Health
New Year can bring better sleep at night if you follow these 9 smart steps
When it comes to setting healthy resolutions for the New Year, sleep is just as essential as nutrition and exercise, experts agree.
A lack of sleep can put you at a greater risk for obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, poor mental health and even early death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Also, a sleep deficit can adversely impact mood, productivity and focus throughout the day.
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Below are nine of the most noteworthy sleep findings that Fox News Digital has covered over the past 12 months.
Each of these findings can bring you better sleep in the year ahead.
A lack of sleep can put you at a greater risk of obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, poor mental health and even early death, according to the CDC. (iStock)
1. Catching up on sleep during the weekends could have health benefits
A study published in the journal Sleep Health found that people who slept for at least one hour longer on weekends had lower rates of cardiovascular disease compared to those who didn’t get catch-up sleep.
The biggest benefit was seen in those who got less than six hours of sleep on weekdays and slept for at least two extra hours on weekends.
People who slept for at least one hour longer on weekends had lower rates of cardiovascular disease compared to those who didn’t get catch-up sleep. (iStock)
Although this was an observational study, Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, said he believes the finding is valid.
“More sleep brings your metabolism down to a lower level where the risks are lower,” he said.
2. Not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep each night
Most people tend to focus on the number of hours of shuteye they get each evening, but experts say that might not be the most important metric.
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In November, Harvard researchers presented study findings that showed sleep regularity — drifting off and waking up at around the same time each day — could be even more important than quantity.
Consistency of sleep may be more important than the number of hours of shuteye, experts say. (iStock)
“When we disrupt our circadian rhythm by going to bed and waking up at different times each day, we can experience a number of negative health consequences, including insomnia, daytime fatigue, difficulty concentrating and increased risk of chronic diseases,” one of the researchers told Fox News Digital.
3. Sleep tracking is beneficial — until it goes too far
Using a wearable tracking device can help people get a healthy duration and quality of sleep — but when they fixate too much on that data, it can lead to a disorder called orthosomnia.
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The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine coined the term to describe patients who are “preoccupied or concerned with improving or perfecting their wearable sleep data.”
Fixating too much on sleep tracking data can lead to an anxiety disorder called orthosomnia. (iStock)
People who become obsessive or anxious about sleep tracking should take a break from tracking and/or consult with a sleep specialist, experts say.
4. Sleep and mental health are closely linked
A majority of people (78% of respondents) found that a lack of sleep is negatively affecting their mental health, according to a fall report from Calm, the maker of the sleep and meditation app.
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“Sleep deprivation affects your psychological state and mental health,” Dr. Raj Dasgupta, chief medical adviser at Sleepopolis in California, told Fox News Digital.
“And those with mental health problems are more likely to have insomnia or other sleep disorders.”
People who have sleep difficulties that impact their mental health — or vice versa — should consult with a specialist, experts say.
5. Winter is the season for the most sleep struggles
Six in 10 Americans said their sleep routines feel different during the winter than in other seasons, according to a survey commissioned by Mattress Firm and conducted by OnePoll between Sept. 26 and Sept. 29.
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A quarter of people said it is most difficult to wake up during the winter and 21% said the season makes them feel more tired.
A quarter of people said it is most difficult to wake up during the winter and 21% said the season makes them feel more tired. (iStock)
“One of the best things you can do for your body is to get active during the day and give it a relaxing environment for sleep,” said Dr. Jade Wu, sleep adviser at Mattress Firm in North Carolina, as reported by SWNS.
6. If you wake up and can’t fall back asleep, checking the clock is a bad idea
It may be tempting to look at your phone or clock when sleep is interrupted, but according to experts, that could make it more difficult to drift back off.
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“Checking the time can increase stress and make it harder to sleep,” Dr. Biquan Luo, a San Francisco sleep expert, told Fox News Digital.
“Additionally, if you check the time on your phone, the contents of the phone may be too stimulating, which further prevents you from relaxing and falling asleep.”
Experts advise against checking the time if you wake up in the middle of the night, as it can increase stress and anxiety. (iStock)
Instead, Luo recommended trying such techniques as progressive relaxation, breathing exercises, white noise machines and other methods to help you relax.
If that doesn’t work within 10 or 15 minutes, she said it’s best to get out of bed and engage in a quiet, low-stimulation activity.
7. The wrong mattress can be detrimental to sleep
Your choice of mattress can make or break the quality of your sleep, experts agreed.
Sleeping on a hard mattress can increase the chances of getting poor sleep by 78%, according to data from Sleep Doctor.
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Some common signs that you might need a new mattress include difficulty falling asleep, aches and pains in the morning, allergy symptoms or visible signs of wear.
Sleeping on a hard mattress can increase the chances of getting poor sleep by 78%, according to data from Sleep Doctor. (iStock)
When choosing a new mattress, your sleep position, body type and personal preferences for feel and materials should all come into play, according to Dr. Shelby Harris, director of sleep health for the website Sleepopolis and a licensed clinical psychologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
8. Proper lighting is key to sleep
External light can be a major sleep disruptor, warned Harris.
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“If your bedroom windows allow external light, such as streetlights, into your room, it’s important to have curtains or blinds to block out this light and avoid sleep disruptions,” she told Fox News Digital.
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Other offenders include the blue light that is emitted from cell phones, computers and tablets.
Instead, experts recommend using orange or sunset-colored lights ahead of bedtime and keeping lights dim.
9. A WWII-era military sleep method could help with insomnia
A method used by the U.S. military during World War II could help people fall asleep in less than five minutes, some claim.
A method used by the U.S. military in World War II could help people fall asleep in less than five minutes, some claim. (iStock)
The “military sleep technique” involves relaxing every muscle in the body, starting with the face and working your way down, while taking slow, deep breaths.
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“Muscle relaxation going down the body, along with a focus on deep breathing, can be an effective way to both increase relaxation and reduce thinking,” Dr. Alex Dimitriu, founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in California, told Fox News Digital.
“It works even better with the final steps, which focus on increasing visualization and clearing the mind of thought.”
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One woman’s uncomfortable reaction to alcohol led to a grave discovery.
Hollie Thursby, 28, a mother of two from the U.K., told Kennedy News and Media that after giving birth to her second son, Jack, she began experiencing unusual symptoms.
At a checkup for her son, who was a couple of months old, Thursby mentioned that she was experiencing “unbearably itchy skin,” which is known to be a post-partum symptom. The doctor suggested it was due to changing hormones.
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Thursby added that she occasionally drank a couple glasses of wine. Although she kept the drinking to a minimum, she described having “a lot of pain” down the side of her neck.
“Really quite painful and uncomfortable,” she said, according to the report.
A U.K. mom reported experiencing pain in her neck after drinking a glass or two of wine, which turned out to be one of the first signs that she had cancer. (Kennedy News and Media)
The mother also reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day.
“I also felt like when I got to bed that someone was sitting on my chest,” she shared.
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In July 2025, Thursby discovered a lump on the side of her neck that she described as “really quite big,” but wasn’t painful, Kennedy News and Media reported.
“It was hard, it didn’t move, but it was there,” she said. “When I turned my neck to the side, you could see it.”
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy for Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby’s symptoms turned out to be a form of blood cancer — Stage 2 Hodgkins lymphoma, which means it is in two or more lymph nodes, according to Cancer Research U.K.
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Common symptoms include swelling of the lymph nodes, heavy sweating, weight loss, itching, persistent cough or shortness of breath, high temperatures, and pain in the stomach or lymph nodes after drinking alcohol.
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“Pain when you drink alcohol is actually a known side effect of Hodgkin lymphoma,” she said, per the report. “It’s something about the acidity in the wine and not when you drink other alcohol.”
While alcohol-related pain in Hodgkins lymphoma patients has been “an accepted scientific consensus” since the 1950s, cases are rare, Healthline confirmed.
Hollie Thursby, 28, and her two sons are pictured above. The mother reported feeling extremely exhausted, which she assumed was due to caring for her children throughout the day. (Kennedy News and Media)
Thursby reportedly began chemotherapy in November, noting that the hardest part is not being able to care for her kids after losing her own mother to a blood disorder called myelodysplasia.
“I grew up without a mum, and it was horrendous. I can’t do that to the boys,” she told Kennedy News and Media. “We’re all devastated, but we all know now, and we’ve got a treatment plan, which is what we need.”
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“I’m just doing everything I can to get better for them. I keep telling myself this is only temporary, I just need to keep going.”
Anyone experiencing pain or other concerning symptoms after consuming alcohol should consult a doctor for guidance.
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Red light therapy has been shown to reduce brain inflammation, protecting people who experience head trauma from long-term health consequences, a University of Utah study has shown.
Brain damage from repeated impact over the years is known to cause cognitive symptoms, ranging from memory issues to full-blown dementia, particularly affecting soldiers and athletes.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive, degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head impacts rather than a single injury, according to Mayo Clinic.
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More than 100 former NFL football players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to the new study, which was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Other research has shown that military personnel in active combat suffer from similar issues, as do first responders and veterans.
The treatment was administered three times a week for 20 minutes using specialized headsets and intranasal devices designed to penetrate the skull. (iStock)
In the new study, the researchers recruited 26 current football players to understand more about the impact of red-light therapy on brain injuries.
The participants received either red light therapy delivered by a light-emitting headset and a device that clips into the nose, or a placebo treatment with an identical device that doesn’t produce light. Players self-administered the therapy three times a week, 20 minutes each time, for 16 weeks.
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“My first reaction was, ‘There’s no way this can be real,’” said first author Hannah Lindsey, Ph.D., in the university press release. “That’s how striking it was.”
Specific wavelengths of light are believed to enter the brain and reduce molecules that trigger inflammation, potentially halting the path toward dementia and other cognitive conditions. (iStock)
Players using the placebo treatment experienced increased brain inflammation over the course of the season. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans taken at the end of the season showed significantly more signs of inflammation than at the beginning of the season, the study found.
For players who used red-light therapy during the season, their brain inflammation didn’t increase at all.
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Previous studies have shown that red light, if powerful enough, can penetrate the skull and reach the brain, where it may reduce inflammation-related molecules.
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“When we first started this project, I was extremely skeptical,” said Elisabeth Wilde, Ph.D., the senior author on the study. “But we’ve seen consistent results across multiple of our studies, so it’s starting to be quite compelling.”
Study limitations
The study was conducted using a small sample size, which led to different levels of inflammation in the treatment and control groups, the researchers acknowledged.
While the placebo group showed increased brain inflammation during the football season, those receiving red light therapy showed no increase in inflammatory markers. (iStock)
Future large randomized clinical trials will be “crucial to back up the results” in larger populations, they noted.
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“We’ve been trying to figure out how to make sports safer, so that our kids, friends and family can participate in sports safely for the long term while they’re involved in activities that give them happiness and joy,” Carrie Esopenko, Ph.D., second author of the study, said in the release.
“And this really feels like part of the hope for protecting the brain that we’ve been searching for.”
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The team plans to recruit 300 people with persistent symptoms from TBI or concussion for a randomized controlled trial in 2026, with a focus on first responders, veterans and active-duty service members.
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Drinking heavily and consistently over an adult’s lifetime could lead to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study published in the journal Cancer by the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The study analyzed 20 years of data from more than 88,000 U.S. adults to determine how long-term drinking impacted the risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) or precancerous colorectal adenomas (polyps).
The participants reported their average weekly intake of beer, wine and liquor intake during four age periods — 18 to 24, 25 to 39, 40 to 54, and 55 and older.
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“Heavy drinkers” were identified as having more than 14 drinks per week and “moderate drinkers” had between seven and 14 drinks per week.
The observational research revealed that consistent heavy drinking over adulthood was linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, especially rectal cancer.
Researchers found a major association between colorectal cancer diagnosis and heavy lifetime drinking. (iStock)
Heavy lifetime drinking was associated with a 25% higher overall CRC risk and nearly double the risk of rectal cancer. Moderate lifetime drinking had a lower overall CRC risk.
Compared to light drinkers, the consistently heavy drinkers had about a 91% higher risk of CRC.
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For colorectal adenomas (precancerous polyps), higher current lifetime drinking did not show a strong pattern, although former drinkers showed a significantly lower risk of non-advanced adenoma compared to current light drinkers.
Out of the 88,092 participants, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Out of the 88,092 participants in the study, 1,679 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. (iStock)
The authors noted that the research was limited, as it was observational and not based on a clinical trial. It also hinged on self-reported alcohol use.
The findings suggest that consistently heavy alcohol intake and higher average lifetime consumption “may increase CRC risk, whereas cessation may lower adenoma risk,” the researchers stated. Associations “may differ by tumor site,” they added.
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The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts.
In a recent episode of the podcast “The Dr. Mark Hyman Show,” Dr. Mark Hyman, chief medical officer of Function Health in California, detailed how even moderate drinking can impact “nearly every organ system in the body,” due to metabolic stress, inflammation, impaired detoxification and its effect on hormones.
The link between drinking alcohol and cancer is not a new discovery, according to health experts. (iStock)
Drinking has been found to increase the risk of many cancers, metabolic dysfunction, gut microbiome disturbances and mitochondrial toxins, Hyman said.
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“Bottom line, alcohol taxes every major system in your body, especially your liver, your brain, your gut, your hormones,” he warned.
Reducing or eliminating alcohol can lower the risk of several cancers, according to medical experts. (Getty Images)
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Pinchieh Chiang, a clinician at Circle Medical in San Francisco, shared that taking a break from drinking alcohol for longer periods of time can “reshape health more profoundly.”
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“Over months to a year, we see sustained improvements in blood pressure, liver function and inflammation,” she said. “Those changes directly affect long-term heart disease and stroke risk.”
Chiang added, “Reducing or eliminating alcohol lowers the risk of several cancers, including breast and colorectal, over time.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study researchers for comment.
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