came to both daytime and nighttime sleep. That required us to review and make some changes to our own sleep hygiene as parents. I understood that I needed to prioritize my health more as a new mother. I had to learn how to ask for aid in order to accomplish it.

We eventually hired a sleep consultant who assisted us in identifying a few routines, evening rituals, and even essential baby items (thank you, blackout curtains!) that have made a world of difference. We’re still taking things one day (and night) at a time, but we’re making progress and improving a lot along the way.

We hope Healthline Sleep can serve as a sort of coach for you as well.

The definitive manual on everything related to sleep has been assembled by our team of medical experts, sleep specialists, and journalists. We’ve got you covered whether you’re looking for research-backed advice to determine your optimum sleep schedule, the best equipment to build your own private sleep sanctuary, a professional to help you treat a sleep condition, or even just how to get through daylight saving time.

Your sleeping partner on the road to fulfillment is Healthline Sleep. Ahead are better evenings, I say.

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