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Sleep 101: Tips and habits for getting a good night’s rest and boosting your health

Published

5 months ago

September 8, 2025

Doctors and scientists have long been touting the benefits of sleep for the brain and body. It’s true—sleep is an essential part of maintaining overall well-being. When you are well rested, your mood improves, your stress levels decrease, and you tend to feel more productive.

Beyond quantity of sleep, research has shown that the quality of your sleep matters too. While current guidelines recommend adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep, over a third of Americans do not meet the minimum. It’s too easy to give in to the over-stimulating activities at your fingertips—hello, TikTok—instead of turning the lights off. Minutes scrolling on social media before bed turn into hours, and screens have made it harder to shut off the brain and prepare for a good night’s rest—ever heard of revenge bedtime procrastination?

Getting little sleep is associated with an increased risk of chronic health conditions like heart disease and stroke. Sleeping less also puts people at risk of mental health problems like anxiety and depression. One study found older adults who get five or fewer hours of sleep are at risk for developing multiple chronic conditions. What’s more, sleep deprivation increases the risk of motor vehicle accidents that can result in injury and death. So, improving sleep can, in turn, improve our lives. Even following certain sleep habits can increase your life expectancy, per one study.

Sleep basics

How much sleep do I need?

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults need at least seven hours of sleep. For those 65 and older, the CDC recommends between seven and eight hours of sleep each night.

Why is it harder to sleep for older adults?

As people age, it can be harder to maintain the quantity and quality of sleep. Age-related brain changes can lead to more nighttime wake-ups and a more challenging time falling asleep and staying asleep. Experts recommend shutting off screens well before lights out, relaxing before bed, and moving throughout the day.

Falling asleep

How can I get better sleep?

Establish a wind-down routine: Maintain nighttime habits that bring you a sense of calm for 30 minutes to an hour before bed, like reading, journaling, taking a shower, listening to music, or preparing your clothes for the morning. Wind-down time can also be to simply relax, as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends establishing an hour of “quiet time” before bed to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm or natural body clock.

Limit screen time before bed: Limiting stimulation from screens right before bedtime can help people fall asleep better. Consider setting a time limit on your screens to signal your winddown is approaching, or put your phone in a drawer so you aren’t tempted to check it while in bed.

Avoid heavy meals: Eating a large meal right before bed can make it harder to fall asleep when your body is digesting. More so, diets rich in inflammatory foods are associated with poorer sleep. Avoid consistently consuming chips, cookies, soda, and fried foods. When reaching for a nighttime snack, consider grabbing something anti-inflammatory, with nutrients and fiber to make you feel full. Experts recommend:
- Fruit
- Nuts
- Yogurt
- Whole grains

Maintain optimal sleep temperature: Sleep experts recommend your bedroom stays between 68 and 72 degrees. You can also keep your room cool by opening windows, using fans, wearing light clothes, or inquiring about a cooling mattress.

Keep the same bedtime and wake-up times: Having a consistent schedule helps alert your body to being tired at night and awake in the morning around the same times. To align with your body’s natural release of melatonin, shut off the lights within two to three hours of sunset. And going to bed before midnight ensures you spend enough time in deep sleep. One study published this year found sleep regularity helped predict mortality risk more than sleep duration (If you work non-traditional hours that tend to fluctuate and struggle with sleep quality, you may consider speaking with a sleep specialist who can help provide additional remedies).

Limit alcohol use before bed: While alcohol may appear to help you fall asleep, it does not contribute to adequate quality of sleep. Sleep disturbances are a critical indicator of alcohol abuse disorder. While no amount of alcohol is beneficial for health outcomes, national guidelines recommend drinkers to limit to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women.

Wake up calmly: Instead of a blaring alarm tone signaling a busy day’s start, try a progressive sound or a song you enjoy. “You don’t want to begin your day on a stressful note,” Dr. James Giordano, professor of neurology and biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center, previously told Fortune. “Days are stressful enough.”

Monitor coffee: Experts recommend ending caffeine intake six to eight hours before bed, although the effects differ per person so trial and error is key.

Troubleshooting sleep

How can I sleep when I am stressed?

Allot time to worry: It’s impossible to tell our brains to shut off the noise and the worries. Wendy Troxel, a sleep scientist at the Rand Corporation and author of Sharing the Covers: Every Couple’s Guide to Better Sleep, recommends allotting 10 to 15 minutes to worry. Write them down, and then close the cover literally and figuratively.

Practice daily mindfulness: Feeling stressed at night is usually because of residual feelings from the day. Practicing mindfulness during the day, such as a five to 10-minute meditation during a lunch break or the 4-7-8 breathing exercise. The best meditation apps could help you get started.

Use gratitudes before bed: Thinking or writing down gratitudes can help you feel calm and appreciative before you go to bed—refocusing your attention on the things going well for you over the things you feel stressed about. What you tell yourself impacts how you feel about yourself, and your ability to fall asleep.

Don’t be hard on yourself: Lying awake in the middle of the night can feel torturous. But it makes it worse to feel frustrated with yourself for not being able to doze off when it may feel like everyone else is asleep but you. It’s normal to be unable to sleep, especially when overwhelmed. Give yourself grace.

Get more tips to fall asleep when you’re stressed.

Does napping improve sleep?

If you’re a lover of the siesta, a standard daily practice in Italy and Spain to rest after lunch and before the evening hours roll in, don’t fret. Napping can be helpful in increasing restfulness during the day. However, there is a sweet spot duration that will help you without harming your night’s sleep.

The Romans were onto something, as the midday slump seems to roll in like clockwork at around 3 p.m. One expert says a successful siesta is between 15 to 25 minutes to ensure you still have a restful night’s sleep. “When we nap much longer, we may cycle into deeper stages of sleep, which may be harder to wake from,” Alaina Tiani, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center, previously told Fortune.

Power naps may also be better for brain health and delay brain shrinkage.

Should I take melatonin?

Melatonin is our body’s natural hormone released when it’s time to go to bed. Taking a melatonin supplement can help shift your circadian rhythm and signal to your body that it’s time to get sleep earlier than you may have been able to. Therefore, it may help people sleep earlier and longer.

However, experts recommend between one and five milligrams of melatonin for adults, and many pharmacy-sold brands do not have clear dosage labels.

And more, short-term use has not been associated with complications, but the supplement has not been studied for long-term use in adults.

What can I do after a poor night’s sleep?

Move: Getting immediate sunlight can help wake our bodies up even after a bad night’s sleep. And if you wake up before your alarm, it’s okay to get up and move around before trying to get back to sleep.

Eat: Eating a nutritious breakfast rich in protein and fiber can help keep us energized during the day.

Breathe: Deep breathing and calming our brain and bodies can help us stay focused after a bad night’s sleep.

Read more about how to bounce back after a poor night’s sleep.

How do I know if I have a sleep disorder?

Most experts say if you notice you have trouble falling and staying asleep more than three times a week for three months or more, it’s important to see a sleep specialist to review any potential disorders at play. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is commonly used to treat insomnia, and sleep medication is prescribed as necessary.

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Published

21 minutes ago

January 21, 2026

Jace Porter

Nestled in the heart of Bangkok’s Chinatown, the Ong Ang Canal served as a vital trade artery in the 18th century. Over time, it became heavily polluted, and even earned a reputation as the city’s dirtiest canal.

Last month, as part of a broader government effort to revitalize the canal, Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thailand’s oldest cement firm, unveiled the country’s first 3D-printed pedestrian bridge across its waters.

The bridge is part of SCG’s drive to bring new construction materials to Southeast Asia, Surachai Nimlaor, who helms its operations in cement and green solutions, tells Fortune in a Jan. 20 interview.

The company first started applying 3D printing tech to construction in the early 2020s, including the 2023 construction of the world’s first 3D printed medical center in Saraburi, Thailand.

“When we use 3D printing, we can shorten construction time and create buildings with unique shapes that conventional builders may not be able to achieve,” says Nimlaor.

The process involves creating a digital model, slicing it for the 3D printer, and then allowing the printer’s robotic arms to set down concrete, layer-by-layer, to form structures. By removing the need for traditional molds or formwork, it enables freeform architecture which includes sculptural curves and undulating walls. SCG’s 3D printed medical center, for instance, has fluid facades that would be difficult to execute with conventional cast concrete.

Courtesy of Siam Cement Group

This technology could be especially valuable for Thailand, where an aging population and a workforce wary of construction jobs is shrinking the sector’s pool of available workers. Nimlaor explains that the industry has been forced to turn to foreign workers from neighboring countries like Cambodia and Myanmar. (According to 2025 data from Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, there are over 1.2 million Cambodian workers in Thailand, many of whom are employed in construction.)

Still, 3D printed buildings are often only one or two storeys tall, Nimlaor admits, as taller buildings introduce “material constraints around structural loads and stability.”

Thailand’s first cement firm

SCG was founded in 1913 to build Bangkok’s first cement plant, under the orders of then-King Rama VI. In the century that followed, the company expanded to focus on three core businesses: cement and building materials, chemicals, and packaging.

Today, SCG is Thailand’s largest building materials company, with a 2024 revenue of $14.5 billion. It ranks No. 21 in Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 list, which sorts the region’s largest companies by revenue. SCG has also expanded to other parts of Southeast Asia, including packaging businesses in Malaysia and a petrochemical plant in Vietnam.

Greening the construction industry

Beyond 3D printing, SCG is also developing low-carbon cement, tackling an industry that accounts for roughly 8% of global carbon emissions, according to the World Economic Forum.

SCG is trying to formulate cement produced using biomass, like wood. This cuts the carbon emissions from the production process by as much as 20% per ton, Nimlaor claims. SCG now exports its low-carbon cement to the U.S. and Australia, where developers now prefer materials that meet ESG standards.

“ESG has become a very strong driver in the global market,” he explains. “Many companies now have clear carbon-reduction targets and sustainability commitments.”

SCG hopes to launch the third-generation of its low-carbon cement, which would cut carbon emissions from production by up to 40%, but Nimlaor has hopes that they can eventually cut emissions by up to 90%.

Looking forward, SCG hopes to continue pushing the boundaries in creating greener construction materials. “Sustainability and business growth must go together,” he concludes.

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Fortune Article | Fortune

Published

52 minutes ago

January 21, 2026

Jace Porter

Bitcoin is one of the world’s most battle-tested pieces of software. Launched in early 2009, the network has run continuously without being hacked, and today feels more secure than ever. There is, however, a threat on the medium-term horizon that threatens not only Bitcoin but every other type of software that relies on current encryption technology. That threat is quantum computing and, on Wednesday, Coinbase announced it has created a board of outside experts to prepare for its eventual arrival.

The board includes academics from Stanford, Harvard, and the University of California with specialties in fields like computer science, cryptography and fintech. Formally known as the Coinbase Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, it is also composed of experts in blockchain and security from the Ethereum Foundation, the DeFi platform EigenLayer and from Coinbase itself.

In an interview with Fortune, Coinbase Chief Information Security Officer Jeff Lunglhofer explained how the arrival of quantum computing could defeat current encryption mechanisms, including the ones employed to protect the wallets and private keys held by Bitcoin owners.

“In simple terms, modern cryptography relies on hard math problems that would take thousands of years for a modern computer to solve,” he said. “But when we have a million times the horsepower [with quantum computing], that will provide the computation power to solve them.”

While the security threat of quantum computing is real, it is unlikely to be an urgent issue for at least a decade, according to Lunglhofer. His view is consistent with other experts who note that, while companies like Google and IBM have been building quantum computers for years, the current generation of these machines can only operate at a small scale and are not close to being able to crack the algorithms that protect Bitcoin and other networks.

The purpose of the new Advisory Board, says Lunglhofer, is to explore the coming impact of quantum computing in a “non-hype based way.” This will include promoting efforts by the blockchain industry, which are already underway, to update Bitcoin and other networks so that they are resistant to quantum-based attacks.

Currently, the Bitcoin network secures wallets by means of private keys, which are long strings of random numbers and letters that are visible to their owners, but that can only be guessed by means of an impossibly long series of trial-and-error attempts. When the quantum computing era arrives, it will be possible to guess a private key using trial-and-error. In response, Lunglhofer says, blockchain experts anticipate that Bitcoin and other networks will respond by creating larger keys and, at the same time, introducing “noise” to make the location of the key harder to detect in the first place.

All of this will require blockchain networks to introduce and deploy these defensive upgrades, a process that is likely to take years. In the interim, the new Advisory Board will begin publishing research papers and issuing position statements to help the crypto industry prepare for the arrival of quantum computing. The group plans to publish its first paper, which will focus on quantum’s impact on the consensus and transaction layers of blockchain, in the next month or two.

“Quantum computing is both a technological opportunity and a security challenge. By bringing together the foremost experts in the world, Coinbase is ensuring that the blockchain ecosystem is prepared, not just reactive,” said Yehuda Lindell, Head of Cryptography at Coinbase, in a statement.

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Business

The Walmart C-suite reshuffle shows how the retailer sees itself now: as a tech company

Published

1 hour ago

January 21, 2026

Jace Porter

When Walmart last week announced that David Guggina, its U.S. e-commerce chief executive, would become CEO of its nearly $500 billion U.S. division, one thing stood out in his résumé: Unlike his predecessors, Guggina has no experience running stores and has never held a merchandising role, at Walmart or elsewhere. These are two classic job requirements in retail. Incoming Walmart CEO John Furner, for example, who has run U.S. operations since 2019, began his Walmart career as an hourly associate in 1993, and held roles in merchandising, operations, and sourcing.

But there’s another realm of experience that Guggina does have in spades: e-commerce, automation, and supply chain. And by putting him atop the division that generates 69% of company revenue, Walmart is signaling that it now sees itself as a tech company, as well as a retailer. Guggina has spent eight years at Walmart, after nine years at arch-rival Amazon.com. In its announcement, Walmart touted Guggina’s work in building delivery capabilities to serve 95% of U.S. households in under three hours, and said his appointment “positions him to continue to drive our goal of being America’s favorite place to shop.”

In the last decade, after years of fits and starts, Walmart has emerged as a formidable e-commerce player, with U.S. digital sales of almost $100 billion a year—still far behind Amazon, but well ahead of any other U.S. retailer. In its most recent quarter, Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce rose 27%. That has been the result of billions in investments to integrate Walmart’s 4,600 stores with its e-commerce operations. This work has helped ensure faster shipping while also integrating technology more effectively into things like inventory management, supply chain, and in-store customer service. Guggina was instrumental in those achievements, working under Furner, who will become Walmart Inc’s new CEO next week.

“This is a unique moment in retail,” Guggina said in a LinkedIn post about his appointment. “AI is changing how people shop, and customer expectations are higher than ever. But no one is more prepared to usher in the next era of retail.”

The timing of Guggina’s promotion was fitting: It came soon after Walmart moved its shares from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq exchange, where tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft list their shares. In December, Walmart said the move underscores its “technology-forward approach.”

Guggina isn’t the only techy whose star is rising at Walmart. The company also appointed Seth Dallaire chief growth officer for Walmart U.S., charging him with pushing Walmart U.S. further beyond traditional retail into tech-heavy lines of business—including its booming advertising, media, and online marketplace ventures. Dallaire is a veteran of Instacart and Amazon.

Walmart is considered by analysts to be well ahead of other retailers in AI-assisted shopping. In October, it announced a partnership with OpenAI to allow shoppers to browse and buy Walmart products directly inside ChatGPT, using a built-in instant checkout feature. Last week, Walmart and Google announced their own shopping tool. Also last week, Walmart’s executive vice president for AI acceleration, product and design, Daniel Danker, suggested at a conference that the company was developing auto-ordering for the replenishment of staples.

Bolstering Walmart’s tech and AI aura has had the additional benefit of lifting the company’s stock: In the last year, Walmart shares have risen 27%, double the S&P 500’s growth and trouncing Amazon’s 1% increase.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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