“Home for the holidays” may have a different meaning this year. This year has been especially stressful and everyone is looking to reconnect with family and friends this holiday season. However, assessing your loved ones risks, and determining how to celebrate this year can raise questions, bringing it’s own share of anxiety.

Patrick Cudahy, MD, a family medicine physician with Dignity Health Medical Group — Dominican, offers some advice for navigating how to best celebrate the season with others.

When we think about caring for ourselves, we often equate that to healthy eating and physical activity. However, proper sleep is just as critical for both mental and physical health – especially now. Families are continuing to navigate changes in their lives on account of the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of sleep can impact how we respond to stress and anxiety.

The reality is that almost 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia and another 22 million suffer from sleep apnea. Lack of sleep not only impacts quality of life, but it can alter your immune system and lead to other serious conditions. In fact, research suggests that sleep is necessary for removing a toxic protein in our brain tissue called beta-amyloid. This protein is associated with the onset of dementia.

Mercy Medical Group was one of just a few physician organizations in California to receive the 2020 Excellence in Healthcare Award, California’s top honor for provider organizations, from the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) for its top performance in clinical quality, patient experience and cost measures.

By now, most of us have fallen into some sort of routine and are doing our best to protect ourselves, our families and community from COVID-19. We wash our hands, we wear a mask in public, and we physically distance. Even though we know the CDC guidelines, it can be difficult to know when and how to apply those guidelines to our everyday lives. Two Dignity Health Medical Group physicians, Zachary Brewer, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon and Syama Varudu, MD, an Internal Medicine physician with Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group, share the best practices that they use every day.

Halloween will look a bit different for many families this year as parents and kids navigate how to have a fun, safe Halloween amid the ongoing pandemic. As a pediatrician at Dignity Health Medical Group - Dominican, Komal Afzal, DO, understands there is a healthy balance we must achieve to ensure children’s safety while fostering their continued development.

With Halloween around the corner, she urges parents to continue the conversation around safety and encourages open dialogue about how the holidays will look different while finding ways to still make them special. Usual traditions such as costume parties and door-to-door trick or treating may not be happening, but there are certainly still many ways to celebrate Halloween this year.