Sleep Hygiene

Because my husband made fun of me when I mentioned the words Sleep Hygiene, I found this on Yahoo! News today. According the study mentioned (that is not new, of course), a good night’s sleep is within the reach of most of us if we follow common-sense guidelines for sleep hygiene:

• Go to bed at the same time nightly.
• Set aside enough time to hit that golden 7 hours of sleep.
• Refrain from caffeine, heavy or spicy foods, and alcohol and other optional medications that might keep you awake, four to six hours before bed-time.
• Have a pre-sleep routine so you wind down before you hop in.
• Block out distracting lights and noises.
• Only engage in sleep and sex in bed (no TV-watching, reading or eating).
• Exercise regularly but not right before bed.

A few notes:

* What’s this crap about no drinking “4-6 hours” before bed?! How the hell am I supposed to drink myself to sleep?!

* “Block out distracting lights and noises.” - does that include children? =P

* “Have a pre-sleep routine so you wind down before you hop in.” - see my response to the no drinking thing.

* “Exercise regularly but not right before bed.” - but drunk-crawling up the stairs each night helps tucker me out and aids in my sleep.

* “Set aside enough time to hit that golden 7 hours of sleep.” LOLZ!

Sleep hygiene is trumped by my ROAR!!!! when I snore!

You’re only supposed to sleep 5 - 7 hours unless you want to die prematurely.

Wow. If I don’t read in bed, to clear my mind of all the crazy stuff that rolls around in there, I can’t sleep. Otherwise, I like your Sleep Hygiene List!

That thing about no spicy foods many hours before bedtime can only mean one thing:

Chili Dogs and Swedish Meatballs. They’re for breakfast now!