Category View

Some people refer to New Year’s as a “one minute holiday” because the entire celebration is focused on that countdown to midnight.  That may be true in many ways, but to get to that countdown requires staying up later than usual for many people.  That can make January 1 a very tiring day.  While the…
Read more »

The New Year begins next week and is preceded, as always, by New Year’s Eve.  The problem with that particular holiday is that everyone expects you to stay up past midnight.  If you’re not the night owl type, that can be difficult.  While we can’t in good conscience recommend forcing yourself to stay up later…
Read more »

Holiday time is upon us, and with it comes family trips, household visitors, home decorating chores, party planning, gift-shopping and — of course — all those extra bills to pay. All of this added stress can lead to sleepless nights. In fact, the 2010 SleepBetter.org Holiday Slumber Index showed one in six Americans were expecting to lose…
Read more »

Between marathon shopping trips, family gatherings, and office parties, drowsy driving is a big problem this time of year. A study of investigations done by the National Transportation Safety Board found that fatigue was a factor in 40% of highway crashes.  Meanwhile, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drowsy driving is implicated in…
Read more »

Every year around the table at Thanksgiving, someone makes a joke about the tryptophan in turkey making them sleepy.  It’s almost become cliche’.  But, is it true?  Turkey meat does indeed contain tryptophan.  The body uses tryptophan in a multi-step process to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that helps regulate sleep.  So, it…
Read more »

Years ago, we wrote articles on SleepBetter.org urging people to not get up before the crack of dawn to shop, because it completely ruined their sleep schedule.  People didn’t really listen then, but these days technology has taken care of the problem for us. Black Friday deals were enticing before online shopping became too prevalent…
Read more »

The traditional American Thanksgiving feast is a major highlight of the holiday season for families across the country, but all of the food and revelry can keep you from sleeping properly afterward. The wonderful thing about Thanksgiving is seeing family and friends, and of course being thankful for the things and people we have in…
Read more »

When you have questions about pillows and other bedding, Happy Dan the Pillow Man is your guy! He’s happy because he always gets a good night’s sleep. Happy Dan is the alter ego of Dan Schecter, Senior Vice President at Carpenter Co., and the creator of SleepBetter.org. He’s spent 30 years learning about pillows and…
Read more »

Millions of Americans soon will take flight and travel to visit relatives for Thanksgiving or other year-end holidays.  Anyone who’s ever been on a plane knows that it’s cramped, crowded, and uncomfortable even if you’re not trying to sleep.  If you’re trying to catch a few zzz’s, it can be downright miserable.  If you’re one…
Read more »

The end of Daylight Saving Time, when we “fall back” and gain an hour, is not normally as much of a shock to the system as the spring time change, when we lose an hour.  However, that’s not to say it doesn’t cause people some issues.  Plenty of people walk around for several days with…
Read more »