Sleep---Nothing to Snooze About....


"The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep."
Quote by: E. Joseph Cossman 
Blog by Dennis Gillan www.dennisgillan.com


Sleep---so vital to our wellbeing and lately so elusive for me.  I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m up.  Like 3:30 in the morning up and reading the news on my phone up.  Just up.  If you see a post on my Instagram page at 4:00 a.m. that’s not a scheduled post using a buffering app----that’s me and I hate it.

I recently heard neuroscientist Robert Cooper address brain health and when he started talking about sleep, I perked up.  See what I did there? Dr. Cooper is an engaging speaker and apparently a smart guy.  You can find his work here:  http://www.robertcooperphd.com/    

According to Dr. Cooper here are five quick things we could all put into play starting TONIGHT: 

1.     Clear your mind.  Have a notepad handy and jot down what’s on your mind before bed and it will still be there in the morning.

2.     Room----Totally dark.  I wear an eye mask and I rock it.  Next step---room darkening curtains.

3.     Controlled Sound.  That’s what neuroscientists call a white noise machine.  I bought one years ago and will travel with it or use the app on my phone.

4.     Room---Cold.  65 degrees of lower.  There is some scientific reason,  but I was thinking about my air conditioning bill and forgot to write it down. Flip side--I will save on my heating bill so it’s a wash!

5.     No clock in view.  Ok---lost me there, but I am willing to give it a try.  Tonight,  I am moving the clock into the bathroom.  This way when the alarm goes off I will be right near the potty! Win-Win.


Next blog----how to wake up properly and coffee drinkers you are going to be upset.  Until then sleep on it!

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What A Week I'm Having!

Classic line from a classic movie: Splash (1984).  In this particular scene, Walter Kornbluth (Eugene Levy) attempts to stop a military convoy chasing Allen Bauer (Tom Hanks) and the girl/fish Madison (Darryl Hannah) by standing in the road and raising his only good arm.  Walter is unsuccessful and ends up on the side of the road where he utters this famous expression of exasperation "What A Week I am Having!".   Well what a week I am having and I mean that in a good way.  I started out last Sunday, 9/11/2011, by driving home from my parents house in Wilmington, NC and already dreading the meeting I was to have on Monday afternoon at lunch.  I am on the committee for the Out of The Darkness Walk here in Columbia, SC and so far I haven't done jack s@*t.  Sorry for the curse word, but it is true.  I went to a few meetings missed a few more and all the time I knew what was going on---passive aggressive behavior at it's best.  The good folks at Wik...
Read more

USA and Debt....how hard can this be?

I am by no means a financial expert and I have the meager checkbook to prove it, but my gut tells me that my country (USA) cannot continue to ignore our growing debt.  While writing this I took a quick peek at our debt clock and immediately felt sick.  See for yourself:   http://www.usdebtclock.org/ The current congress is impotent, even the women, and every president in my lifetime was clueless on how to reel in spending.  To that end I, Dennis Martin Gillan, being of sound mind (sort of) propose the following measures in order to right this sinking ship we call America: Sorry friends and foes, effective immediately all foreign aid is suspended.  Yes this will chap some countries and some may argue that this will threaten world peace.  OK...how much money have we pumped into the middle east and how peaceful is it right now?  Here are the top ten countries that are going to be upset with this policy:   http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/ful...
Read more

Lower the Drinking Age For Alcohol & Raise the Legal Age for Broccoli Consumption

Image
image via sciencetimes.com Lower the Drinking Age For Alcohol & Raise the Legal Age for Broccoli Consumption  Binge drinking problem solved.  Next up Cancer.  Wait you need a little more explanation?  OK here I go: Alcohol use in underage kids is an issue.  Heard this morning that 1800 kids die per year on college campuses alone, add in those untold numbers that happen outside of the college arena and yeah, it’s an issue.  As a father of two boys, one now over the legal age and one trying like heck to get there, and I have some skin in the game as well and here is my well thought out solution.  LOWER THE DRINKING AGE TO 14 AND TELL KIDS THEY CANNOT HAVE BROCCOLI UNTIL THEY ARE 21. Let’s unpack the first part of my ingenious solution---lowering the drinking age.  When I was a kid (oh shoot I just became my dad) the drinking age was 18.  At this age you typically were on your way out of high school and heading towards work,...
Read more