Episode 37

Adjusting to Transitions

Big changes throughout life can lead to big changes in your sleep.

In this episode, I discuss how to keep some major life milestones from derailing your sleep. In an upcoming episode, we’ll be talking about the transition to parenthood, as well as transitioning to retirement. Infant and toddler sleep and really the development and maturation of sleep is another topic that we’ll tackle in a separate episode.

Adolescents and young adults are more prone to delayed circadian rhythms - later sleep onset and later rise time. And after years of living under some one else's schedule, they finally get the chance to strike out on their own at college. And one of the first celebrations of that freedom is throwing away the going to bed rule. But this delayed schedule is not without risk (See Episodes 22 and 23 for more).

And if kept up throughout the college years, transitioning to work life can feel like slap in the face. You probably won’t have the option of scheduling all your work obligations between 2pm and 5pm like your college classes.

Adjusting to and maintaining a healthy sleep schedule will save you from incredible pain, from athletic performance, to grades, to attention, to mental health, to metabolic health and your pants size.

These transitions don’t have to be a nightmare. Within reason - because social life is important, sticking to the basic principles of good sleep will make these transitions much more seamless.