As for the rest of you -- I'm exhausted again. Couldn't sleep last night, despite being home. Fretted about not being able to sleep. Felt sick, and weepy, and pathetic. The only bright spot (and it was a big bright spot) was that this time, unlike the last few days, Kevin was here to snuggle me and tell me it would get better and that it was probably just stress, and eventually, going with Karina's maxim that good sex fixes almost everything, actually made me tired enough to fall asleep. :-) So I fell asleep happy, and I'm still happy to be home, but I'm going to be two hours late for the cafe today, making me feel like I'm already behind for today. And I'm coughing and all my muscles ache, so I think I have a cold again. Expect pitiful journal entries for the next few days. I just want a week to sleep, and that isn't going to happen this week.
I use two herbal teas: sleepy time extra and tension tamer extra. They are available almost anywhere (most grocery stores). Sleepy time extra has valerian and you can use two tea bags — its gentle enough to not be habit forming. So taking tension tamer extra a few hours before bed relaxes you and then taking two teabags of sleepytime extra about half an hour before bed usually works pretty well for me.
For the cold: elderberry capsules. For the sleep: valerian at night. If I haven’t slept well in a long time, I have mine with either melatonin (do *not* take this in the day, as it resets your body’s clock) or Benadryl. Benadryl really does do the trick. It’s what many over-the-counter sleep meds are, anyway.