50 Health Rules Doctors Don’t Always Follow—So You Shouldn’t Either

Health rule: Get 8 hours of sleep

The health benefits of sleep are well documented, and range from energy and alertness to the ability to fight off illness. But even as your doctor extolls the virtues of a strict bedtime routine followed by at least seven hours of sleep, he or she may be seriously sleepy. According to Dr. Marisa C. Weiss, doctors are often sleep deprived because the lines between work and personal time have blurred, as a result of on-call responsibilities and email and phone messages from patients, on top of the need to keep abreast of medical advances. “Sleep is frequently shortened, disrupted and hard to protect, Dr. Weiss told The Wall Street Journal. The good news is that if you’re sleep deprived during the week, research shows that you can pay back some of your sleep debt over the weekend. Watch out for these 42 strange symptoms that can signal a serious disease.

The post 50 Health Rules Doctors Don’t Always Follow—So You Shouldn’t Either appeared first on Reader's Digest.