A Key to Cosmetic Surgery Success

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Narrator
What role does sleep have in my recovery?

Robert Kotler, MD
Some patients will not sleep well. They will not sleep well because they are either anxious or their sleep cycle has been upset even by the anesthetic, or they are not sleeping well because maybe there's a little bit of discomfort. So the first line of defense is pain medication, but if patients don't take the pain medication say I'm not sleeping well, then my answer is going to be then we're going to do two things, we are going to remind you to take the pain medicine and if that doesn't quite give you the level of comfort and relaxation, here's a sleeping pill. We don't want people not to sleep. I'll tell you why. First of all, they get cranky. They just get cranky, they are not having any fun, and they'll just feel better and everything goes better, so yes, sleep is very important and we have to monitor these things. Again, there's almost a checklist we go through, and it's about eating and about exercise and about not smoking and again, even sleep.