Peekabu gets awfully tired sleeping on me all night. She has to recover with a mid-morning nap! Kicking her off the bed should help me get a good night’s sleep.

My insomnia is back with abandon this week. Each night this week I’ve gone to bed at 4:30 a.m. Ugh! That means my appetite-regulating hormones are off. Ghrelin tells you when to eat and leptin tells you when you are full. Since I’m averaging 4 hours of sleep a night this week, my body has too much ghrelin. Great!

I’m feeling pretty beat today, especially after my spin class. With any luck, I’ll be sound asleep before midnight. I have some tricks I’m going to try to help me relax.

1. Put down that iPhone! I’m planning on disconnecting by 9:00 p.m. No Facebook. No tweets. No Candy Crush. I’m over stimulated and need to focus on relaxing before bed.
2. Sleepytime Tea! I picked up a box today. The tea features the herb valerian root, which helps you to relax, and chamomile for drowsiness. Exactly what I need.
3. Keep the dogs off the bed. For some dang reason, both my dogs love to cuddle on top of my legs when I’m in bed. The last few weeks I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to move the dogs (a not so easy task). So we are officially kicking them off the bed. Time for them to cuddle together on the floor.
4. Knitting! Knitting relaxes me. All of my worries or thoughts melt away when I knit. If I still feel wide-awake at 10:00 p.m., I need to break out some yarn and needles and practice my casting on.