PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - It's official you can get some sleep!

March is National Sleep Month and we're celebrating it by losing an hour of sleep Sunday morning when we turn the clocks back to Daylight Saving Time.

This has been a difficult year for sleep says Dr. Sanjay Patel, Medical Director for the UPMC Comprehensive Sleep Disorders Program.

"For one thing I think a lot of us have just been worried," he said. "Worried about our loved ones or ourselves getting sick. And that's made it harder to sleep. But I think another big issue has been we've lost our normal routines."

All of that can lead to difficulty settling your mind down and may lead to disturbing dreams or nightmares.

"There isn't any evidence that the nightmares indicate that there's anything wrong with you or wrong with your brain," Dr. Patel said. "It's normal for us to have bizarre dreams that sort of what our brain does is it takes little pieces of information, little pieces of memories and puts them together in strange ways. And that's a great way for us to be creative and learn, or discover new things. But it also means that we can have really disturbing dreams. But that's just part of being human."

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As for all that tossing and turning you may be doing. Dr. Patel says that has nothing to do with the pandemic or your dreams.

"Some level of tossing and turning is normal, that's just, there are normal brief arousals through sleep in adults that we see, you know, 10-15 times an hour in a normal person," he explained. "You know, a lot of times it might be just for comfort."

Dr. Patel says to improve your chances for a restful night first make sure it's dark.

"Having light in the evening time or at nighttime can really disturb your ability to sleep because it confuses your brain about what [and] when you should be sleeping," he said.

All of your electronic screens should be off.

"The light from screens, especially the blue light can confuse your brain and to thinking that it's, It's not the time to go to sleep," he explained.

Pillows and mattresses should be whatever is comfortable for you and as for restlessness being caused by what you eat. Dr. Patel says it's more timing than anything else.

"The most important thing is having a regular schedule of when you eat," Dr. Patel said. "It is important to get your brain aligned to know what time it is. So the more you can try to eat dinner at a regular time. That can be helpful."

Remember you are trying to reprogram your body's sleep pattern and most critically the hours leading up to settling down.

"Give yourself time to wind down you don't want to go straight from paying all your bills to worrying about you know how you're going to pay your next mortgage to trying to fall asleep, it's just not going to work," he cautions. "You want to give yourself, you know half an hour to an hour where you're doing things that are relaxing for you."

Dr. Patel says if your unsettled nights are impacting your daytime activities that are when it's time to reach out for some help.