By Lisa Mulcahy, Feb 8, 2026

“Teenagers can be distracted by technology, screens, and social media,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD, a double board-certified psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in Menlo Park, CA. “Unlike adults, their still-developing brain, specifically their pre-frontal cortex, may cause reduced impulse control. So they have a harder time turning off interesting things they see online, especially late at night.”

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By Khloe Quill, Jan 14, 2026

“The main drawback to shifting any schedule is the loss in overall sleep duration,” Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a sleep medicine doctor and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in New York, told Fox News Digital. “Changes should be made slowly and maintain an emphasis on getting those seven to eight hours of sleep.”

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By George Citroner, Jan 5, 2026

Why Sleep Quality Matters for Brain Health. Dr. Alex Dimitriu, who is double board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine and is the founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, and was not involved in the study, called the research “fascinating” and said it supports what he sees daily in his practice. “I can tell you that no one really gets better until they are sleeping well,” Dimitriu told The Epoch Times. Healthy sleep—including deep sleep and REM, or rapid eye movement, stages—is necessary for the brain to clean up, recharge, and prepare for the next day, he added. “When the brain rests, it resets neurotransmitters, among these dopamine,” he said. “Poor sleep can make dopamine levels lower, which can make everything worse, from [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder] ADHD to Parkinson’s disease, both of which are dopamine sensitive.”

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By Georgette Gouveia, Dec 22, 2025

A new study recently made headlines indicating that regular melatonin use was linked to nearly double the risk of heart failure over five years in a large observational cohort (American Heart Association). The authors acknowledge they don’t know if melatonin is the culprit – or if it’s simply a marker of poor sleep. According to Alex Dimitriu, M.D., founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, https://www.siliconpsych.com/   “we are missing the real story here. Whether melatonin is harmful or not, poor sleep is harmful to heart health, and there is overwhelming evidence to support that. “The conversation we should be having isn’t about melatonin; it should be about the massive and underestimated cardiac impact of chronic sleep loss, of which we are all subject.”

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By Jennifer Chesak, Dec 16, 2025

“While sleep is the most restorative thing you can do for your brain, deep sleep is the most restorative part of sleep altogether,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD, a physician double board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine. Sounds blissful, right? You get to shut out the rest of the world while your body rests and repairs. But you’re not in this stage during your entire sleep session. Instead, you will climb into and out of this deep stage several times per night. “For most adults about 10% to 25% of your total sleep time should be in deep sleep, and this number diminishes as we get older,” Dr. Dimitriu says.

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By Kelsey Kloss, Dec 10, 2025

“As infants, we need almost 20 hours of sleep, with a lot of slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement [REM] sleep,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD, double board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in California.  Slow-wave sleep is the deepest phase of non-rapid eye movement sleep and is considered important for consolidating memories. REM sleep is a light sleep when dreams occur and the eyes move quickly back and forth. You need a lot of these deep types of sleep when you’re younger because of the significant brain development and learning happening at these ages, says Dr. Dimitriu. 

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By Elizabeth Millard, Dec 4, 2025

Unfortunately, getting enough sleep with this chronic condition can be tricky, since its symptoms can be disruptive, according to Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a sleep medicine specialist and the founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in Menlo Park, CA. “Because this condition is characterized by dryness and discomfort, that can often worsen sleep in many cases,” Dr. Dimitriu explains. “Other symptoms of Sjögren’s, like pain and night sweats, can also cause sleep to be fragmented through repeated waking, which is the opposite of what the nervous system needs.” Fortunately, there are strategies that can be helpful. Here’s a deeper look at why Sjögren’s syndrome may lead to poor sleep, why that’s a problem, and what you can do to get better shuteye.

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