What I Did on My Vacation

I've just returned from three weeks visiting my aging parents in the West.  Time is getting short for them and occasionally, I lose sleep worrying about their health and other issues.  But in addition to helping Dad pull weeds from his potatoes and fixing the kitchen overhead light for my Mother, I used the time to "fix" a few problems with my sleep.

You see, I know what I'm supposed to do, but like a lot of other people, I don't always accomplish it. 

For instance, I want to go to bed earlier, but I don't always.  And when I do go to bed, I got in the bad habit of (before I sorted all my sleep obstacles and organized them for all to read) of playing solitaire on an outdated PDA in order to lull my brain to sleep.   I rationalized at the time that it was "part of my regimen," when I knew darned well that the electronic screen was "anti-rest."  But it was a habit and darned hard to break.  Here's the little electronic device of doomed nights now...

It was not a good habit to have and a real struggle... until I went to Mom and Dad's house.  There, with the country air, early to bed habits of The Folks and of course, my PDA solitaire game on the opposite end of the country, I routed that nasty electronic device from my regimen.  I was able to rewrite and reorganize my sleep habit and come back from vacation, rested and refreshed, minus the bad habits that slow me down.

I do still struggle with my own sleep issues, but this one has now officially been eliminated.  And if I take care to make sure that the solitaire game is not allowed in bed ever again, I will sleep much better. 

So will you.  Lots to do, lots to do, a few things to stop doing on The Great Sleep Checklist.