There are few things more frustrating than not being able to sleep.  Maybe you are working through a particularly stressful time in your life, maybe you just can’t shut your brain off, or maybe you just can’t sleep, doggone it.

There are a few things that you can make sure you do to optimize your chances of falling and staying asleep.

1. Make sure your environment is sleep-inducing: dark, cool, and quiet.  Some people need a little white noise (especially if they are trying to drown out the neighbors), and that is fine.  Keep your bedroom on the cool side, 60 to 70 degrees.  Have a comfortable mattress and pillows.  Use some eye shades if you can’t get your room dark enough.
2. Avoid daytime naps. This may make it more difficult for you to fall asleep at night.  Excessive daytime sleepiness is usually a sign that you are not getting enough sleep.
3. Try to get 7 to 8 hours. This is optimal for most people but you may require a little...

It’s no secret that busy adults do not get enough sleep.  In fact there are many adults who are trudging through life in a state of chronic sleep deprivation.  It’s a badge of honor for some.  Have you ever heard a colleague brag that he or she only needs 3 hours of sleep each night?  Does this make him/her a super human or just a stupid human?  Turns out, it is probably the latter.

While there are many serious chronic health issues that are associated with chronic sleep deprivation (we’ll get to those in a minute), a more insidious problem occurs with just even one night of not enough zzz’s.  Sleeping less than 7 hours per night causes decreases in cognitive function.  These cognitive problems accumulate over time.  The less you sleep, the less smart you are.  In fact, in one study of 48 healthy individuals who were limited to either 4 or 6 hours of sleep each night for 14 nights, the decline in cognitive...

Summary:

One of the things that bothers most breast cancer patients at some point in their journey is a feeling of anxiety.  For some this is pretty persistent and can interfere with relationships, sleep, the ability to focus, and most importantly the ability to just feel well.  Here's a simple technique to fix all of that.

Transcript:

Hi there! One of the things that bothers most breast cancer patients at some point in their journey is a feeling of anxiety.  For some this is pretty persistent and can interfere with relationships, sleep, the ability to focus, and most importantly the ability to just feel well.

In the program that I’m going to be introducing in a few weeks, I will give you a detailed plan of many techniques that you can use to get over your anxiety.  For now though I wanted to give you something simple that you can use today and use many times a day.  And that is a simple breathing exercise.

I can hear some of you...