Need to get up earlier for work or a workout? To return to your routine after traversing time zones? Or just want to get your day started before the sun comes up?

Below, Stephanie Silberman, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist, sleep specialist and author of The Insomnia Workbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Getting the Sleep You Need, provides tips on how to reset your sleep cycle.

1. Make adjustments in increments.

The best way to successfully shift your sleep cycle is to do it gradually, in 15-minute increments, according to Silberman. If you have less time to prepare for your new schedule, try 30 minutes, she said. (But no more than that.)

Give yourself at least three or four nights to get comfortable with the new schedule. If it’s going well, on the fourth or fifth night, shave off another 15 minutes.

Keep in mind that feeling groggy when you get up is normal. As Silberman said, “Most people don’t wake up full of energy.” So expect that you’ll feel sleepy for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Self-care doesn’t require hours of free time. In fact, just 10 minutes or less can help to boost your well-being. Below, experts share their tips for lifting your mood, minimizing anxiety and even enhancing your relationships.

1. “Act your shoe size, not your age.”

This according to Deborah Serani, PsyD, psychologist and author of Living with Depression.
In other words, play for the sake of playing. “Find your funny bone, lose yourself in imaginative moments [or] get your air-guitar on — whatever it is, have some unstructured, unfettered fun,” she said.

Psychologist Elisha Goldstein also recently talked about the importance of play in this blog post and offered valuable tips on practicing play.

Eating slowly is not my specialty — and I don’t think I’m alone.

It’s hard to tell where the habit to rapidly shovel food toward my mouth came from, but I think it may have something to do with 12 years of 20-minute school lunches. Twenty minutes to find a place to sit, buy food, talk with friends and eat a turkey sandwich was hardly enough time, and you couldn’t even take food to your next class (unless you were sneaky…something I’m pleading the fifth on). Those quickfire childhood lunches combined with five years of a career where I routinely eat at my desk have created a monster: sometimes I’m not even tasting my food as I eat it.

Mindful Eating is quite the buzz phrase here on PsychCentral, with many of our wonderful bloggers advocating for a new way to see and experience food. The benefits of mindful eating include: actually tasting what’s in your mouth, easier digestion, lowered consumption and a better relationship with food in general. When we take time to chew slowly and experience our meal without the interruption of television, work or even, at times, conversation, we are able to connect with our bodies on a much more intimate level.

Everyone feels frustrated and frazzled with their jobs from time to time. But burnout goes beyond the occasional bad day — or bad week.

“Burnout is a ‘silent condition’ induced by chronic stress that is characterized by emotional [or] physical exhaustion, cynicism and a lack of professional efficacy,” according to Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World.

Psychoanalyst Herbert J. Freudenberger coined the term “burnout” in 1974.¹ He defined burnout as ”the extinction of motivation or incentive, especially where one’s devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results.”

In his book, Freudenberger compared job burnout to a burned-out building.

1. He also coauthored, with Geraldine Richelson, the first book on burnout, called Burn-Out: The High Cost of High Achievement. [↩]

Hypothyroidism — known as low thyroid — may cause depression. Hypothyroidism is a “condition in which the body does not get enough thyroid hormone for optimal brain and body functioning,” according to Gary S. Ross, M.D., in Depression & Your Thyroid: What You Need to Know.

Research has found a link between hypothyroidism and depression. For instance, there’s some evidence that people with depression tend to have higher rates of hypothyroidism than the general population (such as this study). A 2004 study found that 38 percent of older patients with hypothyroidism also reported symptoms of depression.

Unfortunately, hypothyroidism often goes undiagnosed. Some people simply aren’t tested for thyroid problems, while others are, but their lab tests come back “normal,” Dr. Ross notes.

Today, many people view their bodies as strangers, at best, or adversaries, at worst. They feel like their bodies have betrayed them. That they don’t deserve care or compassion because they look — or rather don’t look — a certain way. Because no matter what they do, their bodies don’t listen, don’t respond.

Maybe you feel like that, too. Or maybe you’ve simply forgotten about your body. In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, maybe you don’t have the time to focus on your body – or the desire.

Many people have a crummy relationship with their bodies. Either they bash their bodies with repeated insults or criticisms, or they neglect their needs and stop practicing good self-care. (Or both.)

Our society, of course, doesn’t help. It’s primed and ready to swoop in and offer a “successful” solution: a diet food, weight-loss tip or fitness overhaul. This only boosts body shame and might’ve even sparked your body dissatisfaction in the first place.

It takes continuous practice to maintain a positive body image. Think of it as a skill that needs attention and sharpening.

And that’s a great thing. It means that you can lift a low body image at any time. While it’s not easy, there are practical, concrete ways you can improve how you see your body — and yourself.

Below, Joyce Marter, LCPC, a psychotherapist and owner of Urban Balance, LLC, a multi-site counseling practice in the greater Chicago area, offers five ideas to do just that.

Caffeine is the most widely consumed stimulant in the world.  We drink it in our coffee, we consume it in our cans of Coke and Pepsi. People take in so much of this drug, they rarely think twice about it.

Caffeine is found naturally in so many of our foods and beverages, we take it for granted. On top of that, it’s often referenced for its positive effects on attention and mental alertness.

Not only is caffeine found abundantly available in natural and supplemented foods and beverages, you’ll also find it in products sold over the counter for fatigue, migraines and colds.

But what are caffeine’s effects on our thinking? Is it helping or hindering our thought processes? Let’s find out…

At best, napping is viewed as a luxury or indulgence. At worst, it’s seen as a slothful activity.

Maybe you’ve also felt the pangs of guilt after awaking from a short snooze. Or judged someone else for falling asleep at their desk.

But napping doesn’t make you a lazy worker, and it doesn’t pillage your productivity. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Napping actually offers a slew of benefits, which might make you reconsider your stance on midday slumbers — and add them to your routine.

“Napping leads to improvements in mood, alertness and performance [such as] reaction time, attention, and memory,” according to Kimberly Cote, Ph.D, Professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brock University. (Her 2009 review, co-authored with researcher Catherine Milner, summarizes the research on these many benefits.)

No matter how busy you are, you can find five minutes or fewer in your day to take better care of yourself. Here are five expert tips on relaxing your body, soothing anxiety and coping with stressful thoughts.

1. Practice 3-3-6 breathing. According to Darlene Mininni, Ph.D, author of The Emotional Toolkit, this type of breathing provides more oxygen to the brain and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. That slows down breathing and heart rate, relaxes the muscles and causes blood vessels to dilate, improving blood flow. It essentially sends a message to your brain that everything is OK, and there’s no reason to fight or flee, Mininni said.

You can practice this breathing technique any time, anywhere, whether you’re waiting in line, stuck in traffic or sitting at your desk.

Do the physical twinges of anxiety make you even more anxious? For instance, for some people, even though the sweaty palms, racing heartbeat and shaky limbs are a result of exercise — and not an impending panic attack — they still experience intense anxiety about their anxiety.

This is called anxiety sensitivity. According to authors and clinical psychologists Margo C. Watt, Ph.D, and Sherry H. Stewart, Ph.D, in their excellent book Overcoming the Fear of Fear: How to Reduce Anxiety Sensitivity, anxiety sensitivity is “the tendency to respond fearfully to bodily sensations associated with fear and anxiety.” Put simply, it’s “the fear of fear.”

People who are prone to anxiety sensitivity tend to catastrophize, or automatically assume that the worst will happen. For instance, you might fear that your trembling might catch the attention of others or a racing heart might mean a heart attack.

This is going to be a busy week for us and new blog introductions, as we have a whole slew who are joining the Psych Central Blog Network family. We’re proud and honored to introduce each of these blogs and bloggers individually, because each one is a new, valuable member worth highlighting.

First up actually comes from one of our existing bloggers, Alicia Sparks (whom you may recognize from her blogging on Celebrity Psychings, which she will also continue).

Your Body, Your Mind is intended to explore the impact that physical health has on our brains and mental health. It will examine  the intersection of our minds and mental health with exercise, walking, diet, types of foods we eat (like a gluten-free diet), and other physical activities, to figure out what things might improve our well-being, and what things are likely to have little impact.