1. You might not feel as sharp If your brain feels a bit fuzzy as the cold weather rolls in, you could have the lack of sunlight to blame. One survey of 16,800 participants found an association between decreased exposure to sunlight and increased cognitive impairment. If you arrive at work before the sun rises and leave after it’s gone down, schedule time in your day to take a walk: Even just 15 minutes of midday sun could stimulate the neural pathways necessary to get you back in prime thinking mode. 2. You might go to bed earlier Because of the human body’s finely tuned circadian rhythm, ear ..read more

Getting good sleep is crucial for staying healthy and feeling our best. When we sleep poorly or don’t sleep long enough, we can find it hard to concentrate and remember things. And over time, not getting the sleep we need can lead to serious health problems like depression, heart disease, and even a shorter life.Something that has a big impact on our ability to have a good sleep is melatonin, a hormone our bodies produce naturally. It’s what helps us feel sleepy at night and awake during the daywhen its dark outside, the pineal gland in our brain produces melatonin to let us know it’s time for ..read more

We got Mark Boulos, a neurologist and sleep health expert at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, to share six changes you can make to set yourself up for some easy Zzzs tonight. Keep it moving Making sure youre getting some exercise during the day will help you catch more Zs. Not only can this improve your sleep health, it plays an important role in preventing heart attacks and stroke, mood stability and even preventing cancer. We recommend exercising in the morning rather than in the evening because it has an energizing effect, says Boulos. You should also avoid caffeine within six hours of bedti ..read more

If youre clocking somewhere between seven and nine hours, but still feel exhausted in the morning, sleep apnea might be the cause. This is a condition that causes your breathing to stop and start intermittently when youre sleeping. It often results in snoring, gasping or loud breathing, and is most common in men and obese individuals.However, regardless of sex or body type, certain facial anatomy puts people at higher risk for sleep apneanarrow airways, dental causes and even the amount of fat on your tongue. (An enlarged or fat tongue may be related to a medical condition, your body type or a ..read more

Spring forward, fall back, feel tired for days? It happens to many of usbut most people who struggle with this transition have underlying sleep issues to begin with,says Mark Boulos, a neurologist and sleep health expert at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.This falls time change happens on Sunday, November 6 and even though youll technically gain an hour, some people will feel off their routines in the days that follow. (Then, in the spring, when you lose an hour? Youre even more likely to feel off your game.) Persistent tiredness after resetting those clocks can also be related to the duration ..read more

For as long as I can remember, Ive felt like I needed to catch up on sleep. That groggy, just-woke-up feeling many of us have in the early morning sometimes drags on for hours or even persists all day, even after a good nights sleep, no matter how many coffees I down. Now in my late thirties, I feel like the word tired is a key part of my identity.Theres a wide range of reasons people lack energy during the day, but were here to help you figure out why youre so sleepyand hopefully how to fix it.(Related: How Circadian Rhythm Disorders Can Affect Your Sleep) What is bad sleep, anyway? If you wa ..read more

Cooling blankets in Canada Ive always been a hot sleeperI’ve been shouting Did somebody turn the aircon off?! in a murderous rage since I was six years old. Now that Ive become a Woman of a Certain Age And That Age is Definitely Not 23, my need for products that will keep me cooler at night has become a bit of an obsession.When you sleep, your body temperature goes down a couple of degrees, but the heat that you let off often gets trapped in your mattress, pillows and bedding, which then slowly cooks you as if you were a sweaty little sous vide snack.Here are some products that can help keep ..read more

If you’ve mastered the art of falling asleep but tend to wake up in the middle of the night, you’re not alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 50 to 70 million adults report waking or sleeping disorders.Too little sleep can set you up for depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke, and car accidents, says Meeta Singh, MD, medical director of the Henry Ford Sleep Lab in Columbus, Michigan.You’ll likely feel lousy the next day, too. A 2017 study in The Journal of Pain found that just two nights of fragmented sleep was enough to make ..read more

When talking about wellness and the fundamentals of good health, there’s one thing that keeps coming up over and over again: Sleep. Stressed? You need more sleep. Have brain fog? You need more sleep. Breaking out? Yup, more sleep. But, as any insomniac will tell you, knowing how important sleep is can make it even more impossible to do. We’ll call it a Catch ZZ.Thats where I found myself last summer, during my longest bout of insomnia yet. It was day 30 of not being able to fall asleep naturally, day 30 of taking prescription medications to help and feeling disoriented, disengaged and distress ..read more

You just can’t seem to get to bed before 2 a.m. Or maybe the opposite happens: You wake up at 3 a.m., ready to start your day. Then again, it could be shift work that’s keeping you up at night and forcing you to grab some sleep during the day, leaving you perpetually fatigued.All of these are examples of circadian rhythm disorders, which are problems with the alignment between your sleep-wake cycle and your responsibilities for the daylike going to work or school, or seeing friends.Research suggests that about 3 percent of adults have some type of circadian rhythm disorder.(Related: 10 Science ..read more