Going to bed early

 The old adage: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," by Ben Franklin, is so true.
Detailed studies tell us that it is healthful to go to bed early. The hours that you sleep before 12 o'clock, midnight are twice as important as the hours you sleep after midnight. So it is important to go to sleep by nine and maybe even eight o'clock. If you do not, you risk getting diabetes and many other diseases. This is not easy but the benefits are astounding according to many experts.
Melatonin is the hormone that helps people sleep. It is affected by the time of day that you experience bright light. If you get plenty of sunlight in the morning then your body will produce melatonin at night and you will be able to sleep. Also, when it is time to sleep it is important to make sure you have no light in your bedroom. There should not be night lights or clock radio faces that glow. If there is light, then your body will not make melatonin and you will not be able to sleep. Also, when people have less melatonin in their bodies cancer is increased so we need to get that sleep early in the evening before midnight so that the wonderful chemical processes can occur to produce melatonin and all the other chemicals and processes that are essential for good health. There is another hormone called cortisol. It is known as the stress hormone and we do not want lots of cortisol in our bloodstream on a regular basis. Cortisol is present the next day when we miss that essential pre-midnight sleep. Cortisol negatively changes the way we see the world. It is important to avoid having Cortisol in your blood. Now, obviously, I am not a scientist or a doctor. I am just trying to figure out how to live healthfully. I am repeating what I have read. But the idea of sleeping soundly without a pill is attractive to me. Why not let my own body make what I need to get to sleep at night?

The reason I am writing about this is because it is so hard for me to make myself go to bed at night. My mind seems to just start clicking at eight o'clock. But according to studies about circadian rhythms and things, even if you consider yourself a night owl, like me, your body benefits from the early to bed routine. So, for me, it boils down to discipline. And that is not always in great demand in my little world. So I shall continue the battle. I had a victory last night. I went to bed very early and stayed in bed even when I heard that my husband had turned on the TV. And as I lay in my bed, sleeplessly, I realized that going to bed early is NOT going to be easy because STAYING in bed was very hard!!  I must adjust two things before tonight. I must ask my husband to keep the TV turned down and also close the blind in our room because the porch light stays on and it made the room too light.

I am now going to go weed a flower garden. It rained this morning and should make the weeding easy.
May you have early and restful sleep tonight.