JANUARY 27 • 2022 | 23

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HEALTH

Struggling to
 Sleep

Try these tips to 
ensure you get 
your Zzzzzs. 

DORON LAZARUS
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

A

re you feeling that tension right 
about now? Is it the latest wave 
of COVID that is causing stress? 
(As if we didn’t have anything to worry 
about before COVID). Perhaps it’s a per-
sonal financial issue? New job or conflict 
in the workplace? Having a rough time 
with your spouse or your kid acting up?
How did I know? Because we are 
human and part of being alive is having 
these struggles. And let’s be honest, the 
Jewish community is not known for our 
chilled-out personalities and carefree 
lifestyles. Pesach is always less than a year 
away and, frankly, it seems that we some-
times make up something to stress about 
if there is nothing else major going on. I 
mean, wasn’t your shul’s board meeting 
a little bit too intense trying to figure out 
what they’d serve for kiddush?
But how can we go on with our stress-
ful and busy lives without letting these 
things eat away at our sleep? It’s one thing 
to feel the stress in the principal’s office 

or the workplace conference room, but 
what happens when it doesn’t end there?
How are we supposed to sleep when 
that stress lodges inside our neck and 
back, causing us to toss and turn the 
whole night in discomfort? Or what 
about when, as our head hits the pillow, 
our mind is flooded with worry, doubt, 
dread and planning our entire life?
Insomnia is very real. In fact, we live 
in the most sleep-deprived generation 
in the history of the world. The majority 
of adults in the U.S. will struggle with 
insomnia at one point in the year, one- 
third of them experiencing insomnia on a 
regular basis. But that doesn’t have to be 
the case.
And the solution is not running away 
from stress either. Although it does sound 
nice to leave everything behind and relax 
in a hammock swaying in the Caribbean 
right about now, it is not always so feasi-
ble; and yes, you can sleep well even with 
everything going on. 

Have you ever wondered, how do 
leaders of nations and generals in the 
military actually sleep with the pressure 
of the lives of millions of people in their 
hands? The secret is not avoiding stress, 
it’s learning to filter it out and process it 
differently. 
Let me offer you some practical sugges-
tions of how to leave stress and anxiety 
where they belong and out of the bed-
room to allow you to sleep great, no mat-
ter what is going on. 
1. Cell Phone: Yes, I know you’ve prob-
ably seen this a hundred times, but hon-
estly, really smart people tend to be terri-
ble at this. You have a choice: your smart 
phone or your sleep. I know it sounds 
radical, but unless you are a doctor on 
call, turn your smartphone off at 9 p.m. It 
doesn’t belong in your bedroom.
2. Worry Time: You need to give 
yourself time to get that worrying out of 
your system. Designate 20 minutes a day, 
ideally in the evening, and get out a pen 

