Zzzzzzzs
Matt Seinberg

There is nothing more enjoyable than a good sleep at night, especially after a couple of bad nights, of little or no sleep, in row. I'm talking real sleep, not sleep induced by drugs or medication.

Comedian Bill Hicks said he was good to go if he got eight hours sleep during the night and ten hours more during the day.

The best sleep I ever had was when I had the colonoscopies and endoscopies, when propofol kept me under. One minute, you are out and an hour later, you're up with no side effects.

For a number of years, my drug of choice to get to sleep was Ambien. I once tried Ambien CR, which is a dual layer pill the dissolves slower than the regular one. The drawback to it was that I felt like a zombie in the morning and stumbled through the day. That's no way to live, so I stopped taking that one.

My physician prescribed Ambien 5 milligrams for years. Over time, I needed to take two of them to get to sleep in a reasonable amount of time. If I wanted to be asleep by 11:30 pm, I had to take it at 10 pm. Still, I didn't like the feeling I had the next morning, which is called a sleep hangover. You know you're up, but you don't want to be up.

Melatonin, a natural substance, helps me sleep, these days.

I decided to try something different. A while back, friend had recommended I try Melatonin, which the body produces, naturally, and helps us sleep. I ordered a couple of bottles when I refilled my Vitamins C and D.

These pills are dual layered, with one milligram released immediately. The other 1.5 milligrams releases through the night to help stay asleep. I have found that it works, even if I get up once a night to visit the bathroom.

The one thing that will keep me up at night more than anything is my wife's snoring. No matter how many times I tell her to stop snoring or push her shoulder to turn over, she still makes that awful noise.

One night last week, her snoring was so bad that I couldn't fall asleep. At 2:45, in the morning, I got up to read for an hour. I finally fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion. I was very tired that day and not in a good mood. I warned my coworkers, ahead of time, to, stay out of my way.

When I travel, I also find it tough to fall asleep. We are used to our own home environment and having it change can be difficult. We're in an unfamiliar room, on a mattress that we may or may not like, with many different noises going on around us.

In an unfamiliar hotel, you can hear other people opening and closing their doors, the elevator doors opening and closing as well as other noises from next door, above and below. They aren't always pleasant noises, either. The worst is when people are fighting and you're debating whether to call the front desk to complain or not.

A familiar hotel, when travelling, makes for an easy sleep.

Michelle, my daughter, and I are going to visit my father in Syracuse this coming week. We're staying at the same hotel as we did last year. It's new. The hotel staffers are pleasant. I hope to get a room on the parking lot side, and the local roadway side. It's a little big quieter there.

One other trick I use to get to sleep is try to recreate a pleasant dream I've had in the past and even create a new story from it. I've had success with that technique, except for when I'm over tired and my mind is racing so fast that nothing else can keep up.

Sleep. It's necessary for our minds and soul.