DonŌĆÖt let politics ruin your sleep. Use these expert tips instead

Summary Political and societal upheavals can disrupt sleep and trigger insomnia in vulnerable individuals, according to sleep experts. Family history of mental health issues, specifically anxiety, is another predisposing factor.ŌĆØ DonŌĆÖt turn to the dark side of insomnia Having an occasional bout of insomnia is common, said sleep specialist Jennifer Mundt, an associate clinical professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah who sees patients at the schoolŌĆÖs Sleep Wake Center. So itŌĆÖs quite normal to have a temporary bout of insomnia, and then typically, sleep will go back to baseline.ŌĆØ However, some people develop unhelpful habits and ways of thinking about sleep that create a vicious cycle, said Krieger, who is also director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. ŌĆ£Eventually, many people develop what are called perpetuating factors, or ways they try to cope, which often are not healthy or good for sleep and which can cause chronic insomnia,ŌĆØ she said. I donŌĆÖt know about you, but if IŌĆÖm awake in the middle of the night, I think about how the worldŌĆÖs horrible, everything is bad, nobody likes me and IŌĆÖm never going to go back to sleep again,ŌĆØ said Klerman, who is also a sleep researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital and sleep physician at Brigham and Young WomenŌĆÖs Hospital in Boston.