With cookouts, alcohol, and fireworks, The Huffington Post takes a look at all of the ways Independence Day can impact sleep.
A long weekend celebrating our country’s independence is the stuff of dreams. But an unfortunate side effect of all that patriotism? Poor sleep.
Approximately 35 percent of Americans get fewer than seven hours of sleep each night. Add in alcohol, late-evening fireworks and more than enough food and you’ve got the perfect equation for disrupted rest.
Take a look at all the ways the holiday can affect your sleep below. Then try one of these tips to help you snooze better. Cheers to life, liberty and the pursuit of a good night’s rest.
Fireworks
The big show can’t start until it’s dark out, but for some, that could mean delaying bedtime on the night of the Fourth.
“There’s a tendency to stay up late on your day off,” said Kelly Glazer Baron, a sleep researcher and neurology instructor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “The problem is you have to get up early for work the next day, so you’re going to have insufficient sleep that night.”
“If you do stay up,” she says, “[still] try to get an adequate amount of sleep to keep your body’s sleep balance in line.”
