Sweet Sleep Blog

Sleep Environment Your sleeping environment can be a huge key to your successful night's sleep.  If you're uncomfortable in your space for any reason, or it just isn't relaxing enough it may actually be key to that poor sleep. Visual What you see is a large part of creating your ideal sleeping environment.  Is there too much light? Do you have electronics that immite blue light? This can interfere with your body's natural melatonin production.  Having your room dark is absolutely best for sleeping.  Having a peaceful room with simple flat paints in colors that are relaxing such as blues and greens can also get your body ready to sleep.  If you get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom try not to turn on any lights as this will start your brain's wake up process. It will be harder to fall asleep when you get back to bed. Installing a few nightlights around your home can make this easier.   Sound Sound is the next part of c...

Connecting Sleep to Anxiety When we sleep our brains clear out the clutter.  It gets rid of the choas of the day and gets our brains ready for the next day.  When your sleep is disrupted and you're waking often in the right it can cause your thoughts to become stuck in a pattern of negative thoughts.  This leads to an increase of feeling anxious.   Connecting Anxiety to Sleep Anxiety is a terrible feeling to battle.  When you are feeling anxious it can cause you to have a difficult time sleeping.   As you're struggling with sleep, the lack of sleep will then lead to feeling more anxious.   Stop the Cycle  If you do not have any medical situations keeping you from sleep you can do some simple things to help you get more sleep.  Try getting rid of those electronics.  Stop staring at your phone about an hour before bed.  Establish your sleeping schedule and keep with it through the weekend too.  Try t...

Q&A Many clients all have a very important question that they ask.  How much sleep do I actually need?  I feel fine after just sleeping for 6 hours while my partner seems to sleep forever! How Much Sleep Do You Need? How much sleep each person needs varies slightly from person to person.  Most adults need a minimum of seven hours of sleep to be able to function correctly and feel rested.  Some adults do need more and very few need less sleep.  A sleep journal is a perfect way to find out how many hours you need to sleep. Finding Out The best way to determine exactly how much sleep it takes for you to feel rested is to go to sleep when you feel tired in the evening and sleep without an alarm.  This can be tricky around work schedules so starting this when you’re on vacation or over a long weekend is a great idea.  Starting Friday night, instead of staying up to binge watch that favorite show, go ahead and have an early dinner aroun...

Pets! Let’s talk about pets.  We all love our fluffy family members! They provide unconditional love and great cuddles.  But what do they have to do with sleep?  A lot. Sleeping with Pets According to research done by the Mayo Clinic pets can be great and terrible for sleep.  Their research showed that people who sleep with their furry family members in their bedroom had a higher quality of sleep.  However, they also found that if you let those fluffy little pets under your covers to sleep you may end up suffering from a poor quality of sleep instead.  So instead of letting your cuddle happy dog into the bed try getting a nice dog bed for them and training them to sleep beside the bed instead of joining you. Let's Hear From You! I’d love to hear from you!  Do you let your pets in bed with you? How many pets?  Do you find that they wake you up at night? 

New Year, New Goals With the New Year, everyone has been focusing hard on those New Year’s Resolutions!  How are you doing on yours?!  I hope it’s going great for you!  I wanted to take a little time today and talk to you about a super important topic that I believe should absolutely be a goal for everyone this year.  Getting more sleep. Get More Sleep Life is busy and a lot of times we just grab that extra cup of coffee and yawn throughout our day.  Sleep isn’t really one of those things we think of as a goal.  Parents stay up late after the kids go to bed just to have some quiet time, or you get excited to catch up on your favorite show and binge watch it on TV until the next thing you know it’s 1 am and you’ve got work in the morning.  We’ve all been there, but what is this doing to our bodies?  Sleep is Important Sleep is a vital part of our health.  It’s how our body heals, resets, and gets ready for the next day!  ...

MEET DR. BHAT Dr Abid Bhat has been in the practice of Sleep Medicine for over 10 years.  He has provided medical care to people with various sleep disorders, including insomnia (difficulty falling sleep or staying sleep), sleep apnea (a person snores loud and stops breathing in sleep), parasomnia (sleep walking), restless legs syndrome (urge to move legs while trying to fall sleep) and a number of other related conditions.  Millions of Americans continue to suffer from sleep disruption but, unfortunately, majority of them are undiagnosed. Sleep is quintessential in preventing chronic ailments like obesity, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Dr Bhat’s passion is to present sleep as THE essential ingredient to maintain a positive state of health and well-being by combining Western medicine and Holistic Medicine.   ​ Dr Abid Bhat did his fellowship in Sleep Medicine from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also earned a Mast...