"I cannot alter the past, but the future is very much in my hands."
-- Mary Lydon Simonsen,
The Perfect Bride For Mr. Darcy
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| Self portrait 7-17-14 |
"Good 'hygiene' is anything that helps you to have a healthy life."
-- The American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Sleep hygiene isn't a very sexy topic.
It's about as sexy as oral hygiene -- stuff like brushing and flossing my teeth and scraping the gunk off my tongue.
As un-sexy as it is, though, I know good and well that if I neglect good oral hygiene, my teeth will rot and my breath will stink and I'll pay the price (and it ain't cheap) at the dentist. And that's super, duper un-sexy. So I do all the stuff. I follow the protocol and maintain a very clean, healthy mouth.
I also know that if I neglect good sleep hygiene, my sleep will decay. Still, I fall into patches where I don't do the stuff. I neglect the protocol. I do things I know I shouldn't, and don't do things I know I should, and little by little I settle for rottener and rottener sleep. And I pay the price. My sleep stinks, and I not only feel rotten, I feel rotten about it because I could have easily avoided the problem.
I've been playing fast and loose with the sleep hygiene rules lately. God knows I know them well enough by now -- inside outside upside down. I could recite them in my sleep, if I was sleeping. I know these guidelines are good for me. I know I'll be happier and healthier if I obey them.
And yet.
Long story short, things have gotten a little out of hand and it's time to clean up my sleep routine.
Again.
It's time to snuggle back up to the rules of good sleep hygiene so that tonight, and tomorrow night, and the nights after that, I can enjoy good, healthy sleep.
It's all in my hands.
