hello my friends it's Kim Knipe one of the dietitians and the program
coordinator for the hospital University Pennsylvania or help us be like the
colic we miss you and we can't wait until you come back to our office so we
can see you in person but in the meantime we thought we would give you a
few tips and hints and and things that might help you through this crazy wacky
time that we're all experiencing right now and one thing that people are saying
that they're having a hard time with right now is good sleep and having a
good sleep routine you're going to bed late you're waking up late you're
napping during the day everything is all thrown off and so I'm here to give you
maybe a few hints that can help with that and it's important you don't think
of sleep as being that important for your health but it really can impact
your learning your memory your safety imagine driving with no sleep
remembering things doing your job correctly or taking care of your family
well it can also impact your cardiovascular health and believe it or
not it can impact your weight loss or it can actually lead to weight gain so
let's talk about a few things that can help get you some really good sleep so
that you can feel better and you can you know remain on that path to losing
weight like you have been and here's a couple of things that may be impacting
good sleep that would be sleep disorders you know
like sleep apnea restless leg syndrome things that you may need to go to your
doctor about get medications or use a CPAP but it can also be from things like
stress anxiety depression certainly those can also be something you talk to
your doctor about or your psychologist but there are a couple of things you can
deal with on your own and let's talk about some of those for instance not
prioritizing your sleep just not making in
an important priority in your life things like your sleep routine what you
do right before bed and if you're wondering how much sleep is enough sleep
to be healthy it varies with individuals but mostly between 7 and 9 hours seems
to be what research says is the best amount of time for a good optimal
healthy sleep ok here we go a couple of tips you ready first establish that
sleep routine that schedule you know with little kids we always talk about
making a bedtime routine the same thing goes for adults so about an hour before
you want to get to sleep start turning things off start getting ready for bed
winding down doing relaxing things this might be hard but turn off those
electronics your tablet's your phone's your TV that blue light actually can
really impact your healthy sleep do things like reading or coloring or at
the very least get a filter for your phone or turn down you know dim the
brightness what else can help a dark quiet comfortable sleep environment and
cool actually is better than warm believe it or not for good sleep
exercise is great for getting better sleep you really get good healthy better
more deep sleep if you're exercising regularly however not too close to bed
if you smoke quit and again make sleep a priority set some goals go for it and
really make it important in your life to get enough sleep enough good sleep um
things to try to avoid right before bed like I said those blue light electronics
eating a large meal or a fatty meal can really prevent you from getting good
sleep again exercise great but not a couple hours before bed definitely avoid
caffeine late in the day I had a void alcohol you might think that it helps
but it actually just impairs good sleep what can you
you before bed to make it easier to fall asleep and sleep well you could take a
warm bath you can list a soothing music meditate do some deep breathing do yoga
okay so here's those are a couple of tips hopefully they help hopefully you
can get on a good routine take care of yourself keep yourself healthy keep
yourself safe take care of your family hopefully you'll be seeing you soon in
person and in the meantime please check out the blogs that are on our website so
go to Penn medicine org slash Bariatrics that's dar IAT
our by CS Penn Medicine org slash Bariatrics scroll to the bottom of the
page where it says from our blog and please look through those blocks they're
great there's some about stress and there's some of that healthy eating and
there's some about exercise and there's even one about sleep take care of
yourself look forward to seeing you soon
you