1. One of the latest pins on my Beard Porn board. Yep.
2. I love Emily’s connect-the-dot technique for lining your eyes.
3. 6 things happy people never do. A must-read.
4. What are your thoughts on reading novels on backlit screens at night? Studies show it can suppress melatonin and cause insomnia. Since I’ve been dealing with a bout of insomnia for the past 5 weeks (REALLY, WHO’S COUNTING, THOUGH? *sobbing*), I’m a little nervous to bust out my Kindle Fire these days. What do you read on at night? Old School Kindle? iPad? Physical books? Looks like I’ll be making a trip to the library soon. Also, please humor me and tell me how many hours you sleep a night on average.
(I will say….I fell fast asleep for the first time in forever last night while watching this week’s episode of The Bachelorette. YAWN.)
5. Why is this adorable dress 600+ bucks? Do you think it’s a typo? Geez.
6. Okay, you guys. You simply must watch Wita practicing her kicks at dance this week. I mean, STOP IT.
I hope you all have a very happy weekend with lots of RESTFUL SLEEP. zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Amber S.
July 19, 2013 at 8:29 pmI don’t have kids (someday…) so that’s not an issue… If left undisturbed, like on vacations, I can easily sleep 13 hours. Or more. It’s divine to feel that rested. Most nights I get 8-9 hours. And always wish I had more. If I get less than 7 I CAN.NOT. function. Which is funny considering 6-10 years ago in college, I prob averaged 4-5 hours/weeknight and functioned just fine with a Fri & Sat night sleep of 8-9 hours.
JeanneW
July 21, 2013 at 6:41 pmI usually can’t fall asleep til late, late at night but I’ve been having more issues falling and staying asleep this last week or so. I’ve also been reading on a backlit Kindle Fire. I wonder if that’s making it worse!
ShyLittleViolet
July 22, 2013 at 11:31 amNo kids so I can (ostensibly) sleep if I ….can/want to. I figure Its one of the very very few pluses of infertility :) HOWEVER, I did suffer from severe and basically constant insomnia for the first …drumroll…27 years of my life, so I am pretty aware of the Things one should never do – and for me, reading at all, much less if there had been a kindle type situation, meant = I was going to up up till 3 or 4 am. Sleep suggestions for me are: A very very dark room, not too hot, and no computers etc in it if at all possible.
$600 for that dress is…painfully absurd. Its cute, but let’s face it, we could find a cute replica at Anthropologie for under a hundred. Or one at Ross for $20.
Beards = not usually my thing unless my husband grows one, he is the best bearded man evahhh (to me) but Liam Neeson is looking AMAZING in that shot, so I will concede that is a Good Beard.
Wita = I’m dead. She’s so ….WITA!! :)
Susan
July 23, 2013 at 12:51 pmI have suffered extended cycles of insomnia off and on my entire adult life, so I feel your pain. For me, it’s usually caused by stress, but after a few days I start to stress about the insomnia, which just makes the problem that much worse. I aim to get 7-8 hours of sleep on a good night, but it averages more like 6-7. If I’m in an insomnia cycle it’s more like 3-4.
TV does not help me sleep at all, but I do read every night. I recently switched from an old-school Kindle to a Fire, and haven’t really noticed much of a difference in my sleep. However, what I’m reading does play a huge role in how sleep goes (I’ve sworn off thrillers & mysteries for this reason). The trick is to find something just interesting enough that you still want to pick it up every night, but not so interesting that you can’t put it down. Romance novels, while not the most interesting of reading, are good. I’ve also found biographies or historical fiction (think Ken Follett) to be good bedtime reading for me.
If I haven’t slept well in several nights, sometimes I will take one Benadryl before bed. It’s enough to take the edge off and let me sleep, but not make me groggy in the morning. Not a good solution long term, but sometimes taking it for a couple nights helps break the cycle and I can sleep on my own again after that. Also, alcohol totally affects my sleep cycle, so if I’m not sleeping well I will avoid it or just have a small glass of white wine early in the evening. Red wine always impacts my sleep cycle, so I avoid it altogether.
I hope you get some good sleep soon!
Grete
July 24, 2013 at 11:35 pmThings that have helped me sleep better at night:
(1) I have f.lux on my laptop (which tends to be the last thing I do before bed at night, and we also only watch TV by hooking up our laptop, so it carries over to our TV-watching, too). It adjusts the light/colors on your screen to make it more reflective of nighttime lighting. http://justgetflux.com
(2) I also have embarrassing red welding glasses I wear in our flourescently-lit apartment bathroom at night to block blue light from re-triggering my wake-up hormones. (Like these: http://amzn.to/15LofmU)
(3) I recommend a quickly-absorbed magnesium dose right before bed (like this: http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Vitality-Magnesium-Calm-1×16/dp/B000GJOZWE)… I’ve noticed that it helps me stay asleep during the night (as opposed to waking up at 3am and never falling back asleep – SO FRUSTRATING!).
(4) I stop eating anything – especially avoiding sweet foods – at least 2 hours before I plan to go to bed. And I never drink caffeine past 10am.
That’s what’s helped me – hopefully there may be something you haven’t tried yet! I know from experience that sleep-deprivation can rule your life, and I’m so sorry to hear you have been suffering with it.
P.S. Any pic with Christian Bale in it would go on a Pinterest board for me. ;)
Olivia
July 25, 2013 at 5:32 amLove the beards and the bracelets!
I don’t sleep through the night because I still have a nursing baby, but to maximize the sleep I can get I try to have my light out by 10:30. I read a basic, e-ink nook with a dim light AND I take 3 mg of melatonin. Most nights I can’t keep my eyes open after 30 min.
Alexandra Aimee
July 26, 2013 at 4:53 pmOoohhh Bale beards really well.
claudia098
July 30, 2013 at 11:06 amI go for 8 hours a night of sleep if I can get it.
I just recently good-willed 2 dresses really similar to that one. It was part of the floral Celia Birtwell collection at Uniqlo, and had the same drop-waist and tie shape. Super cute so I bought in 2 patterns (of course) and they were $40-ish. Ultimately not very flattering on my pair shaped bod, so in the good will bag they went. My wedding dress didn’t even cost $636!
Denae @ Adventures On
August 3, 2013 at 7:21 pmI read at night on my kindle fire every night. I sleep 8+ hours. I say a good book you dont want to put down is more of a problem than a backlit screen. Read on. =) Oh and Witta is adorable!
Elise
October 16, 2013 at 2:35 pmHave you tried a white noise machine? I used to have trouble falling asleep and then the lightest noise would wake me up but ever since I bought a basic white noise machine I have slept like a baby. The awesome go to sleep and just wake up in the morning magic. I highly recommend it! Good luck!!!