God, my insomnia is SO bad of late. I was having luck for a while with just going limp — no melatonin, no cannabis, just trusting that my body would take what it needs. News alert: My body does not take what it needs. It will sometimes fall asleep for 40 minutes, then wake up for three hours. Last night was a rare can’t-get-to-sleep-at-all episode. I took melatonin. I took CBD. I took a bowl of cereal after 90 minutes of staring at the ceiling didn’t work. I did a crossword puzzle and finally got to sleep about 1:30 a.m. Awake at 6, back to sleep 20 minutes later, up for good at 7:30.
That’s not good sleep. When that happens I don’t get exercise, although I dress for it in hopes an opportunity will present itself. It didn’t happen today. It wasn’t a wasted day, but it was an unpleasant one.
It’s been hot, so the windows are closed, but sometimes, on nights like this, I’ll listen to the night sounds. My takeaway: It’s gonna be a wild summer, based on the squealing tires I hear, as well as the gunfire. So much gunfire! And yes, I know the difference between a semiauto and firecrackers. I think about all the people out there, going about their business, firing weapons, squealing tires, doing other things. Trying to sleep.
Because of my irritation of late, I read this story of Caitlyn Jenner’s gubernatorial run with some interest, particularly this graf, which I think is the nut of it:
Celebrities always have played a role in American politics, and no state has offered as many notable examples as California, with Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger morphing of course from Hollywood stars into public sector execs. But at a charged cultural and political juncture defined by Donald Trump, the most infamous entertainment-industry outsider ever, politics is no longer simply some notional lark of a second career but rather more and more a central means of creating or perpetuating renown, a newly altered electoral environment in which athletes, actors and other A-listers float bids to stoke fame.
The other day I tweeted that Kyrsten Sinema appears to have gone into politics for the sole purpose of displaying her impressive arms and shoulders on a national stage. I don’t understand why anyone would run for office and then simply fail to show up for important votes because oops I just couldn’t, that day. This is very dangerous for democracy, and a direct extension of the “vote for me, I’m not a career politician” trope we’ve been living under for 40-some years. Caitlyn Jenner has offered virtually nothing concrete in terms of policy ideas or solutions for the state she wants to govern. She does seem to be a bottomless, attention-sucking maw, however.
I looked, for several long minutes that I’ll never get back, at the main photo on that Politico story. I realize Jenner has had quite a bit of facial feminization surgery, and that the picture itself is quite stylized, but the weirdness of it is quite disconcerting. Who is this person? Does she even know herself? I doubt it.
And with that, my patience has reached its end. Time to do some skin care and, as the Detroit city motto says (in Latin), hope for better things. At least tomorrow.
LAMary said on June 8, 2021 at 9:13 pm
Caitlin is a problem. I can’t figure out what her base would be. She’s made a big deal about trans people competing in sports (against it) and mentions in her pitch that she beat the Russians in the Olympics and she’ll beat them again. I’m not aware of any current wars between California and Russia. LGBTQ folks hate her. GOP types make a point of saying he, not she, and getting into fights about genitalia. Personally I don’t want another damn reality show putz elected. Being an ancillary Kardashian doesn’t impress me either. The first time she addressed the homeless problem in CA, and it’s a big problem, it was in a story about a friend who was moving his private jet hangar to Arizona because he doesn’t like seeing all those homeless people on his way to the airport. Caitlin agrees. She doesn’t like seeing them when she’s at her private hangar either. Oh, and she also said she was going to get rid of Governor Newsom’s district attorneys, apparently unaware that they are elected local officials.
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Ann said on June 8, 2021 at 9:23 pm
Have I already recommended the sleep stories on the Calm app? I recommend the long train rides in particular. I couldn’t figure out why they called one “The Nordland Night Train” because it clearly takes place during the daytime. Eventually I learned I could skip forward and start it later and found out that after the train gets to Bodø it turns into a sleeper train on the return trip. Calm just had a big write-up in The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/do-meditation-apps-work/619046/
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Suzanne said on June 8, 2021 at 9:36 pm
This won’t help you sleep:
https://twitter.com/tylerjoelb/status/1402337168543133705?s=21
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alex said on June 8, 2021 at 10:28 pm
As I quipped on Facebook a few days ago, there’s nothing to worry about regarding trans athletes with Caitlyn as the arbiter. If you just vote Republican and wear the right designers, you’re in.
I hear you, Nancy, about the sleep. I’m supposed to be on a CPAP machine but can’t get any relief from it. Tomorrow I’m visiting my doctor again and I’m going to try Wellbutrin again to quit smoking, much as I hate the way that stuff makes me feel.
My problem is head congestion and I’m a stomach sleeper. I’m semiconscious but conscious enough to recognize that I stop sleeping every few minutes because of head congestion secondary to inflammation from smoking. I can drain and breathe fine if I’m on my back with my head propped up. But when I flip over (usually involuntarily) my upper respiratory system clogs up and I awaken. Sometimes it’s so bad that I’m retching and on the verge of puking.
I don’t like Wellbutrin but I’ve quit smoking on it multiple times before. It makes cigarettes taste like shit. It also makes me psychotic. Whenever I quit smoking, everyone around me tells me that I need to go back to smoking. And I do.
But this time I need to see it through. I am so deconditioned and sleep deprived at this point that I don’t see any other option.
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LAMary said on June 8, 2021 at 10:37 pm
Alex, I nearly stabbed a friend who annoyed me while I was chopping vegetables on day two of quitting smoking. I smoked at least two packs a day. I went cold turkey. It was hard and I felt like shit but I stuck it out. Never cheated; never went back to smoking. My life when I decided to quit was staying up until three AM drawing or painting. Sometimes talking on the phone to other people I knew were doing the same. Then I decided I wanted to have kids. I apologized to my friend Ali for threatening him with a large knife. He knows now not to mess with an armed woman two days offcigs . I have a thirty year old son and a twenty seven year old son. I would not have done that if I still smoked.
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Deborah said on June 8, 2021 at 10:47 pm
I’m so sympathetic to you nn.cers who have sleep issues. I do as well and it stresses me out to the max. I thought it would improve when I retired and don’t have to get up for work, but no, of course not. Now I stress out because I know sleep is so important to overall health and well-being, especially for older people. I can’t win. I take melatonin, valerian root capsules and Advil PM nearly every night. Sometimes it works.
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LAMary said on June 8, 2021 at 10:53 pm
Deborah, don’t read Suzanne’s link. I wish I hadn’t.
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Dexter Friend said on June 9, 2021 at 2:20 am
The last three years of my career I was bumped to all night shift, 11PM to 7AM. I retired over 18 years ago so that’s plenty long enough to revert to daytime normalcy. I do not sleep at night, still. I am up all night streaming TV, reading, and dog walking, making peanut butter & jelly, drinking milk or soda. I fall asleep at about 7:15 AM. Usually up at noon or 1PM. Morning appointments I adjust to, then back to my same routine. If I try to sleep like a human, I realize I am more of a vampire. When that sun comes up, I am out cold, AC running.
One reason I traded off the Impala 10 days ago was the TPMS light was on, and no matter what I did, it never would go out. More things deteriorated so I traded for this Honda Odyssey, drove it 500 miles, and the TPMS light came on. Maybe my mechanic can fix the sensors or replace or clone them, hell, I don’t have that kind of equipment. I do not trust any car with idiot lights all lit-up on the dashboard. I keep thinking I am getting a flat tire when a gauge tells me I am.
Like I am sure many of you are experiencing, I have to listen to loud explosions most nights, fireworks. Once in a while gunfire, but not often. 50 people were hit by gunfire in Chicago last weekend. My Florida daughter lives in a quiet suburban-type area in Port St. Lucie, and says she can sleep now at night, while when in Toledo for years on end she could never escape the crack of gunfire all year round. She lived in a busy complex, an old south-end neighborhood, and in a now-dicey area off Lewis Street, which was bad. A few years ago, two doors down, a young man went on a killing spree in that house, killing and wounding a few people. Her son was held up at gunpoint for his wallet and phone a few feet from the house.
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ROGirl said on June 9, 2021 at 5:23 am
A few years ago I started leaving for work earlier to beat the traffic, so I don’t stay up late these days. I usually don’t have a problem falling asleep, but I do wake up pretty regularly (mostly because my cat used to wake me up) and am not always able to get back to sleep. Sometimes I read for a while, that can help. Last year I got some CBD, it didn’t do anything for me and I didn’t like it.
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Dorothy said on June 9, 2021 at 6:04 am
I’m convinced sleep problems are the #1 issue for people age 50+. I remember talking about it a lot with the two women I sat in close proximity to when I worked at Kenyon. I try to adhere to recommendations from experts to stay away from screens when struggling to get back to sleep. My phone charges on the first floor- I sleep on the second floor. I mute sounds from my laptop which is in the bedroom next to ours. If I’m REALLY unable to get back to sleep, after having slept for a few hours, I go downstairs and succumb to checking Twitter, Instagram, news sites, or sometimes there are texts from my kids that happened after I went upstairs. In general I think my sleep has been better during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. Maybe I felt safety/comfort in working from home, not needing to expose our household to possible Covid contamination? But the best thing I think I’ve done is pick up the habit of reading at bedtime. Last night I started reading at 8:00 and by 8:25 my eyelids were so heavy, and I slept until 5:07 this morning. I did get up twice to use the bathroom, but thankfully was able to fall back asleep. This is not always the case and the ongoing conundrum. Why can I do that some nights but not others? It’s a mystery for the ages.
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David C said on June 9, 2021 at 6:06 am
When my vision was better I would read without my glasses and fall back asleep within a half hour. Now I can barely see the page without them. Since we got rid of TFG I’ve been sleeping better. Now with my parents being scammed problem I’m not doing well. The FBI is now involved in my parent’s case. I guess that’s good news. I don’t think the local sheriff’s department would get them involved unless they thought they could help.
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alex said on June 9, 2021 at 6:40 am
Dexter, don’t fret over the TPMS light. It’s probably something simple. If your tires all show 32 pounds of pressure, check the spare. It’s hooked up to the same system and could be giving you issues. If not, perhaps you have a mismatched sensor on one of your wheels like I do.
I have a TPMS light that’s been on since January 2018, when I bought a new set of Michelins from the craptastic Tire Barn in Fort Wayne. One of my tires went flat within a few days, so I took the car back. They claimed it was a bad sensor and replaced it and charged me $75. The TPMS light came on shortly after this and remained on, but I didn’t want to take it back to Tire Barn and get hosed again so I didn’t do anything about it. Obviously they must have installed a different kind of sensor on that wheel because previously the dash never said “TPMS” when a tire was low, it just showed a flat tire symbol.
Anyway, both front tires were always slow leakers and were getting badly worn as a result and the pressure indicator was worthless. So I just replaced the Michelins with a much less expensive set of Continentals from Tireville in Garrett that give a much better ride. They’re touring tires, whereas the Michelins were performance tires. And that doggone TPMS light is still on, but at least I can tell when I look at the profile of these tires whether they’re low. The Michelins didn’t look flat when they were low because they had a very skinny profile regardless. Evidently you pay a premium for the look, not the ride. I couldn’t care less about the look anymore.
Next time I have an opportunity to take that car to a mechanic (which isn’t often because it’s a Honda) I’m going to inquire about the TPMS light and see if my theory of a mismatched sensor holds, and if it doesn’t cost too much I’ll get it replaced.
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David C said on June 9, 2021 at 8:30 am
I had problems with cloned TPMS sensors in my Hyundai. I bought a set of used OEM Hyundai sensors from a junkyard and they’ve worked perfectly for the past three years or so.
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susan said on June 9, 2021 at 10:06 am
I really despise those make-the-car-owner-stupider tire low pressure indicator idiot lights. I’ve tried to have those tire sensors disconnected, but I can’t find anyone to do it. Federal laws, you see. Most shops hate them, but they can’t do anything about them. And they’re expensive to replace when they go bad, which they do. I thought about putting a piece of black electric tape over the light display when the light comes on (usually when I change my tires from summer to winter or winter to summer); but the clear plastic dash covering it is at an angle and too far from the light, so that I couldn’t really cover it.
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Bruce Fields said on June 9, 2021 at 10:29 am
This is why I’ll push back on “politicians” jokes every time. Some healthy skepticism is fine, but I’m not accepting the implied assumption that there’s no way to do the job well–which is basically equivalent to a rejection of representative democracy.
My sleep is OK this year, but was iffy at times last year; I blame Trump. I usually pass those hours with a dimly backlit ereader and a large supply of comfort reading. (Mainly Wodehouse, Austen, and Proust.)
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JodiP said on June 9, 2021 at 10:59 am
Bruce, I also use a dimly lit Kindle for reading myself to sleep. I wake up 1 or 2 times a night, and reading Trollope lulls me back to sleep. I think I’ve shared I also now do a bit of slow yoga in the middle of the night with long deep inhales and exhales. I am reading Keep Sharp by Sanjay Gupta who emphasizes how important sleep is for brain health. He notes that benadryl affects something or other and one shouldn’t take it. But it helps me get back to sleep and stay asleep in the middle of the night. All that work just to get back to sleep!
It takes a lot of stress to keep me up. I can usually tell myself to just think about that stuff later. I have a harder time sleeping when I am really happy or excited about something. It’s actually harder to calm down because thinking about things that make me happy is so fun and good for mental health.
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Bitter Scribe said on June 9, 2021 at 11:14 am
Nancy, your sleep habits mirror mine almost exactly. I’m thisclose to asking my doctor for some help.
“Attention-sucking maw” is right. How much goddamned attention does Caitlyn Jenner need? She’s already been an Olympic athlete, a sports commentator, an actor, a reality TV star, and now, the most prominent transgender person in the U.S. If she’s still feeling neglected, that’s too bad, but governor of California is not an entry-level position.
I think it’s way too easy for Californians to recall their governors. Every one in recent memory, from both parties, has had to put up with this nonsense. If the nation had to endure Donald Trump for four years, California can put up with Gavin Newsom and his apparently unforgivable crime of having had dinner at an expensive restaurant.
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Julie Robinson said on June 9, 2021 at 11:43 am
You can turn off the tire thingy on our Honda CRV, but they are the worst kind of crying wolf ever. When it goes off, I’m sure it’s just a temperature or humidity change, so I totally ignore it. Worthless.
Reading in my bed is impossible for my eyes now too, so I’ve been using audio books. But these last five years? Between 45, the Pandemic, building an addition and moving–fuggedaboutit. After we’re there and I can swim and do my PT in the pool, I’m hoping it will improve.
Reason #5834 we hate our contractor: he texted this morning that our bathroom floor tile is not available, and should he just buy this one? Also, the shower wall tile is not available either.
So we’ve been online and on the phone trying to find it elsewhere. At one point he texted with the good news that it could be found on the big A online. The downside is the price is 2.5 times higher. We would send our daughter out to choose something different if only she hadn’t left on vacation this morning. Our son would be willing but his color sense is not good, as in really bad. We should have just bought the tile ourselves when we were there in April.
First world problems, I know.
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LAMary said on June 9, 2021 at 11:56 am
Governor Newsom got us through the pandemic pretty damn well considering the size and diversity of the population. He also dealt with the largest wildfires in the history of the state coupled with 115 degree temperatures and power outages. He’s got the state going after the power company whose ill maintained power lines appear to have caused the horrible fires in 2018. Aside from all that the recall is happening right before the gov’s term ends. It’s a four million dollar election right before an election.
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Jeff Borden said on June 9, 2021 at 12:15 pm
Count me in on those damned tire pressure monitors. A replacement cost me $200-plus, if I recall, when I blew a tire in a pot hole a few years ago. (Thanks, Republicans, for shitting on the infrastructure bill.) The readings get really hinky in high heat or deep cold, both of which are regular occurrences in Chicago and environs.
I still have family and great friends in Ohio, but dear god, the state is getting dumber by the week. Republicans called a loony anti-vaccination advocate named Dr. Sherri Tenpenny to testify yesterday as the House discusses plans to prevent schools and businesses from demanding proof of vaccination. The good doctor said the Covid vaccines are leaving many people “magnetized” and giving them the ability to hold keys and silverware on their foreheads. She also said the vaccines interact with 5G towers. From the sound of it, there was zero pushback from any of the pols.
The lead GOPer on this issue, Rep. Jennifer Gross, has said her efforts are “not a scientific bill. It’s a freedom bill.” Of course. Selfish assholes should be free to ignore medical science because “freedumb.”
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Suzanne said on June 9, 2021 at 12:25 pm
So it turns out that the woman in the Twitter video clip that I referenced above is a doctor. I am now even more disheartened by the world than previously.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/09/sherri-tenpenny-magnetized-vaccine-ohio/
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LAMary said on June 9, 2021 at 12:27 pm
Hey, Dr. Tenpenny may be on to something. My son said he saw a youtube of someone sticking metal objects to their arm on the vaccination site and they stuck! The arm had be magnetized! No wonder I keep getting stuck to the refrigerator door.
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David C said on June 9, 2021 at 12:32 pm
The vaccine magnetizes you videos are funny. Keys, spoons, and lots of other non-magnetic things stuck to people’s skin goo. I recall James Randi curing magnetic people with talcum powder.
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Scout said on June 9, 2021 at 12:53 pm
I know it’s not for everyone but I sleep really well on MMJ. I’ve had my medical card for four years and, besides the benefit to my arthritis and other assorted old lady aches and pains, sleeping is no longer a problem. I’m lucky too that it takes very little to get me there. Even after four years, I’m still a lightweight, so a little goes a long way.
I will never understand Covidiots for as long as I live, especially ones with medical degrees. People are truly nuts.
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JILL said on June 9, 2021 at 12:53 pm
When I’m in the mood for it (or my sleeplessness isn’t caused by restless legs) I wholeheartedly second Ann’s experience with the calm app. The train journeys are my favorite too. However, I really go by the narrator. Anything read by Erik Braa or Anna Acton is a sure win for me. They are so much better than listening to something on Audible because the narrator gradually slows down and the volume reduces over the half hour or so of the story. Plus the point isn’t to listen to the story. There are stories I’ve never heard the end of. I’m off to senior celebration – outdoors without masks – but still a drive thru graduation later this week. These schools can’t commit to anything.
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Dorothy said on June 9, 2021 at 1:01 pm
What a coincidence that this is in today’s NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/well/sleep-questions.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage
Jodi – two weeks ago as Memorial Day weekend was approaching, I found myself waking up at 2:00. Try as I might, I just could not fall back asleep. So I came home early from work one day and took a 45 minute nap. Next night – same thing. It went on for three nights in a row. I attributed it to our impending trip to Pittsburgh for my family reunion. I was so hepped up and excited that it had THAT much impact on my sleep. In cases where I haven’t slept well for two nights in a row, I use melatonin. It works like a charm for me.
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Deborah said on June 9, 2021 at 1:06 pm
This will depress you https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/oligarchs-democracy-autocracy-daniel-obajtek-poland/619135/
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Sherri said on June 9, 2021 at 1:31 pm
With the new QAnon Congress members, there’s now stiff competition for the dumbest member of Congress, but Louis Gohmert (R-Box of Rocks) is not giving up without a fight.
https://twitter.com/girlsreallyrule/status/1402628432232546307
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Suzanne said on June 9, 2021 at 1:39 pm
This is the best thing I have read all year, or the past couple of years, on what is happening in America.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/george-packer-four-americas/619012/
It is long, but worth reading.
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ROGirl said on June 9, 2021 at 1:40 pm
My sleeping experience deteriorated when I was in my last job because I hated it so much, and it was worse during the shutdown. Things are better with my work now, so that helps. I miss my kitty, but not her middle of the night meowing.
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Suzanne said on June 9, 2021 at 2:14 pm
Oh, Lord. I just found a co-worker is attending this next week:
https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/tampa-conference/
A mask-free, freedom fighting festival! Guest speakers include Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, and the My Pillow guy.
I think I am gonna be sick.
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basset said on June 9, 2021 at 2:47 pm
Just back from a few days at the beach. Our usual destination of Navarre, FL, was booked up, so we stayed in Pensacola (a much less interesting place than you’d think) and did a lot of driving.
Among other adventures, we encountered our first Buc-Ee’s – huge travel plaza with 120 gas pumps and a store the size of a big Kroger – and came home to find that one’s going to be built here in Tennessee. Progress marches on.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 9, 2021 at 3:01 pm
Dexter (calling back to yesterday’s thread), it took me years not to first think of “single room occupancy” when I saw SROs mentioned. And part of me wishes we still had a few in this town. Like payday lenders, they tend to be predatory, but they also fill a niche that no one else is serving. Trade-offs.
To sleep, perchance to dream. Aye, there’s the rub . . .
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Deborah said on June 9, 2021 at 3:35 pm
Suzanne, thanks for the interesting George Packer link.
My dermatologist in Chicago asked me to send photos of my face to see the progress of the topical chemo cream. So LB took some up close photos and I uploaded them to her attention on My Chart. She says I can stop using it and start the healing process, which just involves slathering Aquaphor on my face 24/7. The photos LB took are horrendous, but very helpful. My Dr could really get a good idea that my face was in the last phase, called erosion. That is a very descriptive word for that phase, it looks as bad as it sounds. I get to stop using the cream on day 23, 5 days early. Yay! Bad news is Aquaphor all in my hair still, even though I try keeping it off of my face with headbands and bandanas.
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Sherri said on June 9, 2021 at 4:25 pm
Yes, Jeff(tmmo), single-room occupancy housing would definitely fill a need, ideally without the predatory aspect. They got zoned out of existence, but the need didn’t go away.
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Sherri said on June 9, 2021 at 4:45 pm
I think this is as good an explanation as I’ve seen for Joe Manchin’s motivations: he simply doesn’t see democracy at risk, because he fundamentally doesn’t see a pluralistic, multi-racial democracy as the goal. He’s much happier with a democracy that maintains white Christian male elite power. Just maintain all the forms and rituals, none of that messy ugly insurrection nonsense.
https://twitter.com/tzimmer_history/status/1402264036499202051
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LAMary said on June 9, 2021 at 4:56 pm
Some good people who are no longer with us, one of them a birthday boy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y
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LAMary said on June 9, 2021 at 4:58 pm
As the opinion piece in the WP said, Joe Manchin’s idea of a compromise is if the GOP said 2 plus 2 is 8 and the dems said 2 plus 2 is 4, Manchin would compromise and say 2 plus 2 is 6.
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Julie Robinson said on June 9, 2021 at 5:18 pm
Deborah, that doesn’t sound fun at all, but better than slicing off bits of your face. I burn easily and am good about sunscreen, but swimming outdoors is a bit more of a challenge. I slather up and wear a rash guard, but no sunscreen is really water proof, and I can’t get it near my eyes. I wonder if putting bandaids on my face would help. I have one big brown spot already. Add dermatologist to my list of docs to find.
So, the tile drama is over. The contractor’s wife took our swatches to the store and texted us photos of alternatives. I wasn’t convinced any of them would match well enough, so we defaulted to the same tile as in the laundry room. It’s classic black and white penny tile and it will be fine. I just didn’t want to risk choosing something without seeing it in person. Of course, the irony is that we found this last October, when it was all hurry up and make your choices, and here we are, nine months later. Gestating our babies didn’t have as much drama as this addition.
And anyway, all will soon be forgotten because the farmer’s market had fresh local strawberries. I leaned over to sniff them and experienced nirvana. We aren’t even having supper tonight, just strawberries on angel food cake with ice cream and whipped cream. We have earned it.
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Jenny Derringer said on June 9, 2021 at 5:26 pm
I can’t sleep well either. A friend sent me this link. Hopefully something will help. I got to the end of reading it and realized that none of the items actually control my on/off switch on my brain.
•••••
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/products-to-help-sleep_l_60b7e72ce4b0169ca9709296?ncid=usmorningemailshopping&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning%20Email%206-8-21&utm_term=us-morning-email&fbclid=IwAR3BF9Cvk5pj8KBN8MgXF0FbPdA9cQEKJI0Z_gLxZ3kfYSN03n1yI0AQdm8
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David C said on June 9, 2021 at 6:06 pm
One idea that has helped our sleep was making our bedroom as near to total darkness as we could plus getting rid anything in the bedroom that tells time. We have a sunrise timer on our lamp set to get us up at the same time every day. We read that when the time was too readily available at night you start watching the clock and fretting that you weren’t sleeping. With the daylight lamp, we know if it’s off it isn’t time to get up. Since we don’t know what time it actually is it seems like it’s easier to fall back asleep.
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Mark P said on June 9, 2021 at 6:15 pm
I went through my takes-forever-to-fall-asleep period as a teen. I used to require almost total silence as well. Now, at 71, I typically get in the bed, daydream about something pleasant, and within 5 minutes I’m out. Lights and sound don’t bother me much. Of course I usually wake up around 4 to use the bathroom, but I go back to sleep pretty quick. Right after the second of my recent surgeries, I couldn’t sleep, even with hydrocodone. I didn’t hurt, but I was just generally uncomfortable. That was not a good time. My wife requires total darkness and silence. I occasionally get an elbow in the side if I roll onto my back and snore just a little.
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Indiana Jack said on June 9, 2021 at 6:31 pm
At my age (heading toward 73 in November), I’ve found I can have one “sleepless” night but not two. I’m so exhausted after the first one that I completely clock out the second night.
Then again, I often find myself napping in mid-afternoon over a book.
Trouble getting to sleep at night usually involves a sense of anticipation for the day ahead. My mother used to call that being “journey proud,” and I still call it that today.
Reading helps unless it raises disturbing issues. Halfway through “We Are Bellingcat” at the moment and shuddering over the Counterfactual Community, well represented by the anti-vaxxers in Ohio. Not bedtime reading.
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Deborah said on June 9, 2021 at 8:13 pm
Julie, the brown spots are usually not a problem. I had one removed on my right temple about 15 years ago, I called it my corn flake because that’s exactly what it looked like. I wasn’t going to a dermatologist then but my regular doc said it wouldn’t hurt to get it taken off. She recommended a plastic surgeon do the removal, which I did and then my insurance wouldn’t cover it because they said it was cosmetic surgery. It took over a year and many phone calls, but they finally covered it. My dermatologist calls the brown spots “wisdom spots”. Of course they used to be called age spots which I guess people found offensive. My sun spots are small red, a little bit raised, in fact you can feel them more than see them, and they don’t go away like a regular old blemish would until they get frozen off at the Dr’s, or chemo cream them off, like I just did. But there are various ways that they can present themselves. They’re pre-cancer and I have a 10% chance of one turning into full blown skin cancer. So I’m all for getting rid of them. Being fair skinned with light greenish eyes, blond as a kid, I spent way too much time out in the sun and I’m paying for it now.
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Colleen said on June 9, 2021 at 8:51 pm
After years of taking forever to fall asleep, I have become a very good sleeper. I strap on my c-pap, and away I go. I have started using sleep meditations from the Aura app, which I really like. I usually choose a different one every night, and it helps quiet my mind.
We are journeying to Indiana this weekend for my mother in law’s funeral. She was 92 and had been declining since my father in law died several years ago. As I said to someone, it’s sad, but not tragic, as she lived a long life with a positive impact on those around her. And she raised her son to be an excellent husband and partner. There is potential for a bit of drama, as this is going to be the first time we will see our niece since she transitioned. Her parents are super religious and refuse to call her the proper name or use the correct pronouns. The rest of us are cool with it, but her parents…not so much. So that could get…interesting.
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Julie Robinson said on June 9, 2021 at 9:17 pm
D lost both parents and his oldest sisters after lengthy and agonizing battles with Alzheimer’s. In all three cases, their deaths were releases, to be celebrated as much as mourned.
Colleen, I hope you and your hubby can be sources of strength and calm for your niece. She will need that.
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Deborah said on June 9, 2021 at 9:52 pm
Wow, Jenny those sleep aids seem fantastic, I’m going to try some. Little B wears a sleep mask and uses a weighted blanket. I’ve tried masks but don’t like the way they feel, LB only uses a specific brand that works for her. She also listens to some app that plays various calming sounds like rain and distant thunder. I need to do something. But then I don’t usually have to get up early for anything important.
Although tomorrow at 9 an electrician is coming to install a ceiling fan in our bedroom. LB already has one in hers. You really don’t need AC here, at least not in this condo unit. It really stays cool. June is the hottest and driest month here, although the stuff you read says July is, we’ve not found that to be true. The highs the next few days will be in the upper 80s low 90s and that’s usually about as hot as it gets. But then the lows are in the 50s and remember it’s a dry hot so much less uncomfortable than a humid hot. Summers are so much more pleasant here than Chicago. Our neighbors all cut down their adjacent trees to our property so it will probably be a bit warmer inside the condo this summer, we shall see.
I probably mentioned this before but our lavender plants are dead this summer. We planted them 8 years ago and the expected life is 6 to 10 years so we’ve done ok. It’s too bad because they were so pretty and smelled heavenly after a rain. They also attracted bees like mad which was calming to listen to. We’re clearing them out and planting Russian sage where they were because they use less water and have lovely purple blooms that people often think are lavender plants. We will still plant some lavender plants because LB made stuff out of lavender, just not as much lavender as we had before.
Our Robin eggs have hatched and the little fuzzy babies are so cute. We got some bird feed that’s particularly good for robins but they haven’t found the feeder yet, or at least we haven’t seen the mama using it yet.
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Dexter Friend said on June 10, 2021 at 2:11 am
Bill Veeck, author, baseball owner and entrepreneur, WWII disabled vet, who passed 35 years ago, always wrote how the idea of old people needing so much more sleep, going to bed at 8:00 PM, was nonsense. He wrote that babies sleep all the time but as one ages, less sleep is required. Now his schedule was unique, but interesting. A voracious reader of a book-a-day, he’d read until 1:30 AM, sipping beer along the way, sleep two and a half hours and arise and make a big pot of coffee at 4:00 AM and get on with business. When on respite at his home in Easton, Maryland, he’d be tending his flower beds at first light. He was an interesting man. He had an ashtray built into his peg-leg, and he kept it filled with Camel cigarette butts. He lost the leg to constant infections from a wound in the Pacific war theater. He lasted 71 years.
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Linda said on June 10, 2021 at 4:44 am
I got into the sleep groove (imperfect, but better) by having nothing in my room that I carry out in other rooms. No screens (tv, phones or otherwise) or even a reading lamp. No reading. The room is only for sleep.
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kv450 said on June 10, 2021 at 7:46 am
“Caitlyn Jenner has offered virtually nothing concrete in terms of policy ideas or solutions for the state she wants to govern. She does seem to be a bottomless, attention-sucking maw, however.”
— it must have been tough going from being the face of Wheaties to making “Can’t Stop the Music” (prescient?) to being the least well-known member of the K clan.
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JodiP said on June 10, 2021 at 9:12 am
I am loving the discussion about what works and doesn’t for sleeping. It is so fascinating how our brains and other physiology are so different. Some, Like Linda, can’t read, while for some it’s basically MMJ!
I am looking forward to hosting a happy hour/dinner with a small group of social workers today who still or have worked in the public defender’s office. We all garden and are dog lovers. Plus the political talk will be good!
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alex said on June 10, 2021 at 1:01 pm
In all fairness, Saint Ronnie and the Sperminator were vacuous celebrities, so you can forgive Caitlyn for having the figurative balls to think she’s entitled to hold the same office.
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LAMary said on June 10, 2021 at 2:04 pm
CA also had an actor senator: George Murphy. He was known for being absent for votes, showing up about 34 percent of the time.
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alex said on June 10, 2021 at 4:01 pm
Wow. Bo Schembechler’s own son got molested by the team doctor and his dad didn’t want to be bothered about it:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/06/10/bo-schembechlers-son-michigan-doctor-abuse/
How fucking sick is that?
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LAMary said on June 10, 2021 at 5:46 pm
Well I got a six month contract job. I will tell the headmistress of this site the name of the company rather than mention it because I would bet big dollars that they check the internet for mentions of their name. It’s a health company that specializes in eating disorders and substance abuse rehab, treating people at a Malibu location. So it’s the other end of the “health” spectrum from my recent job finding people to do covid testing in homeless encampments. But the bucks are good and it’s six months. That takes me to the end of the year. It’s not remote, which is too bad because I really started liking working remotely, but there’s another company interested in me too and if they make an offer I can bail. Other company is remote, based in Seattle. Keep a good thought for traffic to be light. It’s 11.4 miles away but the estimated travel time here in LA is 45 minutes.
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Dexter Friend said on June 10, 2021 at 6:58 pm
45 minutes here gets me to the Toledo city limits. The V.A. is 58 miles from my house and I can make it in under an hour, 80 mph on 4-lane US 24 and 60 MPH on the Anthony Wayne Trail, maybe 8 traffic lights. I guess I could get used to 11.4 miles in 45 minutes if the $$ was Big ‘Nuff. Best wishes, but watch out for the police chief of Malibu; he’s a real reactionary, as Jeff Lebowski told us. 🙂
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LAMary said on June 10, 2021 at 7:16 pm
Luckily I will not be schlepping to Malibu. The business office is in West Hollywood. Malibu is a big place so if I had to haul myself over there every morning it would be between 25 and 50 miles away. It’s also inhabited by the ex which makes it the equivalent of a superfund site to me.
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Deborah said on June 10, 2021 at 8:04 pm
LA Mary, good for you that you got another contract job. Interesting that it’s on the other end of the spectrum.
Today has been a busy day, we had a ceiling fan that we got at IKEA on our way back to Chicago from Santa Fe in January, installed in our bedroom in SF. But after the electrician left we had an outlet in the wall on our side and an outlet on the other side of the wall in LB’s room, both don’t work. So the guy is back now trying to fix it.
Then we had another window guy come out to give us info about replacing our windows in our condo building. That including general errands made it hectic. I’m pissed at one of the owners of a unit in the condo, she’s making it really maddening because she wants to buy the cheapest, crappiest windows, no one has lived in her unit for 9 years except her mentally ill brother for a few months. She is a pain, she didn’t pay her taxes for years either until the city put her place up for sale for back taxes. She’s a mess. We’re in a historic district and everything has to pass muster with them. The crappy windows she wants only come in white or almond and the historic district says we have to match the current windows which are dark bronze. I want to scream.
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Deborah said on June 10, 2021 at 10:05 pm
So the electrician left just now (8pm mountain time) and he cant figure out why the outlets don’t work so he’s coming back Saturday morning to try to figure it out. It cost another $100 for his work tonight and will cost another $175 on Saturday. And everything was fine until he installed the fan. I ask you… is that fair?
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basset said on June 10, 2021 at 10:10 pm
That’s just how it is these days. Why is he charging you for fixing outlets which worked before he did anything?
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Deborah said on June 10, 2021 at 10:15 pm
OMG, the TIFG shows up at memorial services at Mar-a-lago and talks about himself, who else? https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/donald-trump-memorial-services?utm_source=twitter&mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=vf&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned
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Dexter Friend said on June 11, 2021 at 3:09 am
I am a fan of University of Michigan sports, all of the sports, and am disappointed and disgruntled and shocked at the allegations about a doctor from decades ago who was molesting athletes, and then reading these victims are saying “Bo knew.” Glenn “Bo” Schembechler was the storied coach of Wolverine football from 1969 to 1989. I was an outspoken critic of Penn State’s Coach Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno and also Dr. Nassar at MSU and all that horrid mess. Now the story is here, and it’s Michigan in the spotlight. I hate this shit, these crimes and alleged crimes, but it’s the modern world. The victims…I am so sorry this happened, and investigations will sort it out. Penn State survived, MSU survived…M will too. Bo is long dead and the victims are ageing. Hell of it is, there’s no statute of limitations to grief and damage.
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alex said on June 11, 2021 at 8:17 am
Dex, what is most disturbing is that Bo could have so little regard for his own minor child. He deserves to have his memory tarnished.
Deborah, I’m still livid at the heating & AC people who put in the furnace and heat pump at our rental property. For three years we had to keep calling them back for problems that were caused by their own malfeasance and got charged for it. We ended up having to chisel a hole in the floor in order to give the condensation pump enough gravity to do its job and we were charged for the service call where we were informed that it hadn’t been installed correctly in the first place. We also had frequent difficulties when the system would switch between the furnace and heat pump and one or the other wouldn’t work. Turned out it was a defective thermostat installed at the time both units were installed. We learned this three years’ worth of service calls later. New thermostat and no problem. Just a few weeks ago the heat pump/AC wasn’t working, so I call and they tell me they’re no longer doing residential. Probably because of all of the customers they’ve burned, I’m guessing. We had another company replace some fried components in the damned thing.
It sucks being at the mercy of contractors who don’t give a shit about their work.
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Dave said on June 11, 2021 at 8:43 am
We awoke this morning to a very warm house, thermostat set on 73, but it’s 79 degrees in here right now. We’ve got a call in to the folks who installed and have maintained it. It’s Florida, so it will be warmer by the time they get here, promised later today. The man told me on the phone that they’ve been having a lot of condensers blown out lately, he blamed the electric company and power surges. We’ve got a whole house surge protector so I don’t know if that’s the problem. The condenser is under warranty so one can hope.
Sleep, the topic of conversation here, I think that a lifetime of working like I did wrecked my sleep for life. We both tend to stay up until midnight or thereabouts. I know that the earlier I go to bed, the longer I will generally sleep, if I go to bed by 11:30, I’ll sleep at least seven hours but if I stay up longer, my sleep night becomes shorter, five or six hours. Occasionally I am pleasantly surprised by awakening and discovering that I’ve slept eight hours with no interruptions, no middle of the night bathroom trips, just sleep. My wife sleeps better than I do and she sleeps on her back, something I’ve tried and tried to do but I always wake up and turn over.
Deborah, I too wonder why he should charge you for something that worked before he got there.
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