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A wave of AI luminaries are sending out grim warnings about the new tech but not everyone thinks the situation is so dire

Computer scientists who helped build the foundations of todays artificial intelligence technology are warning of its dangers, but that doesnt mean they agree on what those dangers are or how to prevent them.

Humanitys survival is threatened when smart things can outsmart us, so-called Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton said at a conference Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After retiring from Google so he could speak more freely, the 75-year-old Hinton said hes recently changed his views about the reasoning capabilities of the computer systems hes spent a lifetime researching.

These things will have learned from us, by reading all the novels that ever were and everything Machiavelli ever wrote, how to manipulate people, Hinton said, addressing the crowd attending MIT Technology Reviews EmTech Digital conference from his home via video. Even if they cant directly pull levers, they can certainly get us to pull levers.

I wish I had a nice simple solution for this, but I dont, he added. Im not sure there is a solution.

Fellow AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, co-winner with Hinton of the top computer science prize, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that hes pretty much aligned with Hintons concerns brought on by chatbots such as ChatGPT and related technology, but worries that to simply say Were doomed is not going to help.

The main difference, I would say, is hes kind of a pessimistic person, and Im more on the optimistic side, said Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal. I do think that the dangers the short-term ones, the long-term ones are very serious and need to be taken seriously by not just a few researchers but governments and the population.

There are plenty of signs that governments are listening. The White House has called in the CEOs of Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to meet Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris in whats being described by officials as a frank discussion on how to mitigate both the near-term and long-term risks of their technology. European lawmakers are also accelerating negotiations to pass sweeping new AI rules.

But all the talk of the most dire future dangers has some worried that hype around superhuman machines which dont yet exist is distracting from attempts to set practical safeguards on current AI products that are largely unregulated.

Margaret Mitchell, a former leader on Googles AI ethics team, said shes upset that Hinton didnt speak out during his decade in a position of power at Google, especially after the 2020 ouster of prominent Black scientist Timnit Gebru, who had studied the harms of large language models before they were widely commercialized into products such as ChatGPT and Googles Bard.

Its a privilege that he gets to jump from the realities of the propagation of discrimination now, the propagation of hate language, the toxicity and nonconsensual pornography of women, all of these issues that are actively harming people who are marginalized in tech, said Mitchell, who was also forced out of Google in the aftermath of Gebrus departure. Hes skipping over all of those things to worry about something farther off.

Bengio, Hinton and a third researcher, Yann LeCun, who works at Facebook parent Meta, were all awarded the Turing Prize in 2019 for their breakthroughs in the field of artificial neural networks, instrumental to the development of todays AI applications such as ChatGPT.

Bengio, the only one of the three who didnt take a job with a tech giant, has voiced concerns for years about near-term AI risks, including job market destabilization, automated weaponry and the dangers of biased data sets.

But those concerns have grown recently, leading Bengio to join other computer scientists and tech business leaders like Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in calling for a six-month pause on developing AI systems more powerful than OpenAIs latest model, GPT-4.

Bengio said Wednesday he believes the latest AI language models already pass the Turing test named after British codebreaker and AI pioneer Alan Turings method introduced in 1950 to measure when AI becomes indistinguishable from a human at least on the surface.

Thats a milestone that can have drastic consequences if were not careful, Bengio said. My main concern is how they can be exploited for nefarious purposes to destabilize democracies, for cyber attacks, disinformation. You can have a conversation with these systems and think that youre interacting with a human. Theyre difficult to spot.

Where researchers are less likely to agree is on how current AI language systems which have many limitations, including a tendency to fabricate information will actually get smarter than humans.

Aidan Gomez was one of the co-authors of the pioneering 2017 paper that introduced a so-called transformer technique the T at the end of ChatGPT for improving the performance of machine-learning systems, especially in how they learn from passages of text. Then just a 20-year-old intern at Google, Gomez remembers laying on a couch at the companys California headquarters when his team sent out the paper around 3 a.m. when it was due.

Aidan, this is going to be so huge, he remembers a colleague telling him, of the work thats since helped lead to new systems that can generate humanlike prose and imagery.

Six years later and now CEO of his own AI company called Cohere, which Hinton has invested in, Gomez is enthused about the potential applications of these systems but bothered by fearmongering he says is detached from the reality of their true capabilities and relies on extraordinary leaps of imagination and reasoning.

The notion that these models are somehow gonna get access to our nuclear weapons and launch some sort of extinction-level event is not a productive discourse to have, Gomez said. Its harmful to those real pragmatic policy efforts that are trying to do something good.

Microsoft's chief economist is convinced that A.I. will be 'used by bad actors'but says that cars can be dangerous too

Microsofts chief economist has a retort to people who worry about artificial intelligence being misused for crime or other nefarious purposes: Cars can be unsafe too. The key is putting safeguards in place.

We do have to worry a lot about [the] safety of this technologyjust like with any other technology, Michael Schwarz said about A.I. during a World Economic Forum panel on Wednesday.

Vehicles, for example, get people to where they want to go. But theyre also a danger because of accidents and pollution.

I hope that A.I. will never, ever become as deadly as [an] internal combustion engine is, Schwarz said.

A.I.s dangers can be hard to dismiss even for companies working on them, and Schwarz acknowledges that the technology can cause harm in the wrong hands.

I am quite confident that A.I. will be used by bad actors, and yes it will cause real damage, Schwarz said. It can do a lot of damage in the hands of spammers, people who want to manipulate elections and so on.

But some of that can be avoided, he said. Once we see real harm, we have to ask ourselves the simple question: Can we regulate that in a way where the good things that will be prevented by this regulation are less important? Schwarz said. The principles should be the benefits from the regulation to our society should be greater than the cost to our society.

Microsoft is focused on the good that A.I. can bring society and is working to develop A.I. to help people achieve more by making them more efficient, Schwarz said.

We are optimistic about the future of A.I., and we think A.I. advances will solve many more challenges than they present, but we have also been consistent in our belief that when you create technologies that can change the world, you must also ensure that the technology is used responsibly, a Microsoft spokesperson told Fortune.

Microsoft has been a key player in the recent surge of generative A.I. technology. The company has built a chatbot using technology from OpenAI and has incorporated it into a number of products. Microsoft also plans to invest $10 billion in OpenAI over several years, after having already pumped money into the startup in 2019 and 2021.

Schwarzs warning about A.I. echoed, to a point, recent remarks by Geoffrey Hinton, a former Google vice president and engineering fellow, who helped create some of the key technologies powering the widely-used A.I. tools today and who is referred to as the Godfather of A.I. He warned that it may be tough to stop A.I. from being used for fraud.

It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things, Hinton told the New York Times in an interview published Monday.

I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadnt done it, somebody else would have.

One of Hintons concerns is the availability of A.I. tools that can create images and aggregate information in a matter of seconds. They could lead to the spread of fake content that an average person would have trouble telling is accurate or not.

While Schwarz and Hinton worry about how bad actors may misuse A.I., the two experts diverge in how they think A.I. may impact certain jobs.

During the WEF panel, Schwarz said people are paranoid about their work being replaced by A.I. and that they shouldnt be too worried about it. But Hinton, who had worked at Google since 2013 until recently, said that there is a real risk to jobs in an A.I.-dominated work environment.

It takes away the drudge work, Hinton said. It might take away more than that.

Calls to halt advanced A.I. development

In March, over 25,000 tech expertsfrom academics to former executivessigned an open letter asking for a six-month pause in the development of advanced A.I. systems so that their impact could be better understood and regulated by governments. The letter argued that some systems, such as OpenAIs GPT-4 introduced earlier that month, are becoming human-competitive at general tasks, threatening to help generate misinformation and potentially automating jobs at a large scale.

Executives at tech giants like Google and Microsoft have said that a six-month pause will not solve the problem. Among them is Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

I think in the actual specifics of it, its not fully clear to me how you would do something like that today, he said during a podcast interview in March, referring to the six-month moratorium. To me, at least, there is no way to do this effectively without getting governments involved. So I think theres a lot more thought that needs to go into it.

Microsofts chief scientific officer told Fortune in an interview in April that there are alternatives to pausing A.I. development.

To me, I would prefer to see more knowledge, and even an acceleration of research and development, rather than a pause for six months, which I am not sure if it would even be feasible, said Microsofts Eric Horvitz. In a larger sense, six months doesnt really mean very much for a pause. We need to really just invest more in understanding and guiding and even regulating this technologyjump in, as opposed to pause.

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman says yes, Biden could mint a $1 trillion coin to avert the debt ceilingbut there's a better option out there

Unbalanced budgets have led Congress to raise or temporarily extend the national debt limit on 78 separate occasions since 1960, but political gridlock has some experts worried this time could be different. The potential for a worst-case scenario where lawmakers cant come to an agreement leaving the U.S. unable to pay its debts has reinvigorated the debate around potential borrowing limit workarounds, including the absurd-but-plausible proposal that was once Nobel laureate Paul Krugmans favoriteminting a $1 trillion coin.

By minting a $1 trillion coin, then depositing it at the Fed, the Treasury could acquire enough cash to sidestep the debt ceiling while doing no economic harm at all. So why not? the economist explained in a 2014 New York Times op-ed. This was a sea change in trillion-dollar-coin discourse, which had been popularized by former Insider editor Joe Weisenthal, who is now ensconced at Bloomberg as the co-host of the Odd Lots podcast.

However, Krugman appeared to have a change of heart about the $1 trillion coin Wednesday, arguing that premium bonds would be a better solution to the debt ceiling problem in a lengthy Twitter thread. With so many critics of the coin firmly believing its a gimmick that could cause inflation to soar, theres a credibility issue, according to the economist, and negative perception alone could undermine the viability of the idea.

People who really should know better constantly get this wrong, and imagine that the coin would be inflationary, Krugman wrote, clarifying that he still thinks the coin would be a workable solution, but it basically has a public relations problem. And thats a reason to prefer a route that doesnt inspire confident misconceptions.

To Krugmans point, even Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has chimed in on the coin question, albeit just to dismiss the idea. There are no rabbits to be pulled out of hats here, he said when questioned about the topic at a meeting of a House Financial Services Committee meeting in early March. That would be a rabbit coming out of a hat.

Krugman also noted the complexity of his new solution, premium bonds, could be a good thing. He believes that the Treasury could offer premium bonds, or bonds that trade higher than their face value due to a high coupon rate relative to prevailing market rates, and raise money without increasing the national debt.

In my experience, if you try to explain all this, peoples eyes glaze over which is good! Hard to get outraged over something that baffles you, he argued, adding that nobody understands premium bonds, while people think wrongly that they understand the coin [to be inflationary].

Krugmans potential solution comes after Janet Yellen warned in a letter to Congress on Monday that in less than a month, the U.S. wont be able to pay its bills. Since the federal government hit its $31.4 trillion debt limit back in June, the Treasury Secretary explained that she has relied on extraordinary measures to continue meeting its obligationsbut that cant continue forever.

If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, it would cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests, she wrote.

The debt ceiling debate has grown increasingly heated in Washington over the past few months, with Republicans pushing for strict spending cuts in a bill that Democrats have labeled a ransom note, while the Biden administration insists the debt ceiling must be lifted with no strings attached. Biden aides even recently began debating whether the debt ceiling in and of itself is unconstitutional. They point to the 14th Amendment, which they argue requires the Treasury to continue issuing new debt to pay bondholders, Social Security recipients, and government employees, even if Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling.

Either way, if lawmakers cant come to an agreement and the U.S. is forced to default on its debts, Moodys Analytics found that nearly 6 million jobs and $12 trillion in household wealth would be lost. And Krugman warned in an April Times op-ed that failing to raise the debt limit could lead to disastrous consequences globally as well.

At minimum, it would disrupt the functioning of the federal government. At worst, it would precipitate a global financial crisis, possibly as bad or worse than the crisis of 2008, he wrote.

Elon Musk is still beefing with NPR and threatened to give its account to 'another company' if it doesn't start tweeting again

Elon Musk threatened to reassign NPRs Twitter account to another company, according to the non-profit news organization, in an ongoing spat between Musk and media groups since his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last year.

So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company? Musk wrote in one email late Tuesday to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn.

NPR stopped tweeting from its main account after Twitter abruptly labeled NPRs main account as state-affiliated media last month, a term thats also been used to identify outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments. Twitter then changed the label to government-funded media.

NPR said that both labels were inaccurate and undermined its credibility noting the nonprofit news company operates independently of the U.S. government. Federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounts for less than 1% of NPRs annual operating budget, the company said.

The last tweets on NPRs main account are from April 12 when the news organization shared a thread of other places readers and listeners can find its journalism.

Twitter temporarily slapped other news organizations including the BBC and PBS with government-funded media labels. PBS also stopped using its Twitter account in response.

An article written by Allyn late Tuesday, the NPR tech reporter detailed the messages that the billionaire owner of Twitter sent regarding NPRs account. Musk pointed to the NPRs choice to stop tweeting as reasoning behind possibly reassigning the account.

Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant, Musk wrote in one email. Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.

According to Twitters online policy, the social media platform determines an accounts inactivity based on logging on not tweeting. Twitter says that users should log in at least every 30 days to keep their accounts active, and that accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.

Musks comments and his actions, however, do not always match and it is uncertain if he will actually reassign NPRs handle, regardless of Twitters published policy on account activity.

When asked by NPR who would be willing to use NPRs Twitter account, Musk replied, National Pumpkin Radio, along with a fire emoji and a laughing emoji, NPR reported.

It is unknown if NPR has logged into its account, which currently has a blue check without the previous government-funded media label, since April. The Associated Press reached out to NPR for comment early Wednesday.

Musk disbanded Twitters media and public relations department after the takeover.

As of Wednesday, the NPR Twitter handle still appeared to belong to NPR. If Musk does reassign the account to another user, experts warn of misinformation and further loss of credibility.

Potentially losing access to a handle as a form of pressure is really just a continuation of eroding the credibility of information sharing on Twitter, Zeve Sanderson, executive director of New York Universitys Center for Social Media and Politics told The Associated Press.

For journalism, theres not only brand safety concerns, but in addition to that, there are a ton of concerns around misinformation potentially being perceived as a lot more credible because someone (could be) tweeting from from the NPR handle when its really not them, Sanderson added.

It is the latest volley in what many experts describe as a chilling and uncertain landscape for journalism on Twitter since Musk acquired the company in October.

In addition to removing news organizations verifications and temporarily adding labels like government-funded media on some accounts, Musk abruptly suspended the accounts of individual journalists who wrote about Twitter late last year.

In response to Musks Tuesday emails, Liz Woolery, digital policy lead at literary organization PEN America said that it is hard to imagine a more potent example of Musks willingness to use Twitter to arbitrarily intimidate and retaliate against any person or organization that irks him, with or without provocation.

Its a purely authoritarian tactic, seemingly intended to undermine one of the countrys premier and most trusted news organizationsone that is especially important to rural communities across the U.S. Woolery added in a Wednesday statement to The Associated Press.

Fed raises interest rate to highest level in 16 years, signals it could pause streak of 10 straight hikes

The Federal Reserve reinforced its fight against high inflation Wednesday by raising its key interest rate by a quarter-point to the highest level in 16 years. But the Fed also signaled that it may now pause the streak of 10 rate hikes that have made borrowing for consumers and businesses steadily more expensive.

In a statement after its latest policy meeting, the Fed removed a previous sentence that had said some additional rate hikes might be needed. It replaced it with language that said it will consider a range of factors in determining the extent to which future hikes might be needed.

The Feds rate increases over the past 14 months have more than doubled mortgage rates, elevated the costs of auto loans, credit card borrowing and business loans and heightened the risk of a recession. Home sales have plunged as a result. The Feds latest move, which raised its benchmark rate to roughly 5.1%, could further increase borrowing costs.

Still, the Feds statement offered little indication that its string of rate hikes have made significant progress toward its goal of cooling the economy, the job market and inflation. Inflation has fallen from a peak of 9.1% in June to 5% in March but remains well above the Feds 2% target rate.

Job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low, the statement said. Inflation remains elevated.

The surge in rates has contributed to the collapse of three large banks and turmoil in the banking industry. All three failed banks had bought long-term bonds that paid low rates and then rapidly lost value as the Fed sent rates higher.

The banking upheaval might have played a role in the Feds decision Wednesday to consider a pause. Chair Jerome Powell had said in March that a cutback in lending by banks, to shore up their finances, could act as the equivalent of a quarter-point rate hike in slowing the economy.

Fed economists have estimated that tighter credit resulting from the bank failures will contribute to a mild recession later this year, thereby raising the pressure on the central bank to suspend its rate hikes.

The Fed is now also grappling with the threat of a prolonged standoff around the nations borrowing limit, which caps how much debt the government can issue. Congressional Republicans are demanding steep spending cuts as the price of agreeing to lift the nations borrowing cap.

The Feds decision Wednesday came against an increasingly cloudy backdrop. The economy appears to be cooling, with consumer spending flat in February and March, indicating that many shoppers have grown cautious in the face of higher prices and borrowing costs. Manufacturing, too, is weakening.

Even the surprisingly resilient job market, which has kept the unemployment rate near 50-year lows for months, is showing cracks. Hiring has decelerated, job postings have declined and fewer people are quitting their jobs for other, typically higher-paying positions.

The turmoil in the nations banking sector, which re-erupted last weekend as regulators seized and sold off First Republic Bank, has intensified the pressure on the economy. It was the second-largest U.S. bank failure ever and the third major banking collapse in the past six weeks. Investors have grown anxious about whether other regional banks may suffer from similar problems.

Goldman Sachs estimates that a widespread pullback in bank lending could cut U.S. growth by 0.4 percentage point this year. That could be enough to cause a recession. In December, the Fed projected growth of just 0.5% in 2023.

Wall Street traders were also unnerved by this weeks announcement from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the nation could default on its debt as soon as June 1 unless Congress agrees to lift the debt limit, which caps how much the government can borrow. A first-ever default on the U.S. debt could potentially lead to a global financial crisis.

The Feds rate hike Wednesday comes as other major central banks are also tightening credit. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is expected to announce another interest rate increase Thursday, after inflation figures released Tuesday showed that price increases ticked up last month.

Consumer prices rose 7% in the 20 countries that use the euro currency in April from a year earlier, up from a 6.9% year-over-year increase in March.

In the United States, some major drivers of higher prices have stalled or started to reverse, causing slowdowns in overall inflation. The consumer price index rose 5% in March from a year earlier, sharply lower than its 9.1% peak in June.

The rise in rental costs has eased as more newly built apartments have come online. Gas and energy prices have fallen steadily. Food costs are moderating. Supply chain snarls are no longer blocking trade, thereby lowering the cost for new and used cars, furniture and appliances.

Still, while overall inflation has cooled, core inflation which excludes volatile food and energy costs has remained chronically high. According to the Feds preferred measure, core prices rose 4.6% in March from a year earlier, scarcely better than the 4.7% it reached in July.

Facebook was profiting off your kids' data, FTC says

U.S. regulators say Facebook misled parents and failed to protect the privacy of children using its Messenger Kids app, including misrepresenting the access it provided to app developers to private user data.

As a result, The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday proposed sweeping changes to a 2020 privacy order with Facebook now called Meta that would prohibit it from profiting from data it collects on users under 18. This would include data collected through its virtual-reality products. The FTC said the company has failed to fully comply with the 2020 order.

Meta would also be subject to other limitations, including with its use of face-recognition technology and be required to provide additional privacy protections for its users.

Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises, said Samuel Levine, director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection. The companys recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.

Meta called the announcement a political stunt.

Despite three years of continual engagement with the FTC around our agreement, they provided no opportunity to discuss this new, totally unprecedented theory. Lets be clear about what the FTC is trying to do: usurp the authority of Congress to set industry-wide standards and instead single out one American company while allowing Chinese companies, like TikTok, to operate without constraint on American soil, Meta said in a prepared statement. We have spent vast resources building and implementing an industry-leading privacy program under the terms of our FTC agreement. We will vigorously fight this action and expect to prevail.

Facebook launched Messenger Kids in 2017, pitching it as a way for children to chat with family members and friends approved by their parents. The app doesnt give kids separate Facebook or Messenger accounts. Rather, it works as an extension of a parents account, and parents get controls, such as the ability to decide with whom their kids can chat.

At the time, Facebook said Messenger Kids wouldnt show ads or collect data for marketing, though it would collect some data it said was necessary to run the service.

But child-development experts raised immediate concerns.

In early 2018, a group of 100 experts, advocates and parenting organizations contested Facebooks claims that the app was filling a need kids had for a messaging service. The group included nonprofits, psychiatrists, pediatricians, educators and the childrens music singer Raffi Cavoukian.

Messenger Kids is not responding to a need it is creating one, the letter said. It appeals primarily to children who otherwise would not have their own social media accounts. Another passage criticized Facebook for targeting younger children with a new product.

Facebook, in response to the letter, said at the time that the app helps parents and children to chat in a safer way, and emphasized that parents are always in control of their kids activity.

The FTC now says this has not been the case. The 2020 privacy order, which required Facebook to pay a $5 billion fine, required an independent assessor to evaluate the companys privacy practices. The FTC said the assessor identified several gaps and weaknesses in Facebooks privacy program.

The FTC also said Facebook, from late 2017 until 2019, misrepresented that parents could control whom their children communicated with through its Messenger Kids product.

Despite the companys promises that children using Messenger Kids would only be able to communicate with contacts approved by their parents, children in certain circumstances were able to communicate with unapproved contacts in group text chats and group video calls, the FTC said.

As part of the proposed changes to the FTCs 2020 order, Meta would also be required to pause launching new products and services without written confirmation from the assessor that its privacy program is in full compliance with the order.

Bad night's sleep? Here are 7 ways to have a productive day

Youre stressed about an upcoming presentation, overstimulated after a long day, or distracted by the sirens screaming in the street below your apartment. Your body and brain resist drifting off to sleep, and you cant hit the hay no matter how many sheep you count.

When the sun peaks through the corner of your curtains, you label the day as a big ole L, and accept defeat.

But does a poor nights sleep need to ruin your entire day?

Sleep is intensely psychological, and unfortunately, when we have control over many areas of our lives and seek perfection in those areas, we can be disappointed in ourselves or become frustrated after a poor nights sleep, says Rebecca Robbins, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate scientist at the Brigham and Womens Hospital.

Still, sleep deprivation can have very real consequences for high performersnegatively affecting decision-making, productivity, and the immune system, says Dr. Shelby Harris, a behavioral sleep medicine physician in New York and the director of sleep health with Sleepopolis. And a poor nights sleep here and there can make you emotionally reactive and put you at risk for rash decision making, Robbins says.

But a bad nights rest is not the end of the world. There are ways to make the most of a drowsy start to the day. Heres how.

What to do after a bad nights sleep

Get light

Your circadian rhythm, part of the bodys natural clock, responds to light. Waking up with light, whether the suns natural rays or a lamp, will help you feel more alert.

You can go for walks in the morning, use a sunrise alarm clock that mimics the natural sunrise, or open your curtains [or] blinds to let the light in, says Harris.

Stick to your early morning routine despite the setback. Consistent bedtimes and wake ups make it easier to fall asleep.

The best thing, while you might want to reach for coffee, will be to get outside into the natural sunlight, ideally go for a walk or jog and get plenty of fresh air and sunlight into your eyes, Robbins says.

Move

While working out after a bad nights sleep seems criminal to ask of someone, moving your bodyeven just a little bitcan wake up your system and help you stay alert.

Exercise quality may be impacted with sleep deprivation, but research suggests a morning workout is beneficial after a bad nights sleep.

Even a short walk or stretching session can help to get your blood flowing and wake up your body, says Harris, adding it can also improve overall mood.

Have a nutritious breakfast

Having a breakfast filled with protein and fiber can help you stay energized throughout the day after a poor nights sleep. Think: a bowl of yogurt with granola and fruit or eggs with whole grain toast. These fiber-rich foods will take longer to digest and help you feel full as you start the day.

And more? Avoid ultra-processed foods especially right before bed because they can disrupt digestion and make it harder to fall asleep.

Avoid excessive caffeine and alcohol

Your regular morning cup of coffee is okay, but beware of drinking too much throughout the day because it can affect your ability to fall asleep the next night, experts say. And while alcohol may help you fall asleep, it does not help you stay asleep.

Take a breather

Taking breaks during a busy work day can help you stay focused on the tasks you need to get done to sign off. Consider alternating 20 to 30 minutes focus time with a five to ten minute walk around your block or office. Even a 20-minute nap, 5-minute meditation, or breathing exercise can revitalize you.

Ask for help if you need it

Everyone has a groggy day from time to time, so dont be afraid to ask for help from friends or colleagues for overly taxing tasks, says Dr. Abhinav Singh, medical review expert at SleepFoundation.org and medical director of the Indiana Sleep Center.

If possible, push off any tasks requiring major decision making and stick to the basics, he adds.

Stop blaming yourself

Its easy to blame yourself for your poor nights sleepwondering why you couldnt rid your intrusive thoughts away or drift off after a long day (you were tired after all!). But ruminating can keep us awake and alert as our brains search for answers in the middle of the night.

Patients tell Wendy Troxel, a sleep specialist at the Rand Corporation, they often feel their brain wont shut off when they want to sleep, she previously told Fortune.

Putting pressure on yourself to fall asleep instantly and turn off your brain is often unrealistic, and being anxious about being tired only exacerbates the problem and can make it harder to get a good nights rest the following day.

Every night of sleep does not have to be perfect. Its completely normal to have a bad night of sleep here and there, Harris says.

Give yourself grace. Not every night is going to look the same, but there are ways to control what you can.

Establish a wind-down routine for the 30 minutes to an hour before you plan to sleep. Rid yourself of screens and distracting notifications, take a warm shower, drink a cup of tea, or read a few pages of your favorite book. Consider allocating specific time to worry, and write down what is taking up space in your head.

When time is up, literally and figuratively close the book on worry and practice this nightly for several weeks, Troxel previously said. Over time, this exercise has been shown to reduce the habit of ruminating in bed and interfering with sleep.

One poor nights sleep doesnt dictate what will happen thereafter. But if you have consistently poor sleep for three days a week for three months, it may signify a sleep disorder and you should talk to your doctor.