HI, everyone,

I've started my Lights Out plan for this winter. I've been going to bed at 9:30 for almost a week. (I did stay up later last night due to Mom's Night Out) It's going well for me - I've been falling asleep quickly and staying in bed until 7 am, though I generally wake up about an hour earlier. This isn't quite to Wiley's recommendation of 9.5 hours of sleep, but it's a start. Haven't got the room darkening shades yet, so the bedroom is not dark enough.

I've started to read "Sex, Lies, and Menopause." She strongly recommends bio-identical hormones. Purple Bass - I really liked hearing about the value of menopause in nature - to have time to raise the youngest child before dying. It makes real sense. I will keep this idea in mind as I read SLM. I'm trying to keep an open mind, but I must say this is causing me to question her conclusions in Lights Out as well. So far, what I've got from SLM is that hormones keep us in harmony with the universe and nature hates it when our reproductive hormone levels go down after menopause, so replacement is needed.

It seems to me that there's still a lot of hormone action in our bodies, even after reproduction shuts down. Plus, the idea that we need a non-reproductive time to contine to raise our children without adding more gives a real Mother-Nature-approved value to post menopausal life.

Yeah, we baby boomers are a great guinea pig generation, lol.

Who else is going to bed earlier?

Alice