Sleep is eluding a lot of people. Even this writer, who has historically clocked 8 to 9 hours a night. Lately, I’m eking out about 6 or 7 on a good night, and I’m not alone. The Lancet reports an “increased prevalence of sleep disorders in 2020 … highlighted in several other publications from different countries,” due to the stress, anxiety and PTSD associated with long-term isolation and financial distress, fear of getting the virus and actually getting the virus, among other causes. (There are of course some people are sleeping more, due to depression related to all of the above or triggered by it, for those who have struggled with depression in the past. Ugh, we can’t win.) Sleep is always essential, but even more so now, when we are under so much stress and need to do things to boost, not decrease our health and wellness. In a September 2020 report by the Cleveland Clinic, sleep psychologist Michelle Drerup, PsyD, DBSM, says “When someone is chronically sleep-deprived,” she says, “they tend to have lowered immunity and that makes our susceptibility to viruses higher. Sleep, or lack of it, affects every system in our bodies. As I wrote in a 2014 post about sleep: