LA Post: Start your week smart: How to sleep better, Pope Francis discharged, Pentagon leak investigation, New Mexico mass shooting

(CNN) — More Americans are cutting back on snacks like chips, pretzels and cookies — but not for health reasons. Why then? Rising prices. Over the last four years, for example, the price of chips has surged by nearly 30%. That sharp increase is driving many consumers to cut back on non-essentials like snack foods, according to market research firm NIQ.

Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart.

Sunday spotlight

Whether you’re a night owl or an early bird, few things wreak havoc on your ability to function in everyday life more than poor sleep.

A lack of quality sleep can have important impacts on your overall health as well. Chronic insomnia — an inability to fall or stay asleep or waking up much earlier than desired — could lead to serious issues, including heart attacks and stroke.

If you’re constantly tired, that could be a sign of an underlying health condition such as anemia, chronic fatigue syndrome or a rare blood disorder.

Your job could be making things worse. Sedentary work has been linked to a 37% higher risk of insomnia-like symptoms.

1️⃣ Body clock: Are you wide awake at night but tired in the morning? Your circadian rhythm — the cycle that regulates sleep, hormone release and temperature — might be out of whack. Experts offer advice on getting things back in sync.

2️⃣ Worry and anxiety: Rising prices. Political turmoil. Wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Change and uncertainty breed stress, which of course can disrupt sleep. Don’t let the world’s problems ruin your rest.

3️⃣ Digital detox: Some people have developed an unhealthy obsession with their sleep trackers. Here’s how to tell if you have a problem — and this is why it’s not a good idea to use your phone as an alarm clock. Plus, a trend called “sleepmaxxing” gets mixed reviews.

4️⃣ Booze before bed? The tradition of enjoying a drink to promote better rest — known as a nightcap — dates to the early 18th century. Alcohol might seem like a helpful sleep aid, but it actually disrupts your body’s natural sleep cycles.

🎧 Listen in: CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks with a sleep expert about the science behind a good night’s rest.

5️⃣ Exercise advice: Workouts that incorporate resistance to improve muscle strength can be helpful for older adults with insomnia, according to a new study. Resistance training tires out your brain and your body.

Editor’s note: We’re trying something new with the “Sunday spotlight” by taking a closer look at one topic. Let us know what you think.

Top headlines

• Pope Francis appears frail as he’s discharged from hospital to continue recovery at Vatican

• Pentagon announces leak investigation that will include polygraphs

• 3 teenagers killed and 15 people injured in mass shooting at New Mexico park

The week ahead

Monday
Delegations from Russia and the US are expected to resume peace talks in Saudi Arabia to end the war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump — who recently held separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on implementing a partial ceasefire — projected optimism last week about reaching an end to the war, saying “we’re doing pretty well in that regard.” However, just hours after Trump’s comments, Russia launched a large-scale drone attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa that struck a high-rise residential building and a shopping center, local officials said.

Wednesday
March 26 marks one year since the container ship Dali lost power after leaving the Port of Baltimore and struck a pillar of the Key Bridge, causing it to collapse, killing six construction workers who fell into the Patapsco River.

It’s also the 11th annual American Red Cross Giving Day.

Thursday
French President Emmanuel Macron will again host a group of European leaders in Paris with the hope of finalizing plans to secure a potential truce in the war between Ukraine and Russia, according to French news outlets.

President Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, crypto enthusiast Paul Atkins, will appear before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs for a confirmation hearing. Atkins is expected to regulate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin with a lighter touch than Gary Gensler, who led the commission under the Biden administration.

Friday
Amazon will turn off a little-used privacy feature that lets some users of its Echo smart speaker prevent their voice commands from going to the company’s cloud, according to the Associated Press. In an email sent to customers who’d been using the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” option, Amazon said it made the decision to “no longer support this feature” as it expands Alexa’s capabilities with generative artificial intelligence features that rely on being processed in the cloud. Although the change sounds ominous, the option only worked on three devices: the 4th generation Echo Dot, the Echo Show 10 and the Echo Show 15. Amazon also said less than 0.03% of customers use the feature.

Listen in

One Thing: 🎧 Tesla in trouble
In this episode of the “One Thing” podcast, CNN’s David Rind speaks to current and former Tesla owners about how they’re navigating blowback against CEO Elon Musk. Listen here.

Photos of the week

Check out more images from the week that was, curated by CNN Photos.

What’s happening in entertainment

In theaters
A father-daughter trip takes a bad turn when the pair accidentally run into — and over — a mythical beast in “Death of a Unicorn.” Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd star in the comedy/horror romp that opens Friday.

What’s happening in sports

At a glance …
March Madness continues with the second round of the men’s tournament wrapping up this weekend. In one of Saturday’s upsets sure to bust more than a few brackets, No. 10-seed Arkansas took down No. 2 St. John’s 75-66. Arkansas next plays No. 3 seed Texas Tech, who beat Drake 77-64.

And the second round of the women’s tournament begins today after a first round that yielded few surprises seed-wise, although six teams — UConn, LSU, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — scored more than 100 points for the first time in the history of the women’s NCAA tournament.

Major League Baseball may have opened its season last week when the Dodgers played the Cubs in Japan, but Thursday is the day most of the other teams will celebrate Opening Day. The two exceptions are the Rockies and the Rays, who will play Friday to allow more time to repair the damage that Tropicana Field sustained during a hurricane last October.

For more of your favorite sports, head on over to CNN Sports as well as Bleacher Report, which — like CNN — is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Quiz time!

Looking for a challenge to start your week? Take CNN’s weekly news quiz to see how much you remember from the week that was! So far, 61% of fellow quiz fans have gotten eight or more questions right and 12% got a perfect score. How will you fare?