15 Doctors Share Bad Habits That Are Ruining Your Sleep
We recently asked medical professionals of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the sleep mistakes people have no idea they're making, and they revealed what's actually ruining your sleep as well as tips to get better rest. Here's what they had to say:
"If you can't fall asleep after 20–30 minutes, you should get up and move to another room to do something calming until you feel tired again. Lying in bed awake trains your brain that the bed is not for sleep and makes it more difficult to fall asleep in the long run."
"If you can't fall asleep after 30 minutes, DON'T stay in bed. Get up, move to another room, and do something calming."
"Reading something exciting before bed can get the brain and body activated, making it harder to fall asleep or stay asleep."
"Working until exhaustion can be harmful if you don't give your brain and body time to wind down. This can lead to nightmares or even panic attacks while sleeping."
"I'm a clinical psychologist, and I've learned that for some individuals, hot showers right before bed can actually increase blood pressure and/or heart rate, making it difficult to fall asleep."
"It's common for people to have awakenings through the night. Hopefully, they are brief, and you fall back asleep quickly. But for many, waking at about 3 a.m. may be a problem because you have already slept for a period of time, and your body is starting to gear up for the day. You need a greater degree of relaxation at that time. So, avoid any stimulation at that time, and avoid looking at the clock, if possible. On the other hand, if you start to worry about not sleeping, you will be in trouble."
"Sleep apnea. I've seen patients come in with pretty bad heart failure after never using their CPAP machine at night. People have no idea how much strain being unable to breathe at night affects their hearts. Use your CPAP machine!"
"[If your mind is busy at night, and you have issues falling asleep], I suggest that you start a worry journal in the evening — set aside 15 minutes before you go to bed. Write down your negative thoughts and then close the book, allowing you to go to bed with those thoughts on the page, not in your head."
"A hot bath before bed has been shown to increase deep non-REM sleep. Some medications, like antidepressants, can reduce REM sleep."
"ECU RN for seven years here. When you sleep on your side, you keep the weight of your core off your lungs and organ systems. If you are suffering organ damage from an accident, this is the best way to sleep."
"If you experience restless leg syndrome, ask your doctor to check your iron levels. There are a number of very good medications for RLS that your doctor can prescribe for you to tackle this. Massaging your legs before bed can help, and doing activities that are mentally engrossing can also reduce RLS symptoms, but this is typically not what we recommend right before bedtime!"
"[Not getting enough sleep is serious.] Very few people can succeed and be healthy on less than seven hours of sleep per night. Insufficient sleep, due to inadequate or mistimed sleep, contributes to the risk for several of today's health epidemics, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. Simply missing one night of sleep can lead to decreased cognitive function, trouble concentrating, headaches, and general moodiness."
"When you take a nap, set your alarm for just 10–15 minutes from the time you lie down; that way, you don't wake from a deeper stage of sleep and end up groggy."
"If you find it easier to fall asleep during the daytime than at night, there can be various reasons. For some, it may be a disorder of the natural rhythm or the circadian rhythm of sleep; if your natural rhythm doesn't mesh with your lifestyle, it may be helpful to consider shifting the rhythm. Often, a combination of properly timed bright lights and melatonin may be beneficial."
"If you have sleep apnea, making sure you are of a healthy weight and avoiding sleeping on your back to keep your nasal passages clear can be helpful. Other options are oral appliances custom-fabricated by a dentist."
And finally...
"There is an ideal number of hours to sleep at night, which varies for each person. To find out how much you need, try to go to bed when you are tired and wake up spontaneously when refreshed for a while — that will help determine your needs. This bedtime calculator could also serve as a guide."
Fellow medical professionals, what are some other sleep mistakes people should avoid? Tell us in the comments, or use this anonymous form below.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Doctors And Scientists Are Revealing Things People Don't Realize Are Wildly Bad For Their Health
We recently asked doctors, scientists, and other medical professionals of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us things people don't realize are very bad for their health, or "bad" habits people often downplay that could be detrimental. Their answers were incredibly eye-opening — and I can't lie, some of them were even scary. Here's what they had to say: Note: Some responses were pulled from this Reddit thread by u/prettiestburner. 1."If you snore, get a sleep study. Sleep apnea kills. It's not just something that annoys everyone within a five-block radius; it can KILL YOU. Why? Hypertension, excessive daytime sleepiness with more accidents, depression, hypertension leads to heart, kidney, and other small vessel disease that leads to organ failure and strokes." —nyc4ever "Untreated sleep apnea can cause excessive daytime sleepiness that might cause a car accident, high blood pressure, and even heart failure over time. If you snore or feel tired all the time, you should mention this to your provider." —Anonymous, 63, Oregon 2."Taking OTC products with the same ingredients, such as a cough syrup and cold medication. They both have Tylenol. You can easily end up in liver failure." —Anonymous 3."As if it needs to be said, but excessive alcohol drinking. We all know what it does to you, but I'll give it a spin that I learned in a decade in the ICU: Dying from alcohol is just about the worst way to die. No one thinks about dying slowly, constantly seizing when they're on a bender. No one thinks about your entire body turning yellow when they're tying one on after work." "No one thinks about your body swelling up to the point of being unrecognizable when they are downing a 12-pack every night." —Anonymous, 45, Kentucky "I'm an internal medicine doc. Alcohol excess has several consequences: decompensated cirrhosis with encephalopathy and ascites, or alcoholic hepatitis. Also, alcoholic cardiomyopathy. It can also lead to early onset alcohol-induced dementia and alcohol-related brain injury — more on the frontal lobe, so more impulse control and other executive functioning problems than standard Alzheimer's. There's also Korsakoff's psychosis." —noobREDUX 4."Biting your nails!!! This brings so much bacteria into your system, can chip and harm your teeth, and in extreme cases, can lead to stomach pain and blockages." —Anonymous, 26, Pennsylvania 5."Secondhand smoke. You get all the negatives of smoking cigarettes, just at a lower concentration. But over time, it adds up. I've seen people with significant lung disease because they lived with smokers for decades!" —Anonymous 6."Hands down, the worst thing you can do to your body is smoking. The pictures on those anti-tobacco ads aren't nearly gruesome enough to show you how much it affects the body. My colleagues and I see SO many diseases and internal injuries that are caused by smoking: internal bleeding, lung cancers, loss of appetite, tremors, etc." "There are so many things that can go wrong if you smoke long-term, not to mention the environmental concerns. Please, look at some stats and STOP SMOKING." —Anonymous Related: 19 "Body Changes" That Clearly Indicate A Person Is Not Young Anymore, And I'm Not Ready For This Reality 7."Skipping the floss portion of oral health care. The bacteria not only can lead to bleeding gums and potentially tooth loss, but the same bacteria can also enter the bloodstream. If that bacteria enters the bloodstream, it can lead to major heart problems or possibly dementia." —Anonymous, 35, Pennsylvania 8."Being underweight is just as unhealthy, if not worse, than being overweight. When you're underweight, you're more likely to have a severe injury than average or overweight people, and recovery takes longer. You're also more likely to get sick more often and feel worse when you do get sick because your body has fewer resources to fight off illnesses like respiratory infections. Plus, tiredness and fatigue are huge problems for people who are underweight." "Lots of people give overweight people a hard time out of 'concern for their health,' which is really hypocritical. Idolizing thinness is so incredibly harmful." —Anonymous, Virginia 9."Mental health professional here. A lot of people don't seem to realize that overachievement is bad for your mental health. Achievement and being good at things are supposed to boost your self-confidence, but constant competition to be the best is not good for your mental or physical well-being. It just runs you down and burns you out. There's a reason you hear about high-achieving students having nervous breakdowns. Your body and brain can only sustain that so long. It's better to focus on being your best and balance that with self-care habits like getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, and scheduling time for fun." "Nobody wants to live as a human doing instead of a human being, which means you have to learn to be in the moment without meeting some never-ending internal expectation of achieving more." —Anonymous, 45, Texas Related: "This Actually Isn't A Necessity": Millions Of People Watched A Mom Explain How Not Buying This Super Common Household Product Has Saved Her Family Thousands 10."Dentist here! [Sugary drinks, like sodas.] I've put more people in dentures from Mountain Dew than meth or drugs. It's addictive and so bad for your health and your teeth. Avoid that stuff at all costs!!!" —Dr-tooth-fairy 11."I'm a former nurse and EMT. Ignoring infections until they turn necrotic. You treat that spider bite or infected scratch today; I wash it out with a sterile rinse and put some ointment. You bring it to me after two weeks, and I'm cleaning out a softball-size chunk of dead flesh and packing it with dressing you're gonna have to change every day for months. You bring it to me after a month? You may lose a limb or at least be in PT for quite a while based on how much muscle you lose." "The things I've seen from small wounds left uncleaned." —DoggoAlternative 12."I suggest not playing sports that involve getting hit in the head. If you don't plan on your kid doing professional sports, don't risk all the injuries and future pain from bad joints and old injuries. I've treated many ex-professional athletes. Unless they make it big and sock it away, they end up broken and poor." —samsontexas 13."Ignoring your diabetes. I've seen people having bad leg and foot wounds; going to dialysis three days a week, four hours each time, just to stay alive; going blind and forced to quit their jobs because they can no longer drive; stepping in a fire ant hill but unable to feel the bites due to neuropathy until their legs were completely covered in welts; having blood vessels diseased all over their body due to constant hyperglycemia, causing heart attacks and strokes." —Nursebirder "Untreated type 1 diabetes. It's always so hard to see some young person who thinks they're healthy, but their eye exam shows that they'll be blind before they're 25. Also, they will most likely be on dialysis by that time, too." —madkeepz 14."Take care of your teeth. The number of patients with endocarditis (heart infection) that started in their rotten teeth is excessive." —Anonymous, 37, Georgia 15."Wounds that don't heal correctly from trauma may turn into skin cancer! If something isn't healing right, go to the dermatologist! And get your skin checks! If you are over 30, you should get a skin check every few years. If something keeps growing back after picking it, go to the dermatologist!" —Anonymous, 27, Philadelphia 16."Stop eating sugar daily! From cavities to weight gain to exacerbating chronic illnesses like diabetes, sugar really is the enemy." —sobe551 And finally... 17."'Nothing.' Being stagnant with your body will literally kill you. Move around. Go walk. Bend your knees. Stretch." —Gunbuckets "Inactivity. Most people barely move or consider a slow walk exercise. Daily physical activity of doing chores, walking to the store, etc. are the bare minimum amounts of movement. People use lifts to go up one or two flights of stairs, get delivery, or use the drive-thru to avoid doing even that. Let alone purposeful exercise that would make you out of breath and get your heart rate up. The cheapest way to reduce obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, cancer, strokes, sleep apnoea, joint disease, mental health disorders, and pretty much most other disorders? A brisk walk/jog of 30 to 60 minutes five times a week." —pineappleandpea Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity. Fellow doctors, scientists, and other medical professionals, what other "bad" habits do people downplay or don't realize are wildly bad for their health? Tell us in the comments, or use this anonymous form below. Also in Goodful: 30 Absolutely Wild Medical Facts You've Probably Never Heard Of But Probably Should Hear Also in Goodful: "I Can't Wait For This To Go Out Of Style": People Are Sharing Popular Modern Trends That Are Actually Pretty Toxic Also in Goodful: 25 Life-Changing Habits People Added To Their Everyday Routines To Improve Their Lives For The Better
Buzz Feed
4 days ago
- Buzz Feed
17 Doctors Share "Bad" Habits That Are Bad For Health
We recently asked doctors, scientists, and other medical professionals of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us things people don't realize are very bad for their health, or "bad" habits people often downplay that could be detrimental. Their answers were incredibly eye-opening — and I can't lie, some of them were even scary. Here's what they had to say: "If you snore, get a sleep study. Sleep apnea kills. It's not just something that annoys everyone within a five-block radius; it can KILL YOU. Why? Hypertension, excessive daytime sleepiness with more accidents, depression, hypertension leads to heart, kidney, and other small vessel disease that leads to organ failure and strokes." "Taking OTC products with the same ingredients, such as a cough syrup and cold medication. They both have Tylenol. You can easily end up in liver failure." "As if it needs to be said, but excessive alcohol drinking. We all know what it does to you, but I'll give it a spin that I learned in a decade in the ICU: Dying from alcohol is just about the worst way to die. No one thinks about dying slowly, constantly seizing when they're on a bender. No one thinks about your entire body turning yellow when they're tying one on after work." "Biting your nails!!! This brings so much bacteria into your system, can chip and harm your teeth, and in extreme cases, can lead to stomach pain and blockages." "Secondhand smoke. You get all the negatives of smoking cigarettes, just at a lower concentration. But over time, it adds up. I've seen people with significant lung disease because they lived with smokers for decades!" "Hands down, the worst thing you can do to your body is smoking. The pictures on those anti-tobacco ads aren't nearly gruesome enough to show you how much it affects the body. My colleagues and I see SO many diseases and internal injuries that are caused by smoking: internal bleeding, lung cancers, loss of appetite, tremors, etc." "Skipping the floss portion of oral health care. The bacteria not only can lead to bleeding gums and potentially tooth loss, but the same bacteria can also enter the bloodstream. If that bacteria enters the bloodstream, it can lead to major heart problems or possibly dementia." "Being underweight is just as unhealthy, if not worse, than being overweight. When you're underweight, you're more likely to have a severe injury than average or overweight people, and recovery takes longer. You're also more likely to get sick more often and feel worse when you do get sick because your body has fewer resources to fight off illnesses like respiratory infections. Plus, tiredness and fatigue are huge problems for people who are underweight." "Mental health professional here. A lot of people don't seem to realize that overachievement is bad for your mental health. Achievement and being good at things are supposed to boost your self-confidence, but constant competition to be the best is not good for your mental or physical well-being. It just runs you down and burns you out. There's a reason you hear about high-achieving students having nervous breakdowns. Your body and brain can only sustain that so long. It's better to focus on being your best and balance that with self-care habits like getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, and scheduling time for fun." "Dentist here! [Sugary drinks, like sodas.] I've put more people in dentures from Mountain Dew than meth or drugs. It's addictive and so bad for your health and your teeth. Avoid that stuff at all costs!!!" "I'm a former nurse and EMT. Ignoring infections until they turn necrotic. You treat that spider bite or infected scratch today; I wash it out with a sterile rinse and put some ointment. You bring it to me after two weeks, and I'm cleaning out a softball-size chunk of dead flesh and packing it with dressing you're gonna have to change every day for months. You bring it to me after a month? You may lose a limb or at least be in PT for quite a while based on how much muscle you lose." "I suggest not playing sports that involve getting hit in the head. If you don't plan on your kid doing professional sports, don't risk all the injuries and future pain from bad joints and old injuries. I've treated many ex-professional athletes. Unless they make it big and sock it away, they end up broken and poor." "Ignoring your diabetes. I've seen people having bad leg and foot wounds; going to dialysis three days a week, four hours each time, just to stay alive; going blind and forced to quit their jobs because they can no longer drive; stepping in a fire ant hill but unable to feel the bites due to neuropathy until their legs were completely covered in welts; having blood vessels diseased all over their body due to constant hyperglycemia, causing heart attacks and strokes." "Take care of your teeth. The number of patients with endocarditis (heart infection) that started in their rotten teeth is excessive." "Wounds that don't heal correctly from trauma may turn into skin cancer! If something isn't healing right, go to the dermatologist! And get your skin checks! If you are over 30, you should get a skin check every few years. If something keeps growing back after picking it, go to the dermatologist!" "Stop eating sugar daily! From cavities to weight gain to exacerbating chronic illnesses like diabetes, sugar really is the enemy." And finally... "'Nothing.' Being stagnant with your body will literally kill you. Move around. Go walk. Bend your knees. Stretch." Fellow doctors, scientists, and other medical professionals, what other "bad" habits do people downplay or don't realize are wildly bad for their health? Tell us in the comments, or use this anonymous form below.
Buzz Feed
5 days ago
- Buzz Feed
Women Share Hilarious Hookup Fails That Killed The Mood
We recently covered this Reddit thread where women recalled the wild, cringeworthy reasons men gave them icks in the bedroom. Women of the BuzzFeed Community then chimed in with their own tales of bedroom blunders. Here's what they revealed: "He called sex 'making kittens.' The first and last time we 'made kittens,' we were both virgins, and after a whole 15 seconds, he finished." "I once had to ask a casual hookup buddy if he had forgotten to brush his teeth because his breath was so bad. He said he had brushed them, but had run out of toothpaste a few days ago and kept forgetting to buy more. There I was, thoroughly brushed, flossed, bathed, shaved, moisturized, and perfumed in nice underwear. And he couldn't even bother to use toothpaste. I left before showing him the underwear." "He put his finger in my mouth and pulled on my cheek like a fish hook. I immediately kicked him out. He trash-talked me to everyone for weeks after." "He sucked on my ears so hard, I could hear my earrings crunch on his teeth. Like WHY?!" "Once, I hooked up with a guy who was too lazy to get up and walk to the bathroom to pee. Instead, he picked up an empty Tropicana OJ bottle by the bed, peed in it, and then put it down next to the bed to empty out when he went to the bathroom in the morning. I was D-O-N-E!" "This guy I had started to see asked me how many candles I wanted lit before we did it. I was a virgin, and he thought that was what I needed to sleep with him. I submitted this story to a radio show and won two tickets to the Nick Jonas/Demi Lovato tour." "He called me 'Ms. Wetness' in a sing-songy voice." "In graduate school, I hooked up with a guy during an internship. We went back to my apartment, had a few beers, and then (fairly decent) sex. Post-coitus, he excused himself to go to the bathroom. About two minutes later, he came out wearing my bathrobe and said, 'Hope you don't mind, but I borrowed your toothbrush!' Needless to say, I was horrified." "I had an ex who called a blowjob 'sucky sucky.'" "I hooked up with a friend, and he kept saying, 'Say my name.' I don't know why, but it's awkward as hell for me to say someone's name during sex. Anyway, after the fourth or fifth time of him saying that, he finally said, 'It's John. My name is John.' All I could do was laugh." "I can only climax when I'm on top, and one guy kept saying, 'Yes! Ride the bull!' in what I think was an Italian accent. I couldn't get past that one." "I'm into a little dirty talk, but not really praise. This man whispered, 'You're doing so good for me, sweet angel.' I couldn't do that." "I went on a date with a guy I'd been crushing on ALL semester during my first year of college. He was literally an Abercrombie model. He gave me a bag with him on it, which was weird, but kind of neat. He was absolutely beautiful, he was polite, and he was smart. I got to his house and it REEKED of weed. I made him open a window and light a candle. Then I saw his bedroom. His bed was unmade with black sheets with obvious crusts of THINGS on it. I refused to get in the bed, even at 19, so we started hooking up on the couch. The mood killer was when he stopped to take a huge bong rip out of a statuesque Batman bong. He or someone else had DIY'd a Batman figurine into a bong. I lied and said I was on my period and had to go. This was in 2009, and I threw away that bag, but sometimes I still think of it and wish I had it. Oh, and I'm in a relationship with a woman now." "In baby talk, he referred to my vagina as 'kitty.' I still shudder when I think of him." "He constantly kept asking me if I felt better, like I was feeling bad before we even had sex, which really turned me off." "One time when a guy was going down on me, he looked up at my face and said, 'You look like Hello Kitty.' Excuse me??" "Mid-hookup, I heard something rustling above my head. He was looking at a magazine picture of Linda Ronstadt while making love to me. I rolled it up and smacked him with it before storming out." "He was on top of me kissing and squeezing my boobs and telling me how great they were, and then he asked me, 'Did you get them from your mom?'" "We went back to his place. He was a very clean-looking individual, but his apartment was disgusting. That was bad enough, then I went to the bathroom and there were pubes EVERYWHERE. Nope." "I was studying abroad in London from the US for a semester during college. I met a guy on Tinder and we had a couple of dates. He seemed nice. Went back to his parents' house to his room. He had at least five guinea pigs. Okay, no big deal; he likes animals. As we go to cuddle in bed, he whispers, 'Don't make me follow you across the world.' I could not sleep a wink that night, and I broke up with him before the next date." "I hooked up with a guy who took his pants off, then got genuinely upset that I didn't ooh and aah over how big it was." "He called his penis his 'pee pee.' 🤮" And: "Post sex, lying naked in bed, a grown man did the Goofy laugh. It was a perfect imitation. He even went cross-eyed. I have never been so turned off so fast. It was an impressive imitation, but absolutely not the time. I can't see or hear Goofy without shuddering." Women, has a man ever given you the ick while hooking up? What did he do? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
