Naptime for grownups

Naptime for grownups

I am obsessed with sleep these days. My family is getting annoyed with me, that’s how obsessed I am. I recently moved our collective bedtimes up by a half an hour and basically refuse to go anywhere that requires my presence after 8:30 PM. I’ve started resisting the usual TV-time naps that used to drag me down hard in the late evening, not wanting to release the valve on the sleep pressure that needs to build up during the day in order to increase chances of a solid eight hours of sleep at night. I have turned my clock away from my pillow so as to ward off night-time anxiety about how much time I have left until the sun rises and the dogs start clamoring for their breakfast. I turn the thermostat down to 65 degrees and wash my face before bed in order to start cooling down my core temperature.

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"Small, reliable doses of positive feeling" -- on neuroplasticity, pain, and how community acupuncture can help

"Small, reliable doses of positive feeling" -- on neuroplasticity, pain, and how community acupuncture can help

“At this point, research suggests that the only way to heal the brain from the vicious cycle of compulsive relief-seeking and amplified pain is to gently re-establish connections in the brain that provide small, reliable doses of positive feeling. Over time, low-key rewards that don’t swamp and overwhelm the circuitry can begin to have an effect on the pain amplifier, and actually turn it down. Neuroplasticity can be engaged for the purpose of learning how to feel other things than pain.”

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