If you have trouble sleeping, cross “astronaut” off your list of future careers. Residents of the International Space Station watch the sun set and then rise again every 90 minutes, meaning in one 24-hour period they experience about 16 cycles of the sun. Talk about confusing your circadian rhythm.
But even earth-dwellers experience their fair share of problems with sleep—about 1 in 5 Americans struggle with getting to bed at night or staying alert during the day. To get some insight on how you can get some shut eye, we spoke to Dr. Charles Czeisler, the chief of the division of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, as well as our insomniac editorial assistant Cameron Johnson to get some tips.