By Chantelle Lee, Oct 26, 2026
How can I prepare for the clock change? Dr. Alex Dimitriu, a psychiatrist and sleep medicine physician, likens the practice of changing the clocks twice a year to “an hour of jet lag,” adding that it can be an adjustment for many people. But the transition to Standard Time also means that people will gain an extra hour of sleep.
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By Kendra Cherry, Oct 20, 2026
“While the sympathetic system helps you deal with things and get stuff done, the parasympathetic system helps you rest, heal, digest, and recover,” explains psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu, MD. It’s the sympathetic system that kicks into gear when you are faced with some type of stressor or threat and prepares you to either fight, flee, or freeze. When activated, this system elevates your heart rate, floods your body with stress hormones, and slows digestion so you’re ready to act fast.
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By Lauren Bedosky, Medically Reviewed by Alex Dimitriu, MD, Oct 16, 2026
Daylight saving time will officially end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when the clocks fall back one hour. Many Americans will get an extra hour of sleep as they return to standard time. People living in most of Arizona and Hawaii won’t need to change anything, since those states don’t observe daylight saving time. If you rejoice over the extra hour of sleep each year, we hear you. But some medical experts say the time change may have unintended health consequences. Here’s why, plus some tips for easing the transition.
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Alex Dimitriu, MD, sleep medicine physician, was independent from the hypoglycemia study and wasn’t yet convinced. “Given the significance of hypoglycemia, we’d need to see reliable, repeatable detection that accounts for all the variables that could shift this physiologic data — like sleep stages, sleep apnea, or other medical conditions that could alter the signals,” he said.
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By Elizabeth Millard, Oct 15, 2026
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 disease may lead to poor sleep, why that’s a problem, and what you can do to get better shuteye.
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By Zoe Malin, Oct 2, 2026
As the sun rises later and sets earlier during the winter months, odds are you feel some combination of sleepy, less motivated and plain old glum during the day. And to some degree, that’s totally normal, said Dr. Alex Dimitriu, who specializes in psychiatry and sleep medicine, and is the founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine. Our circadian rhythm and other biological clocks are regulated by sunlight, so when there is less of it, we feel drained. Until the sun returns in spring, we can replace missing daylight with light therapy lamps, which simulate the light of a sunny sky and can help boost your mood, among other benefits.
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By Mandy French, Sep 30, 2026
The sympathetic nervous system is part ofTrusted Source the body’s involuntary nervous system that triggers your “fight or flight” response in stressful or dangerous situations. “Being too wired can impair sleep, and impaired sleep, in turn, can make us too wired. A state of higher adrenaline and cortisol raises blood pressure, blood sugar, and increases inflammation, all of which have serious health effects,” said Alex Dimitriu, MD, double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, who wasn’t involved in the study.
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By Adam Meyer, Sep 28, 2026
Melatonin and cortisol are two hormones critical to sleep, and both of them follow a precise daily schedule. Melatonin, which signals to your body that it’s time to sleep, peaks in the evening and declines as the night progresses. Cortisol, your body’s natural alerting hormone, increases in the early morning hours to prepare you for waking. Going to bed after midnight can put your sleep schedule out of sync with these natural rhythms, particularly if you’re also exposed to bright light late at night. “Melatonin, which is timed to sunlight and peaks in the evening, is now diminishing when you try to fall asleep after midnight,” says Alex Dimitriu, M.D. “Cortisol levels start to rise towards the morning. This is your body’s natural alarm clock.”
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By Deborah Oladapo, Sep 24, 2026
A 2015 survey by The Reading Agency found that among adults who read just 30 minutes a week, 64% reported a better understanding of other people’s feelings, while 74% described a positive effect on their overall mental health. Over half of adults also said reading made them feel more connected to others. Those findings stand out at a time when loneliness and screen fatigue have become increasingly common parts of everyday conversation. Psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu described reading as “one of the few remaining quiet refuges in our modern lives.” He pointed to sustained focus, patience, impulse control, and imagination as skills that can become underused in the age of short-form content. “Reading builds empathy, improves focus, and offers a healthy digital detox,” he told Healthline.
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By Joy Manning, Sep 23, 2026
A body scan is a type of meditation that involves bringing your attention to each part of your body, one at a time, often starting at your toes and working upward. It can give a racing mind something calm and physical to focus on instead of letting your thoughts spiral. “Systematic muscle relaxation can help you fall back asleep,” says Alex Dimitriu, M.D.
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By Minda Zetlin, Sep 20, 2026
You’ve likely read or heard that you should not look at screens during the last hour before bed. That’s good advice almost everyone knows, and almost no one follows. But even if you can’t resist a little pre-bed phone use, you can still improve your sleep. Instead, try taking a break from your phone sometime during the day, for example by going for a walk. “Our phones have filled in all the time gaps in our days,” Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a psychiatrist and sleep medicine physician told Men’s Health. The problem with this, he said, is that your brain needs time to think. If you constantly distract it all day, those thoughts will come flooding back when you finally shut your eyes. Give those thoughts some space during the day and they’re less likely to ambush you at night.
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By Mandy French, Sep 15, 2026
Alex Dimitriu, MD, double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, who wasn’t involved in the review, told Healthline, “Reading builds empathy, improves focus, and offers a healthy digital detox. Reading also fires up the imagination and provides a low enough level of stimulation to inspire us to think and feel on our own.”
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By Melissa Rudy, Sep 14, 2026
“Shift workers, children, older adults and individuals with insomnia or mood disorders are especially vulnerable to the effects of light on sleep depth,” Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a double board-certified sleep medicine doctor and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, told Fox News Digital.
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By Claire Wolters, Sep 10, 2026
Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a psychiatrist and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, adds that mental health providers can play an important role in initiating conversations about suicide. “It is a key role of mental health workers, clinicians and physicians in general to serve as role models for a healthy dialogue about this often-uncomfortable topic by being comfortable with it ourselves,” adds Dr. Dimitriu.
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By Adam Meyer, Sep 9, 2026
Take a mindful moment. Board-certified physician and sleep expert Alex Dimitriu, M.D. recommends aiming for 5 to 10 minutes of meditation each morning. “The goal isn’t to empty your mind,” says Dimitriu. “It’s to notice what your mind is already doing before the day starts pulling you in multiple directions.”
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