Do even remember trying to sleep as a kid?  Probably not because it was completely natural, as grows older, sleeping gets tricky.  I have a few tricks that can help:

1.  Understand that sleep comes in 90 minutes cycles, so when you stay up late and know you will get little sleep, try and time your sleep for 1 1/2 hrs, 3 hrs, 4 1/2, etc.  You will feel more rested if you sleep within this cycle.  Even 3 hours is enough, but 3 1/2, doesn’t work, 4 doesn’t work either.

2.  Eat a baked potato before you go to bed.  The potassium somehow calms the body enough to get a little sleep.  Oh, no butter,or anything else—just a plain baked potato.

3. Don’t drink anything after 6pm, or your body will keep reminding you to get up and go.

4.  Read in bed….let the whole house fall quiet, and just read—something very easy.

5.  If you just can’t sleep, get up out of bed and do something.  Your body knows what it is doing.  By the time you go back in about an hour and a half, you will fall asleep easily.

6.  Lavender, it’s a cliche, but it does help…if you soak in the tub with Lavender, even better.

7.  Always remember, your body is a machine.  It will sleep when it’s really tired, ask for food when it’s really hungry.  If you trust your body to take over, and not think about it—you will find the rest you seek.

There is a new trend in hospitals that I think is very cool.  I am calling it a recognition of the patient and family. Let’s face it, nobody wants to be in the hospital in the first place, but say you have to be there for some reason.  Well, checking out and getting home to your own bed is not all that easy.  First all the papers to fill out, just to get out, then getting out the front door and then getting to the car.  Oh, then there’s the stop at the pharmacy on the way home, and maybe grocery store.  It’s a lot before you can breathe easier and get back to home base.  It’s exhausting.

El Camino Hospital has something new….they built a spa, conveniently located right across the hall from the pharmacy.  This means you have a really relaxing place to sit while waiting for your medications…and maybe even get a massage, or just listen to nice music.  It smells delicious too.  And there are all sorts of wonderful gifts that feel good—creams, bath balls, aromatherapy, anything you need to make a gentle exit from hospital to home.  It’s like exiting through a nice tropical forest, which is so calming, and so much more gentle then just wheeling out into a parking lot.

I think this effort is a smart idea.  It seems to connect with the person instead of the patient.