The Holidays Are Coming!!

Holidays are here and it is always nice to receive a thoughtful present from a loved one.  It is very difficult for a Parkinson's person with a caregiver always at his side to find that special present for a loved one without their being aware of what you are getting them.  So where is the surprise there?
Being tactfully duplicit with an adult child may be the answer, or in some cases, grandchildren are old enough to provide the service.  So careful planning is the answer to the equation.

Holidays are a stressful time, and these minor little difficulties put additional stress on us and the unrelenting PD doesn't ease up for the sake of the holiday season.  To get around all this, early planning seems to be the answer for me.  My caregiver/wife provides so many services for me throughout the year that it is very difficult not to want to give her the world on Christmas Day.  But we find that when we look at each other, we don't need much.  We have the essentials and we have each other.  Anything else is gravy, as they say.

My hopes and wishes for this holiday season are to find all my Parkinson's friends and caregivers having a wonderful holiday season surrounded by their family and friends.

Are you getting any? Sleep, that is.

So many Parkies, including myself, have a difficult time either getting to sleep or staying asleep.  Some neurologists will prescribe yet another medication, a sleeping aid, to help us with this problem.  I didn't care for the feeling I had the next morning, so decided to find some foods that will help with sleeping.  Remember as a kid when our parents would make warm milk for us?  Guess what?  It really does help!   Caring.com alleges that the following foods can help promote sleep.

1. Cherries. One of the only natural food sources of melatonin, the chemical controlling our internal clock to regulate sleep, these can be eaten in fresh or dried form.  Try these an hour before bed.  
2. Bananas are a good source of potassium and magnesium, natural muscle relaxants.  They also contain the amino acid L-tryptophan, which gets converted to 5-HTP in the brain, which is then converted to serotonin (a relaxing neurotransmitter) and melatonin.
3. Toast. Carbohydrate-rich foods trigger insulin production, which induces sleep by speeding up the release of tryptophan and serotonin, two brain chemicals that relax you and send you to sleep.
4. Oatmeal. Like toast, a bowl of oatmeal triggers a rise in blood sugar, which in turn triggers insulin production and the release of sleep-inducing brain chemicals. Oats are also rich in melatonin, which many people take as a sleep aid.
5. Warm milk. Like bananas, milk contains the amino acid L-tryptophan, which turns to 5-HTP and releases relaxing serotonin. It's also high in calcium, which promotes sleep.

Something they did not mention was SleepyTime Tea.  I like to have a cup of hot SleepyTime tea about an hour and a half before heading to bed.  Between that and putting down the computer, IPad, cell phone, etc., also helps to slow down the stimulus to the brain.  Setting the same bed time each night also helps put your body into the proper rhythm.  If there is any way for us to release melatonin into the body, we could sure use it.  How is your sleep pattern going for you?