Most sleep advice assumes a predictable schedule, quiet evenings, and the ability to wind down at the same time every night. For healthcare workers, that advice feels irrelevant at best and frustrating at worst. The start of the year is a good moment to reset expectations with the goal to improve your baseline enough to think more clearly, recover faster, and carry less cognitive residue from one day to the next.
Below are common sleep challenges, along with what our clinical experts actually recommend and why it works.
You fall asleep but wake up in the middle of the night wired
Clinical insight: Fragmented sleep is often driven by nervous system activation, not lack of sleep opportunity. This is especially common after long shifts, overnight calls, or emotionally demanding days.
Why this matters: Interrupted sleep is strongly linked to reduced attention, working memory, and emotional regulation the following day, even when total sleep time looks adequate.
Try this instead:
1. Flip the clock face down or move your phone across the room so you can’t check the time without standing up. Time-watching makes the brain run faster than almost anything else.
2. Turn your phone screen to the darkest possible setting before bed, including reducing white point and enabling night shift. Bright light at 2 a.m. tells your brain it's time to solve problems.
3. If you’re wide awake after about half an hour, get out of bed and sit somewhere dim. Read something boring, fold laundry, or pet the dog. Avoid devices, and when your eyes get heavy again, go back to bed.
The goal is to teach your brain that bed is for sleeping, not for thinking through tomorrow’s patient list.
Your schedule changes week to week
Clinical insight: Shift variability disrupts circadian rhythms, but consistency in anchors matters more than consistency in bedtime.
Why this matters: Irregular circadian cues increase fatigue, irritability, and baseline anxiety over time.
Try this instead:
1. Pick one anchor you can protect most days, such as your wake-up light exposure or your first meal. Keep that stable even when bedtimes move.
2. Get outside or near bright light as soon as you wake up for early shifts, even if it is just standing by a window for a few minutes
3. If you nap, cap it at 30–45 minutes and avoid late-day naps
Think anchors, not routines.
You feel exhausted but can’t wind down
Clinical insight: Exhaustion and sleepiness are not the same. Cognitive overload can keep the nervous system activated even when the body is depleted.
Why this matters: Persistent hyperarousal interferes with sleep onset and contributes to next-day emotional reactivity.
Try this instead:
1. Create a short, repeatable shutdown ritual that tells your brain the day is over. This could be a shower, stretching on the floor, or making the same cup of tea every night. Ten minutes is enough.
2. Skip alcohol as a sleep aid. It helps you pass out, then pulls you into lighter, more fragmented sleep later in the night.
3. Set a caffeine cut-off that fits your schedule and stick to it. Even small amounts late in the day can quietly push sleep later.
The ritual matters more than the duration.
Poor sleep is affecting your mood or focus
Clinical insight: Sleep disruption is one of the strongest predictors of anxiety, irritability, and cognitive fog, often preceding broader mental health symptoms.
Why this matters: Improving sleep quality often improves baseline mental health without addressing every stressor at once.
Try this instead:
1. Stop trying to “fix” everything at once. Improving sleep quality first often improves mood and focus without changing the rest of your life.
2. Pay attention to recovery, not just the hours you slept. How quickly do you feel human again after waking up? Log this and track over time to notice how changes affect your mood and energy levels.
3. If sleep problems persist or start affecting judgment or safety, consider getting support sooner rather than later.
Better sleep is often the fastest way to improve how the day feels.
A realistic reset
You don’t need to overhaul your sleep routine to see meaningful change. Many Marvin members notice real improvement by adjusting just one or two sleep anchors, often within a few weeks.
If sleep has been harder this season, that is not a personal failure. It is a predictable response to demanding work in a system that rarely slows down, especially for people trained to stay alert no matter the cost.
Marvin’s clinicians are specifically trained to work with healthcare professionals around sleep disruption, stress, and cognitive overload, with confidentiality that respects the realities of clinical life. For most members, relief starts with better rest and a place to talk through what their body has been signaling without judgment or pressure.
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