Posted on 01/11/2025 7:40:36 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
Getting enough quality sleep is essential for maintaining overall health. It supports better brain function, strengthens the immune system, and promotes a healthy heart. On the other hand, sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea can harm both health and quality of life. Poor sleep has also been linked to the early onset of neurodegenerative diseases and can serve as an early warning sign of dementia. ---SNIP--- The study also holds a warning for people who use the commonly prescribed sleep aid zolpidem. The drug suppressed the glymphatic system, potentially setting the stage for neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s, which are the result of the toxic accumulation of proteins in the brain
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
I know a lot of seniors and maybe it’s because we’re in redneck territory here, but nearly all of them avoid all drugs designed for emotional relief. The prevailing attitude is, keep busy — the more you do, the more you can do, so get up and do something. It makes it easier for them to stay awake by day and get decent sleep at night. Pets help, they show you how easy it is to love, and disregard the rest.
Meanwhile, it seems anyone who gives mood-altering drugs a try, winds up with 2 side effects: disappointment, and something else. Then it’s “I’ll take my chances with beer/donuts/chocolate...”
I especially like the beer part.
Agree... daily prescriptions are your enemy. 99% aren’t needed and cause more problems then they help.
Everything "may" damage something.
* And in most cases it's grammatically clumsy, if not out-and-out incorrect, because they're using "may" as a WOKE alternative to "might," which is the correct Queen's English verb to use when expressing conjecture, possibility or probability.
ONLY the recommended minimum daily requirement.
I also am a devout Christian.
I drink almost no alcohol, eat seafood but no other meat, watch calories, salt, cholesterol.
I've had more than 13 years of college education, a doctorate degree, fluent in three languages and have an acquaintance with a fourth, have lived in Europe, travelled all over the world--most happily with my family--have studied music, skiing, sailing, tai kwan do, horseback riding, languages.
Right now, while exercising at the gym, I'm listening to an audio of Tolstoy's Anna Karanina. Recently I have finished listening to The Brothers Karamazov, An American Tragedy, Confessions of St. Augustine, Atlas Shrugged. A few nights ago I watched a splendid version of Tosca on the Medici channel.
My wife is brilliant, has advanced degrees, is a professional musician primarily Baroque, practices every day. We have been married for 65 years.
I also "meditate" regularly. This means that in addition to prayer, in which I make statements and ask for blessings, I listen to God's communication, which is more important inasmuch as God already knows, better than we do, all the secrets of our hearts.
The cosmos is God's holy scripture. Truth is there for all to read. Different people find truth and guidance in different places. Truth can come from anywhere when it is free to come.
I have found great power and guidance in Vedic teachings, notably the Bhagavad Gita, but Truth and wisdom are to be found everywhere.
Many years ago, when I was a seriously suicidal, deeply confused and troubled teen, I asked Jesus Christ to guide and protect me and promised to follow Him anywhere, even through the flaming gates of hell, if He would only promise to protect me from all evil and evil influences. I believe that He has kept that promise. I have also. I have found myself in many unexpected and surprising places, but never did I ever lose faith in Jesus Christ.
A wonderful older man helped me along this path, a psychotherapist, an ex-marine, who himself had had a varied and adventurous life. He once said to me that Jesus Christ was never far from him.
He is never far from me either.
I particularly love the Holy Trinity, Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit: All only one God.
“I know a lot of seniors and maybe it’s because we’re in redneck territory here, but nearly all of them avoid all drugs designed for emotional relief.”
I made DAMN SURE that none of those monsters got their hands on my kids and they’re now doing the same for their families.
I really am enjoying reading your post. What a life!
I’ve never written a Christmas message to put in my Christmas card, but if it do I’m going to ‘borrow’ some of what you wrote!
Happy New Year!
That is excellent advice. If you are not spiritualy well-adjusted by the time you are older, you have missed the point. And if you are, you do not give in to helplessness or hopelessness, or even prolonged sorrow or regret.
You’re welcome to it! You can have a life as wonderful as mine. Maybe you already do. I hope so.
One needs only look at what Ambien did to both Patrick and Kerry Kennedy. Both of them were driving, whilst they were on it.
Ambien Walrus really *is* a thing. :P
Or also naked…
Take a shot of Woodford Reserve and sleep like a baby. 😏
Anti-rant of the day!
So...Team Tolstoy or Team Dostoyevsky?
There are many reasons why Ambien is appropriate. My wife is 69 and has 5-6 autoimmune disorders. Her life is hard enough and wouldn’t be able to sleep without 10 mg of Ambien every night.
Just over 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and was given 3-5 years until I would die of the cancer. There wasn’t a second of the day for 3 years when the thought of having a terminal cancer wasn’t consciously at the front of my brain.
Met with a doctor at MD Anderson who suggested I take Ambein for a while. I did for 3-4 years and now don’t need it, but I certainly did at the time.
Someone mentioned Adderall. If a person truly does have ADD, it is a huge benefit. I have a prescription from a doctor at MD Anderson for fatigue, plus I do have a bit of ADD.
I have a son who is an extremely successful CPA, and also has ADD. He’s one of the very best CPAs in state in which he lives. Not sure how much money he makes each year, but I’m sure it’s over $700k per year.
Tolstoy I suppose, mainly because of his serenity and elegance, and his ability to call attention to so much that escapes me--and he is so magnificently profound!
However, Dostoyevsky can be even more meaningful and unforgettable, e. g. The Brothers Karamazov, part 3, book 7, chapter 4: Cana of Galilee, one of the most powerful, profound, and beautiful things I've ever read. I played an audio recording of it for my teenage grandson one afternoon when I picked him up from school, and one evening, I played it for my family as they relaxed in silence and listened, the room lit by candle light. Everyone was deeply moved.
I cannot decide between the two.
I think I love War and Peace the most.
I think the Pevear and Volokhonsky translations are the best. Do you agree? I don't know Russian and have to read translations.
What about you? What's your team? Your favorite books?
Team Dostoyevsky here. Tolstoy, well, in a novel I’m not looking for serenity and elegance. I’m looking for colossal struggles. FD was nobody of note, in his time and place, but he sure punched above his weight. Tolstoy mostly stuck to his social comfort zone.
I was homeschooled, exposed to various translations and commentaries thereon, all in the library at home and my teacher was fluent in Russian anyway. So it was “stereo surround” reading and I’ve no preference.
What good fortune to have such an exposure to Russian and Russian literature!
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