health Dr. Walker has seemingly unlimited studies to back up these warnings. And he goes one step further to offer what we can do to improve our "sleep hygiene" once we're motivated, including these 12 steps: 1. Stick to a sleep schedule. Set an alarm to go to bed if you have to. 2. Exercise during the day - but not too near bedtime. 3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine in the latter part of the day. It takes 8 hours for these substances to leave your body and they impair sleep. 4. Avoid alcohol before bed. A "nightcap" won't help you get restful sleep. 5. Avoid large meals late at night. If you tend to wake up in the middle of the night to urinate, cut back on fluids in the evening. 6. Avoid medicine that disrupts or delays sleep. Ask your doctor about any prescriptions. 7. Don't take naps after 3 pm. 8. Relax before bedtime. Take time to unwind. 9. Take a hot bath. This helps for a different reason than you might think. A hot bath makes blood rush to the surface and actually cools your body core - and a slightly lower body temperature tends to aid sleep. 10. Sleep in a dark bedroom without gleaming blue lights. Turn LED clocks to face the wall. 11. Sunlight exposure early in the day coincides with your Circadian rhythms and encourages wakefulness - and that's good, but you don't want to get a lot of sunshine late in the day. 12. If you're lying in bed without being able to sleep for as long as 20 minutes, get up and do something and try again a little later. One more warning that's very important to people of any age who turn to sleeping pills, thinking they are making up for sleep they don't get naturally. Dr. Walker says, "Don't do it." Because these pills sedate you, they may keep from being awake - but it's not the kind of sleep that restores and nourishes your body and brain. Dr. Walker's book raises one more urgent question: Why haven't we heard about this before - why aren't our doctors giving their patients this most crucial health information? 14 GRAND JULY-AUG 2019 Dr. Matthew Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. Cheryl Harbour is a special editor for GRAND and author of Good to Be Grand: Making the Most of your Grandchild's First Year.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501144324/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1501144324&linkId=c71279e5fbccc40a9db10b72000b3ca9 https://www.facebook.com/GRANDmagazine/ https://www.twitter.com/grandMmagazine http://www.humansleepscience.com http://www.humansleepscience.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NBBFfREOkw https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1942952325/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1942952325&linkId=915fc1f0f3179643549eae0fd53fe068 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1942952325/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1942952325&linkId=915fc1f0f3179643549eae0fd53fe068 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1942952325/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=grandmagazi0d-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1942952325&linkId=915fc1f0f3179643549eae0fd53fe068