Hasta La Gadget!

My husband likes to go to sleep early. In analog clock terms, he calls it a day when the big hand is on the 30 and the little hand is on the nine.

That’s because he knows when he’s ready for bed. Me? I’m a night owl, and I spent most of my parenting years sleep-deprived. Now, with our kids off to college, much has changed — mainly, I no longer feel the need to be in perpetual motion, or to remain awake all night while teens lurk about the house avoiding homework and reheating dinner. In fact, I’ve not only learned to sit still, but to give in to the call of the couch. Not the call of the bed, mind you (I’m not ready for sleep at 9:30 p.m.), but the bridge between the two. I’m referring, of course, to the Nap Before Bed.

The previous me — the mom-on-duty me — was committed to staying up late and getting things done, even if I stopped doing them well because I needed more sleep. That was prior to the boys leaving home. Then I found a couch of my own and experienced the miracle of the Nap Before Bed — let’s call it the NaBB. Where was the infomercial when I was younger?

Do you find yourself dragging by dinnertime? Wish you had more energy to stay up late and accomplish more? Now you can — with the NaBB.

Here’s how:

1. After dinner, find a comfortable spot and lay claim — a couch, a chair, the dog’s bed. Anywhere you can sleep that is not your actual bed. Rest assured, it’s not the down-for-the count, deep snooze, but the dozing sleep where you can still hear the kids, the pets, and reruns of “House Hunters International” in the background

2. Set your phone’s alarm for 30 minutes.

3. Start to read. If it’s an actual physical book, make sure it weighs less than War and Peace.

4. When your eyelids begin to feel heavy, lay the book on your chest so you look smart while you sleep.

5. Close your eyes.

6. Surrender to the bliss of the NaBB.

That’s right — now you too can join the millions of adults who have lowered their standards and raised their level of happiness by taking the NaBB…and realized that the world did not come to an end.

Side effects may include an inner sense of peace, NaBB fantasies, NaBB addiction, and increased productivity during waking hours.

Recommended Usage: Take one before bedtime.

Disclaimer: Informal studies by mothers and middle-aged people are ongoing. Results and nap times may vary.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

The world is waiting, trying to decipher how to angle themselves to an American government that appears to be changing, but may be just end up being same-old, same-old. In spite of the “shellacking” given to Democrats in the elections two weeks ago and the prospect of the greatest degree of Republican control over both houses in the bicameral Congress, and sharp divides on a handful of important issues, in most respects there is absolutely no indication for any revolutionary change in regard to internal and external goals for both major parties. While President Obama has lost considerable power in numbers to get legislation passed through Congress when it doesn’t have ttrue widespread support, there is quite a lot achievable without needing assent from legislators by simply using Executive Order. And while both GOP members of both House and Senate claim a willingness to be productive, they seem to actually be speedily constructing impeachment proceedings. Who knows if anything at all will get done in the next two years? With America’s economic, military, and cultural clout, the rest of the world wonders whether their will be ripples or avalanches boosting or buffeting their respective countries for good or ill. In Burma, if one were to mention “the election” on the street this morning, the listener would likely not conjure up concern for the productivity and potential of Obama’s final two years holding office, but rather of the possibility of Aung San Suu Kyi holding it and being able to create durable and sustainable reconciliation in a divided nation. So will they or won’t they empower a full, free, and fair election Burma-wide in 2015?

For those not paying attention, Burma (aka Myanmar by some, and more on that later) was once the powerhouse of Southeast Asia. Over decades of corruption, despotism, military rule, and good old-fashioned homegrown xenophobia, it became the region’s least developed country and a bit of a reliable sawhorse to use when painting the most extreme reaches of countries in the political laughingstock and possibly the original reference for what we now refer to as “Orwellian. This was a significant departure from the hopes that were once pinned on Burma, which entered independence from the United Kingdom with some of the best infrastructure and most deeply-educated populations in the region. In the despoils that followed, Burma, the country of 138 (officially registered) ethnic groups and possessing vast geographic diversity, saw its human and natural capital truly tank in value and become ruled only just over a decade later by the military dictator Ne Win, partial to wizards and ill-hatched “solutions” that caused tremendous problems. This continued for decades until, in 1988 the once-powerful general/wizard/crackpot/dictator, threw the nation into yet another of his massive turmoils when a numerologist prognosticated that he should demonetize paper money denominations base on the power inherent in particular digits.

In the protests that followed and continued to grow again and again, the amazing happened and Ne Win chose to step down and protests erupted nationwide against the government and people began to truly hope for the first time in decades. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, beloved daughter of national founder and Independence Hero Bogyoke Aung San, who’d recently returned to the country for her mother’s care and later funeral and stayed on to organize in the aftermath of the 8/8/88 uprising and bloodbath, and ran to victory with her party in the elections. The SLORC military junta (State Law and Order Restoration Council is the name chosen for themselves by the thugs of the new junta replacing Ne Win to run the country, for those keeping track on their “Orwellian” bingo cards – though they’re ostensibly a different name right now, they’ll always be SLORC in the minds of many) responded by simply refusing to recognize of the widely observed and credible results showing the opposition National League for Democracy to have won in a landslide, and decided instead to keep The Lady under (mostly) house arrest for the better part of over two decades. During this period and before, virtually all forms of dissent were subject to vicious and brutal responses by the ruling regime. Listening to a BBC radio broadcast? Prison. Forming a political discussion group? Prison. Petitioning for better education? Prison, and not just any prison, but one inspired by the ideas that Bentham used to create his Panopticon and going by the actual name of “Insein” (yes, it’s pronounced the way you think, and for that one, you can add another one to your “Orwellian” bingo card).

The horrors that the military rulers in Burma visited upon its peoples included the use of forced labor for construction projects, forcible conscription of child soldiers, defunding education and health to a mere fraction of viability, the looting of the country’s national resources to enrich the generals but not the people, and the forcing of a constrictive ethnically chauvinist national identity based on a very narrow and limited “Burman” segment of the population. It is no wonder that ethnic armed groups have encircled the borders of the country and elsewhere with long-running insurgency campaigns, including the current battles raging in the far north’s Kachin State against an amazingly diverse population, the “arranged autonomy” of the Wa in the northeast who have the meth-and-gambling markets cornered in their modern armed fiefdom in exchange for letting generals skim profits, the campaign in the west of the country that is building to a de facto genocide against the Rohingya people for having the audacity to be both Muslim and to look darker than the artificial standards of the Burmanized ideal, and the world’s longest civil war against the Karen on the eastern border with Thailand (and note the name of the Thai junta for a bonus point on your bingo cards).

To be clear: lots and lots have changed since the generals-in-civilian-clothing came up with their (not) visionary plan to open the economy to the stampede of investment and speculation that was clamoring for a new market and they realized that overt ethnic cleansing was slightly off-putting to dinner parties in the West. So the jails were emptied of many (but not all) political prisoners, the lists of foreign journalists and academics and the like were cleared to permit travel inside, the most egregious forms of overt human rights cataclysm were at least hidden behind jacaranda hedges in the gleaming new capital built at Naypyidaw (and possibly kept trimmed with conscript labor). Publishing was reopened inside the country and censorship was sharply curtailed. Sort of. But not really.

In the creeping way that these things tend to do when not actually really rooted out and vigil maintained against their return, censorship has crept back into the Burmese press and journalists have been arrested. The routine use of rape as a weapon of war by the Burmese military (Tatmadaw) against ethnic minorities hasn’t been stopped. The mega-projects in mining and hydropower that benefit little-to-none for the power needs of local communities or even building firms has increased in the face of citizen protests against the looting by insider corrupt crony capitalists. The attempt to register real complaints against government failures in basic education and healthcare provisions has been met with a redoubled campaign against the Rohingya, already the most oppressed people on the planet, with the government taking a leading role in instigating horrific violence against them in an attempt to deprive them forever of citizenship and of, fantastically to the mind of anyone familiar with the noble ideals of both faiths, using Buddhism as a justification for tremendous acts of brutality against Rohingya on the ground of their faith in Islam.

Learning from their former colonizers, the British, who were really masters of divide-and-rule and the whole colonialism/imperialism thing in a way that would still make America itself blush, the generals-in-civilian drag have allowed the election of Aung San Suu Kyi herself to Parliament in the by-elections of 2011, where her party won all but one of their contested seats after sitting out the 2010 elections in protest. However, the generals don’t want social change as much as they want the symbols of it. The military-engineered constitution itself forbids her from the Presidency for no real reason other than the anger of the generals for interrupting their own fantasy of “Myanmar” as their divine right. If Burma can’t get real traction to make progress on its most pressing social concerns – an infrastructure that is decomposing in the places its fortunate to exist at all, a healthcare system that would be the envy of Haiti on the day after its devastating earthquake and not anyone else, an education system that fails to teach even rudimentary literacy in a world that increasingly demands it, a cultural and environmental heritage that is falling under a race to development faster than efforts to even describe it as it disappears – and to gain real political maturity, it seems unlikely that peace will long reign over the so-called “Golden Land.”

A sclerotic judiciary, corrupt business-political alliance, and an actively cultivated contempt for both human rights and much that is deemed “foreign” to the country are no easy obstacles to surmount, but the inspiring Aung San Suu Kyi has the personal charisma and legacy credibility to ask for more of the Burmese people than perhaps any other political actor currently on stage (or likely to be so soon). Her election is likely the most reasonable way forward for the bulk of the country, which has long been signaled in its very naming with a litmus test of whether its called “Burma” or “Myanmar.” The shortest story of the two is that while both have been historic monikers of the land, the latter had stronger connotation of a fealty and subordination to a Burman system of political and cultural superiority while the former simply was the status quo. As such, to accede to the SLORC-dicated (any of you have a bingo yet?) name change to “Myanmar” was thought of as empowering them to have the rights to tell the story of Burma-as-Myanmar which seemed like quite a different story from Burma as it actually is.

For nearly two decades, I have been concerned about this diverse and resource-rich land. If Burma’s peoples (and I mean ALL of them) decide on renaming the country, then I’ll sing off. But until there is a real freedom there, such that all citizens and non-citizens are able to enjoy the rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), to raise their children without the fear that they’ll be dragged into military service as human landmine sensors or unafraid of being forced to live in squalor in the shadows of skyscrapers while land prices (and thus rents) skyrocket throughout the country or simply able to freedom from fear, until that day comes, I’ll keep calling it Burma. For those of you who want the best change possible for the country, it is imperative to continue to support both Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD). Contact your Representatives and Senators (and whoever might be replacing them after today too) and ask them, in unequivocal terms, to support the human rights for all peoples of Burma and to support Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in the election next year in every ethical and legal way permitted. The people of Burma, and of the world, deserve no less.

It would be disappointing to not see her ability to take the presidency, and reconciliation will be harder without it. But she has herself begun to seemingly accept this as a possibility and is still unflagging in her commitment to win more of the country back for its own people rather than a handful of corrupt cronies and thuggish soldiers. The prospect of her not being the pinnacle of real power in the presidency after the election is not a disaster, but it is definitely a real bummer. As long as the NLD can stand tall for its own principles (and perhaps if she is truly ineligible then she might start to advocate forcefully for the Rohingya instead of maintaining a shameful silence so as not to upset the apple cart of deeply held bigotry in the Burman people) there is a real role for her to play as the national leader even if an unelected one. But sidelining her and sidetracking the NLD, fomenting violence against others for difference (especially in a nation like Burma where there is just so darned MUCH that is different?EVERYTHING is different? That is a recipe for disaster and a retrenchment of the abuse the (former, though very recently so) military government was supposed to leave behind and notably still could if it begins to actually follow through on commitments and human rights standards in the transition. Fail to un-stall reform? The nation may find itself an eve-more pariah nation than it was. Write to everyone and support the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi.

Do you have a snorer in your life? Most of us do. Maybe you have a parent or a sibling who is known in the family for their snoring. Perhaps your partner snores. Maybe the snorer in your life is you. Snoring is one of the most common sleep problems, and can also be one of the most disruptive.

Snoring is one form of sleep-disordered breathing, and it’s a sleep problem that should not be ignored. Left unattended, snoring can wreak havoc with both health and quality of life, increasing risks for serious health conditions and contributing to difficulties with daily functioning.

We treat snoring in a number of different ways. People who sleep on their backs can sometimes alleviate mild or occasional snoring by switching to a side-sleeping position. Making changes to lifestyle and behavior — losing weight, quitting smoking, limiting alcohol consumption — may also help reduce snoring.

Often, however, lifestyle and behavioral adjustments don’t do enough to manage snoring successfully. EPAP (expiratory positive airway pressure) is a new and highly effective form of treatment for snoring. Positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy is a well-established therapy for sleep-disordered breathing, having been used successfully for decades in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. EPAP is a newer form of PAP therapy, one that uses the sleeper’s own exhaling breath to alleviate snoring. Theravent is the first EPAP therapy to be cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat snoring. It’s an exciting and important breakthrough in treatment for sleep-disordered breathing.

What makes us snore in the first place? The noise of snoring happens when the airflow of breathing causes vibration of the tissues at the back of the throat. When we sleep, the muscles in the back of the mouth and throat — the upper airway — relax. For many people, this relaxation of the muscles at the back of the throat causes the airway to narrow or become temporarily blocked. A narrow upper airway intensifies the vibrations that cause snoring.

EPAP works to keep the upper airway open and unobstructed, using positive air pressure generated by the sleeper’s exhaling breath. Theravent delivers EPAP therapy through a small adhesive device that’s placed onto the nostrils at bedtime. The Theravent device contains micro valves that use each exhale of breath to create positive airway pressure. This positive pressure keeps the airway of the throat from narrowing, and can reduce or even eliminate snoring.

There’s a robust body of scientific research demonstrating that EPAP is an effective method for treating sleep-disordered breathing, including snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.

Anyone — male or female, young or old — can have a problem with snoring. Roughly 90 million U.S. adults experience snoring, many of them habitually. Snoring tends to occur more frequently with age. Being overweight increases the risk of habitual snoring, as do smoking and heavy alcohol consumption. But snoring can be present even without these risk factors. Anatomy can play a role in snoring. The structure of an individual’s head, neck, and throat may make one more likely to snore, regardless of other factors.

Snoring brings disruption to sleep, and complications to health and daily living. Snoring can result in fragmented and unrefreshing sleep. People who snore often cope with high levels of daytime tiredness and fatigue. They may have trouble with concentration and memory. The poor sleep caused by snoring also can cause irritability and mood swings.

Snoring often is a source of difficulty in relationships. When you’re tired and irritable as a result of poor quality sleep, you don’t bring your best self to your relationships. Intimate relationships face a particular toll, as partners who sleep together are often both suffering from compromised and disrupted sleep as a consequence of one person’s snoring. The stress and disruption of snoring often leads partners to sleep in separate rooms, depriving them of the closeness and intimacy of sharing a bed.

Habitual snoring also increases the risk of a number of serious health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. Snoring has also been associated with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. And snoring is sometimes itself a symptom of an even more serious form of sleep-disordered breathing: obstructive sleep apnea.

For all of these reasons, it’s important to treat snoring promptly, before complications occur. EPAP offers a new avenue of hope for the reduction and even elimination of snoring. With EPAP now available as a therapy, the future of snoring is looking — and sounding — a lot quieter, a great deal more healthful, and full of sound, restful sleep.

Sweet Dreams,

Michael J. Breus, PhD
The Sleep Doctor™
www.thesleepdoctor.com

“Vape” may be the word of the year, but the days of smoking being in vogue have long passed.

The habit, which can cause cancer, stroke and heart disease (not to mention it’s expensive), may not be easy to kick but it’s essential. Once you do, your health drastically begins to improve. Just in the first 24 hours without cigarettes, your chance for heart attack decreases.

So how do we wave goodbye to the habit for good? Below are 17 ways to push your smoking habit to the curb.

Mindfulness meditation.

Research suggests that the practice could help smokers cut back on the habit — even when they’re not trying to.

Quit on a Monday.
In a 2013 Google search study, researchers found that smokers looked up how to quit more often at the beginning of the week than as the week progressed. The most searches, with phrases like “help quit smoking,” took place on a Monday.

Hit the gym.
Your urge for a nicotine decreases with exercise due to the release of serotonin and dopamine in your brain.

Learn to associate smoking with a nasty smell.
Cigarettes are much less appealing when your brain links them to a foul scent (rotten fish, perhaps?), according to a recent study. The study also suggests that the behavioral change in the brain can begin to occur when you’re sleeping.

Watch these ads from former smokers.

The ad campaign, which featured tips from former smokers, resulted in nearly 100,000 smokers to quit, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Take up yoga or try relaxation techniques.
Since many smokers use cigarettes as a way to relieve stress, the Mayo Clinic suggests finding other calming activities that have the same effect. Yoga (which is also a great form of exercise) or relaxing practices like guided imagery can all help keep anxieties at bay.

Use your text messages.
A study published in the journal The Lancet found that smokers who used a cessation program called “txt2stop” were twice as likely to quit after six months than those who tried to quit on their own. The program sent encouraging messages to those who are trying to kick the habit.

Eat some produce.

According to research from the University at Buffalo, snacking on fruits and veggies can help lead smokers to a tobacco-free lifestyle.

Lift weights.
Running on the treadmill isn’t the only way to get that beneficial exercise in. Research shows that smokers who engaged in a 12-week weightlifting program along with cessation treatment were twice as likely to quit than those who didn’t pick up the dumbbells, Shape magazine reported.

Try Nicotine Replacement Therapy.
The therapy, which could just about double your chance of quitting, offers several ways to deliver nicotine to your system in order to reduce withdrawals. Nicotine patches, chewing gum and inhalers are all part of NRT.

Consider your pets.

Next time you go to purchase a pack, think of your furry friends. As Ed Sayres, former president of the ASPCA, points out in a HuffPost blog, you’re jeopardizing your pets’ lives just as much as your own. Research shows that smoking around cats can increase the likelihood they’ll get feline lymphoma cancer, and dogs are more at risk for nasal and lung cancer when living with a smoker, Sayres wrote.

Try counseling.
Group, individual and even phone counseling can increase the likelihood that you’ll quit by at least 11 percent, according to U.S. Public Health Service’s Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update.

Go cold turkey.
According to Everyday Health, as many as nine out of 10 smokers have kicked the habit by cutting it out of their lives altogether. The withdrawal symptoms will be more prevalent, but they may last for a shorter period of time, Health.com reported in 2008.

Take up a new hobby.

Engaging in exciting activities activates the same reward part of the brain that nicotine ignites, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE. Additionally, participants in the study who were engaged in self-expanding activities were less likely to respond to smoking cues.

Give hypnosis a try.
While there isn’t super strong evidence for the efficacy of hypnosis on smokers, the conclusive research that has been conducted on the method has been positive, The Fix reported in 2012. For more on the alternative hypnosis methods you can use to quit the habit, click here.

Write down why you want to quit.

The CDC recommends thinking over why you want to kick the habit as part of their step-by-step cessation plan. Is it for your health? For your family? Because it’s expensive? Whatever your motivation, jot it down. Research shows writing notes (as opposed to typing) helps us remember them better, which may help reinforce the important reasons why you want to quit.

Don’t stop thinking about cigarettes entirely.
Banishing the vice from your mind may work right away, but it won’t for long. According to research published by the University of St. George’s London, completely erasing thoughts of cigarettes can make users smoke more than usual once they stop suppressing them.

For a hybrid electric vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt, or as GM would call it, “Extended Range Electric Vehicle”, life revolves around charging the battery. Next to driving the car, of course. According to the car maker, owners just love charging their Volts, so much so that they barely make use of the range extender, a.k.a., the fallback internal combustion … Continue reading