With 2025 approaching many of us are considering ways to be happier and healthier in the year ahead. We all know that sleep is a pillar to wellbeing and is critical for our mood and functioning, but getting restful and consistent sleep can be a major challenge. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention one in three adults do not regularly get the recommended amount of sleep. Leading sleep organizations such as the American Sleep Apnea Association estimate that up to 70 million adults in the United States have sleep disorders, an important but often missed cause of your sleep concerns.
To determine if you should give your sleep health a closer look in 2025, track if you regularly experience these red flag symptoms:
- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, leading to less than 6 hours average sleep a night
- Multiple nighttime awakenings to use the bathroom
- Excessive sleepiness (propensity to fall asleep and quickly) during the day
- Sleep that is non-restorative
- Loud snoring, gasping for air or choking during sleep
- Morning headaches
- Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
- Sleep paralysis
- Hallucinations when falling asleep or waking up
Based on which of these apply to your sleep, your New Year’s Resolutions could include:
- Schedule an appointment with your doctor to address your symptoms:
The symptoms above could be indicative of one or more sleep disorders, and it’s best to speak with your doctor to determine a path forward for assessment and treatment. However, it’s important to know that primary care physicians see patients with an endless array of concerns, and they may not be experts in sleep health. Many medical school curriculums include less than two hours of sleep education.
From my own experience as a patient with a sleep disorder I would recommend two key things for your appointment with your doctor:
- Use the correct language: My most significant symptom of my sleep disorder was my low energy during the day, but I had never heard the term excessive daytime sleepiness. Instead, I would regularly tell my doctors that I was fatigued or had “no energy.” While that felt like what I was experiencing, those can be symptoms of many medical or mental health conditions. For years my doctors and I circled around the cause but never landed on my sleep as the culprit. It was only after I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea that I discovered that “sleepiness” was the more accurate term, and one that is associated with sleep disorders. Sleepiness is the desire to fall asleep or difficulty in maintaining your desired level of wakefulness.
- Track your symptoms in a sleep diary: For at least 2 weeks before your appointment, make a diary to keep track of specifics related to your sleep. This should include concrete facts like the time you went to bed, the time you fell asleep, and when you woke up as well as symptoms and how you felt during the day. I would rate my energy throughout the day and how often I needed to nap. I had also spent years examining other causes for my symptoms, so I wanted to disprove those in this diary. For example, I had been told many times that my busy lifestyle was the cause of my symptoms, so I kept track of what I did each day to show there was no difference between busy days and free days in my schedule.
For more information on talking to your primary care doctor about sleep concerns, Project Sleep hosted a live panel with a sleep physician and sleep patients on this topic.
Your doctor may refer you to a sleep specialist based on your meeting. They may also administer scales such as the Epworth Sleepiness Scale or order further testing via a sleep study.
- Take a home sleep test:
Home sleep tests are convenient and cost-effective ways to determine if you may have obstructive sleep apnea, reducing the time and economic barriers that some patients face with in-lab studies. They typically have less contact points on your body as in-lab studies so many patients find them less intrusive and more comfortable. Sleeplay offers home sleep tests via an online consultation with a doctor, with the test shipped directly to you.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, or CBT-i, is an effective, evidence-based treatment for insomnia. CBT-i focuses on behavioral modifications to build up sleep drive and re-create the positive association between your bed and sleeping in your mind. It also teaches skills to reframe your thinking patterns about sleep that are often based in worry. CBT-i can be delivered via in-person or virtual therapy with a trained clinician or via an app such as “CBT-i Coach”.
- Commit to CPAP compliance or looking for CPAP alternatives:
CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines are typically the first-line treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, but many people find them difficult to tolerate and struggle with compliance. Inability to comply with CPAP can leave patients without treatment for their sleep apnea which has short-term and long-term health impacts. If you have been using a CPAP for 4 hours or less most nights, use the New Year to commit to figuring out what treatment is right for you.
There are strategies to make CPAP feel more comfortable such as trying different masks, purchasing cloth mask liners, and using auto-humidifier settings on your machine. People who have difficulty falling asleep because of the pressure of the machine can adjust the ramp-up time on their machine, typically up to 45 minutes, so they are already asleep once the machine reaches its maximum pressure.
You can find additional tips for adjusting to CPAP therapy on Sleeplay’s Youtube
Despite your best efforts and ongoing collaboration with your sleep physician, CPAP may not ultimately be the right treatment for you. There are several CPAP alternatives on the market, with new ones continuously being invented. Some alternatives include dental devices, Bongo RX nasal therapy, and daytime therapy mouthpieces that strengthen your tongue muscles to reduce snoring.
Whether or not you have a sleep disorder, prioritizing rest in the New Year should be among your list of resolutions. Sleep is not a luxury; it is a necessity. What will you do to improve your sleep health in 2025?
