sleep

Sleep Divorce: Can’t Sleep with Him…..Can’t Kill Him

I'm considering Sleep Divorce....It’s three a.m. and the mass lying on its back next to me is emitting unearthly sounds. I awaken, surfacing from a dream in which I’ve tried to weave the snorts, rasps, whistles, and jagged breathing into the plot. Clad only in a polka-dotted bikini, I’d been floating through a field of daisies towards Freddy, my third-grade boyfriend, while my husband lay serenely unbothered by his own tortured cacophony. I love my husband. We spoon perfectly, taking comfort in one another’s warm, pliant presence. Randy and I watch TV shows and tennis tournaments in bed, snuggled with our small mutt Zadie, all of us munching popcorn. Awake, we’re blissful. But turn off the lights, shut off the electronics, and we join the ranks of couples contemplating divorce. Sleep divorce, that is....
Taking a nap

I Sleep Around. And I’m Shameless

This past year I started again. I hadn’t slept around in years but now I do It regularly. I relish the delicious illicitness, that feeling of surrendering to a higher power. The desire is overwhelming at times. When I succumb, I savor the sense that I’m slipping out of myself, completely letting go. I crave the cool Egyptian cotton or silken Italian leather beneath my bare skin before giving myself over. I confess. I’m a slave to the nap. I’d like to blame the pandemic. The fear of catching a potentially fatal illness. Or losing someone else to it. Maybe it’s age. I’m 65. I’ve lived a lot. Run too many miles, hit too many tennis balls, worked too many all-nighters. But I think it’s more a capitulation, an acknowledgement that it’s okay to be tired. Napping has become my friend....

OLLY and L-Theanine: Benefits, Risks, Sources, and Dosage

Sometimes it just happens when I have alot on my mind and the thoughts are thrumming through my brain and I can neither quiet them nor tuck them into a compartment. The mind chatters incessantly and I wake each morning exhausted. Normally, I'm pretty chill and believe that whatever sleep I get is enough but these past few weeks have tested me and I've been pooped. I asked a friend who is going through some tough stuff how she was sleeping and she told me that she sleeps just fine. Her cocktail of choice is a gummy and melotonin. My last visit to Boston I tried to find those gummies but couldn't so on I popped into Whole Foods and asked about sleep supplements with melatonin.  I was shown the many shelves and many options of sleep aids and selected one that I knew nothing about but it was a gummy and I mostly understood the ingredients.  It's been a game changer....

When I Can’t Sleep: Hurricane Henri & Late Night Thrillers

"Hurricane Henri is predicted to arrive early Sunday," I said to my kids. Be careful Mom they chimed in from the other coast. I'm so excited. I don't care if Henri isn't well behaved. He's invited, and we will be ready. "I can't wait, I wish you were here. ("OMG, I'm so annoying, I have to stop saying I wish you were here -- but I laugh to myself, since they can't come at least Henri is coming") Guest Henri requires some prep. We prefer a short stay but hope he's not too irritable. I fill the car with groceries, batteries, grab the last flash light from the drugstore and wonder about that bad decision to NOT spring for the generator....