Life
Caffeine and Other Impediments to Sleep
Ensure that when you go to bed, your sleep time is protected
Based on a study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, you need to be cautious as to when you stop consuming caffeine. Even a full six hours before retiring could put you at risk of having your sleep time reduced by one hour. So, it is prudent to avoid caffeine after 5 pm, however, after 4 pm or 3 pm is better!
If you’ve been on caffeine for so long, and you’re worried that by 3 pm you might experience an afternoon slump, engage in some kind of exercise, if only for 10 minutes.
Research published in Physiology and Behavior indicates that walking around the block, climbing stairs, and similar activities can boost your energy level, more so than a low dose of caffeine contained in a cup of green or black tea.
Avoid alcohol in the evening. Alcohol will induce sleep quickly, then dehydrates your body and wakes you up before you are due. You then have trouble getting back to sleep. Your sleep time is reduced, and your sleep quality is poor.
Disrupted R.E.M.s
You’ve probably heard that R.E.M.s (rapid eye movements) are a crucial part of your sleep cycle. To ensure that your sleep time benefits are maximized, heed the following: don’t sleep with your head by a phone – remove it from your bedroom.
Many people sleep with their heads by phones because they’re concerned about the one possible call in fifteen years where they might have to arise at 3:00 am. Stop this! You cannot do much at that hour. You’ll be better off with sound sleep each night.
When you read in bed, do so only to induce drowsiness, but don’t overdo this. It’s important to make your bed and bedroom for sleeping (and, of course, sex) only.
Don’t set up your bedroom as a command station with your CD player and TV to reinforce the notion that it is a place for anything but sleep.
Eating and Drinking and Exercising
In your quest for good sleep, eat your meals at the same time every day to maintain your circadian rhythm, regulate your metabolism, and get good sleep that night. Your body seeks regularity, and eating on schedule is a huge boost. It also helps to have a three-hour window between the last time you ate and when you go to bed.
During the day, undertake some type of exercise that elevates your heart rate so that you have a better time drifting off at night. As long as it’s not close to bedtime, the time of day is not critical.
Regardless, exercise is definitely an antidote to stress, helping to keep you calm. Hence, you drift off more easily upon retiring.
What about evening exercise? Moderate exercise a couple hours before sleep does aid sound sleep, but don’t exercise right before retiring. Also, moderate intake of proteins a little before retiring, such as a glass of milk, can help you attain restful sleep.
Bathe or Shower to Help Induce Sleep
Doctoral researchers at the University of Texas, in Biomedical Engineering reviewed a staggering 5,322 studies, contained in scientific and medical databases, to arrive at the following conclusion and they published their analysis in the Journal of Sleep Medicine Review:
The ideal time to take a bath or a shower, to help induce sleep, is one to two hours before retiring. As such, you help to cool down the body and improve blood circulation all the way to the extremities, including your feet and hands.
Medical News Today indicates that a warm bath or shower enhances your temperature-related circadian rhythm, which helps people to fall asleep more quickly and easily and improves their sleep quality. Your bath or shower need not take more than 10 minutes.
Get Up If You Can’t Sleep
Don’t fret if you fail to fall asleep right away. You might need a couple minutes or more to relax. After 30 consecutive minutes of restlessness, get up and do something until you’re tired again.
When you sleep too little, or are awakened at random times, your deep sleep pattern is disrupted, and hence even eight hours might not yield the benefits of a solid eight hours of sleep. All of which means you need to ensure that when you go to bed, your sleep time is protected!
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Life
With Representatives Like Kelly Daughtry, We Can Take Back America
Daughtry is a soft-spoken woman who gets things done
When President Trump takes office next January 20th, he’s going to need a cadre of strong-willed Congressional representatives. It’s not enough to simply retake the White House, we need the foot soldiers with the unshakeable resolve to restore America.
In North Carolina’s 13th district, one candidate is firmly rooted in the values that made this country great, and will make it great again. Her name is Kelly Daughtry and, quite frankly, the nation needs many others like her.
Raised in rural North Carolina and the daughter of a U.S. veteran, farmer, lawyer, and entrepreneur, Daughtry has been a practicing lawyer for the past 25 years in Johnston County, where she makes her home. She’s been in the trenches and is not skittish about the slings and arrows that come with taking bold, conservative positions for what is right.
Clear Positions on Vital Issues
Daughtry is exceedingly clear on where she stands and on what will improve the lives of American citizens. She is a vigorous supporter of law enforcement and decries ‘de-fund the police’ movements wherever they arise. She understands that, by and large, the men and women in law enforcement are dedicated, hardworking individuals who, in many instances, put their lives on the line.
Similarly, Daughtry supports the U.S. military and our veterans. She knows that nations around the world with rogue leadership wish to do us great harm, and that we must maintain a strong military at all times. Not coincidentally, a strong military is the best prescription for peace.
On the border issue, Daughtry recognizes that the Biden Administration is firmly committed to swamping our country with illegal aliens. Why? Because the U.S. Census count doesn’t focus on U.S. citizenship, only the number of residents per county and state.
Hence, Democrats can gain a 20-seat advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives by continuing to flood our nation. This ploy is precisely why Biden and company have brought lawsuits against border states seeking to protect themselves.
The drugs, the crime — the murders — and the bursting budgets of towns and states trying to cope with the onslaught of illegals should never have happened in the first place. Daughtry knows what needs to be done, and done immediately.
Reversing Biden’s Reckless Agenda
Daughtry will go to work on restoring our nation, dismantling Joe Biden’s reckless agenda for America. She understands that Biden’s policies towards China in particular, and the bribes he has taken, have been nothing less than devastating for hard-working Americans and for our national security.
Most notably, she is firmly opposed to the Chinese Communist Party and their representatives who are seeking to buy farmland throughout North Carolina as well as every other place in the United States.
Biden’s out-of-control spending has particularly hurt North Carolinians. Farmers have taken the brunt of the punishment. The unending inflation that we’ve faced for 38 months also has dealt a crushing blow to North Carolina small business owners and families in general. One of Daughtry’s first agenda items will be to help steer our country back towards fiscal sanity, which in turn will have a direct impact on the cost of groceries and gasoline.
Americans First
Like President Trump, Daughtry understands the importance of putting Americans first and of safeguarding or voting procedures, elections, and indeed what it means to be an American citizen. Of note, she has no misconceptions about the differences between men and women and will work to stop the malarkey that the Left imposes on us every day, with their “56” types of genders.
Daughtry is a soft-spoken woman and in her quiet way, gets things done. If Donald Trump had an army of Kelly Daughtrys, the country would be on firm footing in relatively short order. She knows what hard-working Americans want and need, and is exactly the type of politician that North Carolina must send to Washington D.C.
It is not an exaggeration to say that in Wake, Harnett, Johnson, and Wayne counties in North Carolina, as well as the entire state and entire country, the 2024 election will be the most important in our lifetimes. This has been said about other elections at other times, but considering the damage that the Democrats have wrought on America, the time is now to reclaim our great nation and, with the likes of Kelly Daughtry, we can.
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Life
Provocative Questions to Get You Moving
What would make you pause and think about what’s really important?
Suppose I asked you four questions to make you pause, think about what’s really important, perhaps take some action steps, and get you moving in a positive direction. What might I ask?
Here are four such questions:
* What would you do if you truly only had six months to live?
* What would you read if you could only pick six books for the rest of your life?
* If you could return to any age what would it be?
* If you could live anywhere other than here, where would it be?
By way of example, here is each question with my own answers to help stimulate your thinking:
What would I do if I truly only had six months to live? I would visit everyone who ever mattered to me one more time; visit all my childhood haunts; visit three or four tourist destinations in the world that I’ve wanted to see; eat like an incredible pig; parcel out my assets carefully and accordingly, safeguard my daughter’s financial future and well-being to the best of my abilities; and donate many items to charity.
If I could only read six books for the rest of my life, they would probably be The Timetables of History, Childhood’s End, The Call of the Wild, The One Hundred, From Dawn to Decadence, and The Culture of Celebrity. Runners-up would be The Demon-Haunted World, Crime and Punishment, Moby Dick, MacBeth, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and The World of Our Fathers
If I could be any age what would I be: 38, because at that age I had the optimal mix of capabilities and faculties, unbounded potential, and unbridled enthusiasm. My career as an author was beginning to bloom and amazingly I hadn’t yet been on my first of 45 cruises.
If I could live anywhere other than here, where would it be and why aren’t I there? The places I could settle include Asheville, NC; Austin, TX; Monterrey, CA; Sausalito, CA; Tucson, AZ; Las Vegas, NV; Vancouver, British Columbia; London, England; Paris, France; Vevey, Switzerland; Montreux, Switzerland; Bruges, Belgium; Helsinki, Finland; Gothenburg, Sweden; Stockholm, Sweden, and any place where it is spring, birds are chirping, and large lakes invite you to swim.
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America No More…
Biden wants to tie Israel’s hands
Prepare for the Worst: Domestic Sabotage and Violence on the Horizon
America’s Unjust Justice System
With Representatives Like Kelly Daughtry, We Can Take Back America
Why East Coast Workers are Blurry Eyed on Monday Morning
The Rise of Mark Robinson and the Benefit to North Carolina
