The other night, I was awake the whole night. I haven't had a night like that in a long time, but it reminded me of my past issues with insomnia. I was pretty young when it dawned on me that I didn't have the same sleeping patterns as my sisters. I had frequent episodes of getting very little, or no, sleep 3-4 times a week. While my sisters were sleeping, I was awake for hours thinking, thinking, thinking. I would think about happy things, things that worried me, or sometimes I would ponder world problems.

One night I didn't want to eat my stew. My mom told me that children were starving in Africa and they would love to have that stew. I stayed awake the whole night thinking about it. I was only 8, but it seemed impossible to me that anyone would want to eat my mom's stew... no offense Mom! I spent the rest of the night plotting how I could send those kids my stew. Around 3:30 am, I came up with the idea of borrowing my dad's thermos on Friday night and, when my parents weren't looking, filling it with the stew. I could take it to the post office on Saturday to mail it to those hungry, African kids. As long as they got the thermos back to me by Sunday night, my parents would never know. Around 4:30 am, I figured out I could probably ship them my mom's liver, spinach, and beets too!

My parents would take us to drive-in movies. While my sisters were zonked out after the first movie, I secretly watched the rest of the movies with my folks. One movie had zombies in it. The zombies roamed around at night and they didn't sleep. Hey, that was my problem! Oh no, I was becoming a zombie! Of course, zombies also had sharp teeth and ate people, but I figured it was just a matter of time before I started snacking on arms and legs. For a while, I spent sleepless nights not only pondering those hungry, African children, but feeling my teeth to see if they were becoming pointy. Despite the fact that I outgrew my zombie fears, to this day, I still have this mental association with sleep disorders and being a zombie.

These sleepless episodes followed me into adulthood. At some point I understood that I was experiencing insomnia. I read up on insomnia and tried various things to help myself. Nothing really seemed to help. I signed up for a relaxation class and was surprised to discover that it helped me a little, but the truth is that the “real cure” for my insomnia was... to develop severe sleep apnea.

Yeah, isn't that a kicker? I no longer had trouble falling asleep, but while I was sleeping, I would stop breathing 100s of times a night. In order to keep living, I had to wake myself up to breathe. Oddly, I didn't even know that this was happening to me. It took me years to get a sleep apnea diagnosis, but eventually I got help.

Sleep disorders impact a person's life in many ways and they are quite dangerous to have. If you suspect that you or a loved one may have a sleep disorder, you may want to check out these additional resources:

• Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep
• How Much Sleep Do You Need
• How Well Are You Sleeping
• Insomnia Podcast
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Sleep Studies
• Sleep Walking
• Teacher's Guide: Information About Sleep

Here's a big reminder if you don't have it on your calendar yet.

Don't forget to change your clocks this weekend!

Starting on Sunday at 2 a.m. Daylight Saving Time will end (for the places that observe it) and we'll all need to set our clocks back one hour.

Personally I love the extra hour of sleep, but hate the shorter days that come with switching back to standard time. I'm also not always the best at remembering to change the clocks. I usually remember at the last minute Saturday night. Forgetting to change your clocks can cause mild chaos for some people, like a friend of mine who went the whole day without remembering to switch her clocks and almost ended up being late for work the following Monday. (This was in the spring, when we were supposed to spring our clocks ahead an hour.)

Curious as to why this whole Daylight Saving Time and changing clocks thing even exists? National Geographic did a nice job explaining the history of DST.

Have you ever forgotten to change your clocks? Feel free to share your stories in the comments.

This past weekend my sleep schedule got all messed up. Friday night I was at the beach with friends and got to bed late. Saturday my friend had a potluck and I got to bed late. To make up for it, I napped for a long time on Sunday afternoon and then couldn't fall asleep Sunday night. I've spent the rest of the week trying to get my sleep schedule to look something a little closer to normal.

I'm pretty sure no expert would say my inability to sleep on Sunday night was actually insomnia (or any other sleep disorder for that matter), but I still figured it couldn't hurt to look into ways to get my sleep schedule back on track.

I found some great tips for getting better sleep in this article on sleeping well.

I also learned I violate two of them on a regular basis.

As you can see from my example above, I hardly keep a regular sleep-wake cycle, especially on the weekends. I also routinely go for my runs around 8 p.m., which is about two hours before I hit the hay on a work night.

I can't be the only one who violates the "rules of sleep." If you've got a minute, check out the list and share in the comments which tip you have the hardest time following.

I suggested a way you can work off those extra calories from your Thanksgiving turkey yesterday. Today I'm going to get you prepared for Turkey Day.

The best way to get ready is to go to the USA.gov Thanksgiving page. Here you will find information on everything you need to get ready for Thanksgiving. The page will help you find air travel status for those of you flying, send thanks to members of the U.S. military or learn how astronauts eat turkey in space. Of course there's also tons of recipes with the usual ways to cook your turkey and some unusual ones.

I'm a big fan of trivia and I got these Thanksgiving tidbits from USA.gov:

• I voted for Yam and Jam, but you can vote to name the official Thanksgiving turkey whatever you want.
• Way before the Pilgrims did their thing, there were several Thanksgiving celebrations in North America. The first recorded one occurred in 1521 at Newfoundland.
• Turkey contains tryptophan, an amino acid that can create Serotonin, which makes you sleepy. Of course you won't fall asleep during the football game unless you have vitamin B-6, riboflavin and iron in your body since tryptophan needs to combine with these to create serotonin. Of course, that big holiday meal will probably have all those in it.

I'm posting today in Joanne's absence while she attends to a family emergency. I'm sure if she was writing today she'd say the most important thing on Thanksgiving is to be very thankful for what you have, especially those you love.

Jake wrote about his diagnosis of sleep apnea. I also suffer from sleep apnea. Yes, women can have it too! Not all snorers have sleep apnea, but snoring is one of the indicators. When my doctor asked me about snoring, I told her that I didn’t snore. After all, my husband had never mentioned it. Wow, was I wrong. My husband never told me about my snoring, because he thought I would be embarrassed. Apparently, I sounded like a pig sniffing out truffles!

My doctor suspected a sleep disorder, so I went for a sleep study. No wonder I was so messed up. I had severe sleep apnea, so I was prescribed a CPAP. I went for a second sleep study to determine the correct CPAP setting and mask.

My CPAP mask fits over my nose and blows air continuously. It keeps my airways open while I am sleeping. It’s not sexy to look at, nor the most comfortable thing to wear, but the CPAP helped me get my life back to normal.

Before getting my CPAP, I had trouble staying awake while driving. It was dangerous not just for me, but for everyone on the road with me. Think about how many people are on the road driving with untreated sleep apnea. It’s scary! If you are prescribed a CPAP, it should be worn every time you sleep, and you should take it with you when you travel.

General anesthesia and pain medicines can worsen sleep apnea. Tell medical staff about your sleep apnea prior to surgeries. I even brought my CPAP with me for an outpatient surgery. They didn’t put it on me in the recovery room. I woke up to frantic people doing things to resuscitate me. My recollection of the event is a little confusing, but I do recall a hose the size of a boa constrictor (or so it seemed) being pulled out of my nose. I was a little disappointed with my near death experience (no white light or angels), but I was happy to be alive.

I just shared embarrassing details about my snoring and that lovely CPAP picture. It’s only fair that you share your sleep apnea stories with me. Do you, or someone you know, suffer from sleep apnea?