Eaten by eagles! Oh my, those sparrows must make quite a racket at your place.😅 I appreciate your extensive list of coping strategies. I have my sleep time set on my phone and it reminds me an hour before that bed time is near. Then I stop using the little screens and we switch our viewing to programs that are light and funny. This seems to help us get to sleep.
Another excellent, practical post from you Dr. McCormick. I have put many of these recommendations into practice, though, particularly as I age, I find they help only on the margin. Relatedly, there are a couple things I have been wondering about that I think may be contributing factors here:
First, I am discovering that many friends, as I do, seem to have increasing trouble staying asleep through the night as we get older. It’s anecdotal, but I do wonder whether aging itself, even if one is reasonably healthy, with good diet and exercise habits, is itself a factor here, and, if so, what it might be about aging that could cause that.
Second, those of us who are higher risk, due to age and/or other factors, and therefore must take additional COVID, etc.-related precautions, have the additional challenge attendant to living more circumscribed lives than we used to. Loneliness and isolation, and attendant depression, therefore can loom larger for us. I suspect this has to be a contributing factor to sleep-related issues, too.
It does not appear there are ready answers to either of these, but even if not, I think it is helpful to acknowledge these issues exist, if what I am surmising is true.
And really appreciate your feedback and the concept of how are you functioning and feeling vs. absolute numbers of sleep hours. Excellent post— as always!
Nice note and handwritten as well! My main problem is turning off my brain. There is an a site that I was given a subscription (Calm) that was helpful during the early days of the pandemic. I was up late scouring the papers and learning new terms & acronyms. Take care there! Kelce is thinking about coming back and cannot say I blame him since the Eagles acquired Saquon Barkley.
I appreciate the tip to focus on rest and not obsess about sleep time. Sometimes I get too caught up in my Fitbit sleep stats.
Eaten by eagles! Oh my, those sparrows must make quite a racket at your place.😅 I appreciate your extensive list of coping strategies. I have my sleep time set on my phone and it reminds me an hour before that bed time is near. Then I stop using the little screens and we switch our viewing to programs that are light and funny. This seems to help us get to sleep.
This is awesome! I'm going to print this out and hand-out to my patients.
I particularly like that you are not recommending expensive BS things: OURA, 8mattress, magnesium threonate.or other supplements...
and I like that it is handwritten.
Another excellent, practical post from you Dr. McCormick. I have put many of these recommendations into practice, though, particularly as I age, I find they help only on the margin. Relatedly, there are a couple things I have been wondering about that I think may be contributing factors here:
First, I am discovering that many friends, as I do, seem to have increasing trouble staying asleep through the night as we get older. It’s anecdotal, but I do wonder whether aging itself, even if one is reasonably healthy, with good diet and exercise habits, is itself a factor here, and, if so, what it might be about aging that could cause that.
Second, those of us who are higher risk, due to age and/or other factors, and therefore must take additional COVID, etc.-related precautions, have the additional challenge attendant to living more circumscribed lives than we used to. Loneliness and isolation, and attendant depression, therefore can loom larger for us. I suspect this has to be a contributing factor to sleep-related issues, too.
It does not appear there are ready answers to either of these, but even if not, I think it is helpful to acknowledge these issues exist, if what I am surmising is true.
Here is a free VA based CBT-I app: https://mobile.va.gov/app/cbt-i-coach
I second Susan’s comments!
And really appreciate your feedback and the concept of how are you functioning and feeling vs. absolute numbers of sleep hours. Excellent post— as always!
Nice note and handwritten as well! My main problem is turning off my brain. There is an a site that I was given a subscription (Calm) that was helpful during the early days of the pandemic. I was up late scouring the papers and learning new terms & acronyms. Take care there! Kelce is thinking about coming back and cannot say I blame him since the Eagles acquired Saquon Barkley.