What Affects Sleep?

Several factors—many of which you can control—affect the quality of sleep you get each night.

  • man sleeping peacefully in bedChronic stress can keep you up at night, worrying over problems, deadlines, and frustrations.

  • In addition, your environment—including the amount of light you are exposed to each day, how secure and safe you feel in the area where you sleep, and how comfortable your bed is—can have a powerful effect on your sleep.

  • A new study suggests that your relationships affect your sleep more than you know as well. Feeling irritable or angry with a loved one, particularly a family member, can keep you up at night.

  • What foods you eat, including products containing caffeine or alcohol, can disrupt sleeping patterns.

  • Chronic medical conditions, such as liver disease, heart failure, arthritis, Parkinson's, and cancer, can all change your sleep.