This past weekend, we changed our clocks to "fall back" an hour. As little as an hour might seem, it can have a significant effect on our sleep. It changes our natural 24-hour cycle and our internal clocks become out of sync or mismatched with our current day-night cycle. All those gained and lost hours can have an effect on you psychologically, especially for young children.

 It can take toddlers and children a little longer than adults to assume a new sleep routine. Sunlight can have a role in mood and sleep cycles.  When you add or take away sunlight, your body reacts by trying to keep you awake or making you sleepy.  It can create disrupted sleep cycles as much as a week past the time change.

So how do you minimize the effect on your children?

• Try to get your child to sleep a little earlier than their scheduled bed time.
• Try to avoid exhausting your child more than normal to get them to sleep - it can make them more restless or overtired at bedtime.
• Expose your child to light during the waking hours when it's dark outside. Light suppresses melatonin, the natural sleep-inducing substance in our bodies.
• Create calming rituals before bed to relax like reading or taking a bath.
• Keep to as normal a bedtime routine as possible - good sleep routines foster quicker adjustment to time change.

Most of all, be patient - it typically takes a week or more to adjust after the clocks have changed - your child's disposition will most likely be effected, but it will go back to normal soon. 

Taking care of your family, your job, and all the other demands in between can make it difficult to find time to prepare a healthy, tasteful meal you can be proud to serve. Eating right has become a priority, yet many struggle with time and the availability of healthy foods at their disposal.

The desire for real, non-processed foods and responsible sourcing is more apparent than ever. Consumers are dictating what they need from the food industries and much of it surrounds around ease and convenience. Companies have responded to this demand, offering great, healthy food options in a variety of ways including grocery delivery, shopping made easy and pre-made meals. The good news is a  busy lifestyle does not have to get in the way of enjoying a quality meal.

 
 Each week, 7 chef-designed Plated recipes are featured on the menu, options include beef, poultry, shellfish and vegetarian. Plated also cares about responsible sourcing and gives a calorie count for every dish, supporting the notion that they key to keeping a healthy diet is not necessarily eating less-it's eating right. They also partner with organizations that support healthy lifestyles and further their waste-free mission by donating remaining ingredients to local food banks.

Understanding food & health, they go one step further and offer advice in their blog on what to eat before exercising, why drinking lemon water is so good for you and the difference between good and bad carbs and even a recipe for breakfast pizza to ensure you get in the most important meal of the day.

Plated is offering The Rubino OB/GYN Group patients a trial for four free plates with a nominal one-time shipping fee. Click here for the offer.

 The Rubino OB/GYN Group On LinkedIn

 Walk-In Flu Clinic Wednesday, November 5th

(In West Orange and Bayonne)

Pay Your Bill Online

You can pay your Rubino OB/GYN Group bills online right from the homepage of our website. Simply click on the button at the top of the page that says "New! Pay Your Bill Online!".

Options include paying by credit card or  echeck. It is an easy one-time registration to create a password.

For easy reference, the direct link is: Pay My Bill. 

We hope you enjoy seeing the practice on a more personal level and welcome your feedback! Simply reply to this newsletter.