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Daylight saving time ends: Fall back without losing sleep

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Technically, you gain an extra hour of sleep when daylight saving time ends on Nov. 2, and clocks “fall back.” But that time change can still throw off your sleep, leaving you feeling groggy and sluggish.

“In theory, getting an extra hour of sleep sounds great, but it can disrupt your circadian rhythm,” said Dr. Keisha Sullivan, a sleep medicine specialist with Kaiser Permanente.

She offered several tips for maintaining good sleep hygiene, including keeping a consistent bedtime even on weekends, avoiding caffeine six hours before going to bed, stopping the use of electronics one to two hours before bedtime, and trying not to eat three to four hours before sleeping. She said the biggest mistake people make is sleep procrastination.

“You want to binge TV or surf the internet, and then you kind of get into a rabbit hole,” Sullivan said. “Set an alarm and remind yourself, ‘Alright, I need to start preparing for bedtime.'”

Getting enough REM and deep sleep throughout the night is essential. Not sleeping enough can impact your health in many ways, including memory loss, weight gain, and increased food cravings.

“REM sleep is when memory consolidation occurs, and deep sleep is when hormone balance and healing happen,” she explained.

Sullivan said insomnia complaints tend to peak this time of year for several reasons, including less physical activity and holiday stress. She recommends using sunlight as a natural cue for when to go to sleep and when to wake up.

States seek to lower drug prices by targeting the companies that manage them for health plans

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — As consumers worry about medication costs, states are trying to lower drug prices by reining in big companies that oversee prescription coverage for health insurers. Some of those companies, called pharmacy benefit managers, also own pharmacies, and one of them, CVS, has spent millions of dollars fighting the regulations. Affordability is a key issue ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Legislators in at least a dozen states passed laws this year to limit compensation to the companies, set minimum payments from the companies to pharmacists and require the companies to disclose more information to their clients, states and the public. A Tennessee law will bar pharmacy benefit managers from operating retail pharmacies as of July 1, 2028, though CVS Health Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit to avoid having to close its 136 pharmacies there.
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