Surviving Substandard Sleep

How to cope after a bad night’s slumber

- Samantha Rideout

After hours of tossing and turning, surviving the day ahead feels like a tall order. Your first instinct might be to reach for a vat of coffee. This may pick you up temporarily, but remember that caffeine could negatively affect your sleep quality up to 16 hours later. Feel free to grab a cup, but be reasonable in your consumption so as not to set yourself up for a second rough night.

“The best thing you can do is just hit the ground running,” says Neil Stanley, a member of the European Sleep Research Society. “You’re going to feel some sleep inertia [otherwise known as grogginess and disorientation] for a while, but don’t let that frame your day. Ope