Because learning about your brain and sleep can be fun . . .
Sometimes the words of a language fail you. They come up short when describing a concept. There are numerous examples of this. To take one, waldeinsamkeit is a German word meaning being alone in the wilderness while relaxed, solitary, and contemplative. In English, we can group words with this meaning. The result doesn’t quite match.…
I slept like a baby. Saying that may or may not inspire an image in the listener’s mind of someone who slept well. Practically every parent has had the experience of trying to soothe a colicky baby all night at least once. However, babies sometimes sleep through all kinds of things. It’s a mixed metaphor.…
If a time traveler came from the 1980s, he or she might wonder where all the waterbeds went. Waterbeds were fairly common back then. Invented in California in the 60s, they grew in popularity over time. All together, waterbeds comprised about 20 percent of the bed market. Today, they make up a much smaller segment,…
After a busy day, listening to sleeping sounds with a pair of sleep headphones as you drift off to Dreamland can be like going on a vacation. Maybe it’s the best kind of vacation. There are no crowds or airport security at the airport. There’s no lost luggage. There are no lines to wait in…
You may have seen rows of them in grocery, drug stores, discount, and big-box stores alike. They usually have an attractive drawing on them. The ones found in the United States are often dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, St. Michael, St. Joseph, or another sacred concept, and are mostly sold…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of sleep technology. If not the term, then at least one sleep technology item. There are literally hundreds of gadgets on the market and they all get advertised, some heavily. In fact, the industry has a show in Houston around March every year. The show…
Why illustrate an article about how to stop someone from snoring with a picture of Charles Atlas? Charles Atlas was not known to snore. Because… Isometric exercise is nothing new. They work. They’re safe. They’re simple. You can do them anywhere. Charles Atlas was known for his ads in comic books and for building his…
Crisp rice cereal at bedtime combined with dried cherries makes for a naturally sedating combination that contains both melatonin and tryptophan. It could help you get some shuteye. You can call this midnight snack insomnia “the cereal cure.” As they say in clickbait hype, “Drug companies probably would rather you not know about this!!!” Seriously…
Whether it’s sleep or some other issue, roll up your sleeves, and get to work on solving it yourself first If a man or a woman has questions and they want answers, what do they do? It depends. There are several things they might do. Exactly what might depend on their personality and what resources…
Bedtime trail mix might help you get to sleep as you hike off to Dreamland Some supermarkets have dozens of varieties of trail mix these days. It wasn’t always this way. The creation of and access to all these concoctions is a relatively recent innovation, at least compared to how long people have been eating it.  As recent…
Also sold as “diphenhydramine,” this allergy medicine is used by many to help them fall asleep. Life happens.  The usual way of ensuring you get a good night’s rest should be to be active during the day, get some exposure to the sun, avoid drinking too much coffee too close to bedtime, and be relaxed.…
People are always struggling to quit something, start something, or stop something. They even struggle to stop struggling, to relax. The circadian rhythm is part of the struggle. Also known as the wake/rest cycle, men and women struggle to wake up and struggle to go to sleep. You can’t fight—or struggle well—if you don’t recharge. At…
In illustrations of “A Visit From St. Nicholas” by Clement Clark Moore they always show the narrator getting up out of bed with an old-fashioned sleeping hat. The classic poem, more commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas,” frames the idea in the collective mind as to what a sleeping hat, also known as a sleeping cap, looks…