middle age

A common problem that many of us face on this side of 50 is insomnia. That is what I have been dealing with lately and I know many of you suffer from it too. I know this because I see you liking and commenting on Facebook posts at all hours of the night!

Can’t Fall Asleep Insomnia

There are two kinds – the kind where you absolutely CANNOT fall asleep, for which there are all kinds of totally unrealistic remedies:

• Turn off the TV and get off your iPad, phone and computer.  And do what, I might ask?
• Limit caffeine. Makes sense, but I do love a cup of coffee after dinner.
• Limit alcohol. What? No evening glass of wine?

Can’t Fall BACK to Sleep Insomnia

I don’t suffer from the can’t fall asleep kind of insomnia. I fall asleep about two minutes after I turn on a TV show or start reading a book. I have the wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back to sleep to save my life kind of insomnia.

WITHOUT FAIL at 3 a.m., nature calls or a cat decides I need to get up. I make my way to the bathroom without turning on a light then stumble back to bed, followed by:

1. Getting a drink from the water jug by my bed because for some reason I am dehydrated.
2. My lips are dry, so I feel around in the dark to find my Chapstick.
3. I am wide awake by then and turn on the light to get out my Lavender essential oil and find the Melatonin.
4. Take off my socks to put the Lavender oil on the bottoms of my feet.
5. Lay back down on my left side.
6. Curse the cats for waking me up.
7. Roll onto my right side.
8. Stick one leg out from under the covers.
9. Put the leg back under the covers.
10. Curse my husband for breathing in such a way that I can hear him.
11. Curse my husband because he can sleep anytime, anywhere and nothing wakes him up.
12. Rearrange the pillows.
13. Try to read on my iPad.
14. Watch Netflix on my iPad
15. Lay on my back and try to FOCUS on going to sleep – yeah, like that works.

By this time, it’s 4 a.m., so I usually just get up and have a cup of coffee. Rarely do I fall back to sleep.

So, since I am exhausted, I’m going to let others from the Blogosphere do the work this week. Seriously, I have found some great posts that you’re going to like.

What do you do when you can’t sleep?

From Around the Blogosphere

3 Ways to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet from the Pioneer Woman

I LOVE Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. I DVR her cooking show. I bought 5 of her cookbooks to give as Christmas gifts. Her line of dishes and bakeware is lovely. She seems like someone who could just be your best friend.

I have a cast iron skillet that I love to cook with, but wasn’t sure I was taking care of it properly so . Now I know.

This article on Caring for Aging Parents called When You Don’t Think Your Sibling is Providing Adequate Care to Your Elderly Parents.

On this side of 50, if your parents are still living, you will likely be involved in caregiving at some point. You may be in the middle of it already.

This is a good article on ways that you and your siblings, given your proximity to your parents and your individual situations can pitch in and work together.

One book that I found to be very helpful was:

How to Care for Aging Parents, 3^rd Edition: A One-Stop Resource for All Your Medical, Financial, Housing, and Emotional Issues.

This book covers EVERYTHING and it is in an easy to use format. You don’t have to read the whole thing. It’s divided into sections that you can refer to for wherever you are on the journey.

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