Michael Jackson's autograph

Today, Michael Jackson is laid to rest after his untimely death on June 25, 2009.

I, for one, hope he can rest in peace. His magnificent career as an entertainer earned him the title of King of Pop – in fact, his innovation and creativity catapulted an entire industry to new heights.

I also hope the fact that he popped pills – and worse – doesn’t give insomniacs any bright ideas about outrageous methods of self-treatment.

The Michael Jackson tragedy shines a light on use of the I.V. anesthetic drug Diprivan as a treatment for insomnia. The drug is not approved for use in treating sleep disorders – my goodness, it can actually render a person unconscious, to undergo surgery. Doctors watch the patient constantly, monitoring their breathing.

Read the writing on the autograph, people. The King of Pop is dead. Long live the King.

His creative mind may have considered a dangerous solution for alleviating his insomnia. If you can’t sleep, use your own creativity to find an effective – and safe – way of getting a good night’s rest.

Photo Credit:  Alan Light

Blog Note: Some of you have asked about the schedule to update this blog and its frequency. My plan is to post blog updates twice a week; generally on Tuesday and Thursday.

My father, the pharmacist, always insisted that we kids take our daily B-12 vitamin daily. When I would ask why, my mom would say that it was good for our brains.

It’s well-known that vitamin B-12 helps with the production of red blood cells and helps regulate the immune system. As we age, our bodies lose the ability to absorb B-12. As we live, we may not be getting enough of it from our daily meals.

It’s a constant maintenance issue-producing enough vitamin B-12 to stay healthy. Not only that, according to Dr. Joseph Mercola, founder of the Natural Health Center in Illinois, B-12 can help you sleep.

“B-12 plays a vital role in melatonin production,” he says. “Melatonin has been called ‘the sleep hormone’ because it is responsible for letting you get a good night’s sleep.”

Just another reason why I tend to take my father’s advice.

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Try Vitamin B12 to Boost Energy

Janet Muniz

There’s an empathizing article in the May/June issue of Spirituality & Health about why we sleep. Written by Jill Neimark, a writer who contributes the Open Mind, Open Heart column to the magazine, the article documents her first-ever bout with insomnia and what she learned while dealing with it.

One of the things she says: “If you can’t sleep, you look for someone or something to blame.” Jill targeted her boyfriend and her bed, of all things. She devotes an entire page to the anatomy of her bed.

This fascinates me.

She ends up with a wool-filled futon covered by an organic cotton cover by Surround Ewe Sleep Systems. She added a wool felt from Shepherd’s Dream.

Her new bed definitely helps her resume her normal good night’s rest. But after her seven-month ordeal with sleeplessness, her revelations about what we need to know about sleep are perceptive and profound.

Spirituality & Health just recently upgraded its website, so I hope this article is available online soon. If not, consider subscribing to it, or at least to their new newsletter (upper right-hand corner of the home page).

I look forward to reading every issue, whether I’m sleepless or not.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: jayceh

Do you sleep alone or with a partner? Remember—this includes pets, and pillows!

I sleep with three other beings: my husband and my two cats. Yes, four of us share a king-sized bed with three pillows.

Please, somebody make a bed bigger than a king!

Sleeping alone lets a person move and position the body at will. There’s always room to toss, turn or stay still.

Sleeping with bedtime partners usually means you’re sharing space. Believe me, space is premium with kitties: the space right next to you, the space between humans; under the covers, on top of you—I experience it all. My human partner pretty much keeps to his own space—he is a very light sleeper. Even the sound of the cats purring can bother him. He’s prone to insomnia, too. He’s the one who uses the extra pillow—when our boy-cat isn’t already using it.

With his own sleep issues, it’s no wonder that is it my husband who alerted me to my sleep apnea. Totally freaked him out that I stop breathing during sleep.

I’m just lucky the sound of the CPAP machine doesn’t keep him awake. The kitties—they’re O.K. with it, too.

How do these circumstances affect the quality of my sleep? I need to be forceful sometimes with the cats. Their little bodies can constrict my space so much that I have trouble moving freely.

At first, I didn’t want to disturb them, so I’d contort in all these crazy ways to avoid it. Now, I make the kitties move out of the way of my restful sleep.

That’s working out pretty well, actually.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: soundfromwayout