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Sleep Better Tonight

ow do you feel when you wake up in the morning? If you’re like most Americans, you’re probably not as refreshed as you’d like -- and you could use some help to sleep better and fight fatigue during the daytime. Nearly 20 percent of us suffer from daytime sleepiness, according to a report published in the journal Neurology. In fact, some of those surveyed actually admitted to falling asleep during business meetings or conversations.

So what’s behind all this exhaustion? “Most Americans are not getting enough sleep, often because they cut back when they get busy,” says Dr. Aparajitha Verma, medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Methodist Neurological Institute in Houston. Unfortunately, that’s the worst thing you can do if you’re trying to gather enough energy to get through the day awake.

Luckily, you don’t have to go through life feeling fatigued. You probably already know that staying away from caffeine, alcohol and heavy meals in the evening would help. But there’s a lot more you can do to get some high-quality shut-eye. Just try these sleep-better strategies to start snoozing better tonight and wake up recharged tomorrow.

Diary of a New Homemaker
for Saturday, July 31, 2010

Hacking Through the Jungle

I've been sick, sometimes critically, for eight years now. In the last 18 months, I've finally started to feel human.

The problem is, so much stuff has been on hold while we dealt with my illness that it's super backed-up around here, especially after the kitchen disaster/remodel last year, and we're just flat-out overwhelmed.

A Seasonal Taste:

Tomato on Sally Lunn Bread

et's make Sally Lunn bread and then turn it into a memorable sandwich dripping with juice from fresh tomatoes! As the story goes, a young girl in eighteenth century Bath, England, sold buns that were dark on top and light underneath, likened to the sun and moon (Sol et Lune). Keep saying it fast and you'll get "Sally Lunn."

A Taste of the Healthy Living Section:

Writing a Meaningful Birth Plan

irth is paradoxical: a very predictable yet unpredictable human passage. On one hand, almost without fail the vast majority of human females spontaneously begin labor, progress through increasingly intense stages of labor, feel like pushing, and give birth, at approximately 40 weeks after conception.

On the other hand, reliably predicting birth in any greater detail than this is basically impossible. We cannot know the day or week labor will begin, how long it will last, exactly how it will feel, how we will react, or the health and sizes of our babies.

What we can do, however, is educate ourselves about the vast array of possibilities and learn which are more likely to occur. We can decide what is ideal and what we will strive for, what are the means to creating the most conducive environment for such a birth, and which people can best help us to attain those birth arrangements. Finally, we can prepare our own bodies and hearts for the process.