When you wake up in the morning, are you refreshed and ready to go, or groggy and grumpy? For many people, the second scenario is all too common. Improving Sleep: A guide to a good night's rest describes the latest in sleep research, including information about the numerous health conditions and medications that can interfere with normal sleep, as well as prescription and over-the-counter medications used to treat sleep disorders. Most importantly, you’ll learn what you can do to get the sleep you need for optimal health, safety, and well-being.

Do you have trouble falling asleep? Trouble staying asleep?

Remember when you could fall asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow and not wake up until the alarm went off?

As we get older, it becomes a little harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. But although our sleep patterns change, our need for sleep doesn’t. Just like diet and exercise, a good night’s sleep is essential for your good health, for keeping you alert and energetic, and for building your body’s defenses against infection, chronic illness, and even heart disease.
Improving Sleep is an instructive and fact-filled report from Harvard Medical School that explains why sleep often eludes us as adults. You’ll read about those habits and conditions that rob us of peaceful slumber. And most importantly, you’ll learn what you can do to again enjoy the satisfaction of a restful night’s sleep.

You learn not only what triggers insomnia but also how new techniques and therapies are helping men and women get to sleep more quickly — without the use of medications. You’ll read about the benefits of “strategic naps.” You’ll discover how to make your sleep surroundings more conducive to rest. And you’ll be told about seven things you should do — and not do — before going to bed.

Do you or your spouse snore? There are hundreds of devices marketed as aids to stop snoring. But do any work? The report will sort them out and will brief you on new procedures that are restoring quiet to the bedroom. Have you ever been screened for sleep apnea? The report gives you a six-question test that will help you determine if you need to be tested for this life-threatening condition.

Plus, you may want to speak to your physician after you read about those medications that can cause insomnia, drowsiness or even nightmares. And the report will share news about advances in controlling such sleep-troublers as heartburn, arthritis, nocturia, and restless legs syndrome.

Prepared by the editors of Harvard Health Publishing in consultation with Lawrence Epstein, M.D., Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and Medical Director, Sleep Health Centers, Brighton, MA. 56 pages. (2015).