you are getting sleepy Randy....

[Chuck]

Hey, man, I had sleep cycles that were similarly screwed up as what you've described in your own life. It's not healthy, I'm sure you know that. Plus it wonks up a person's social life.<P><I>Anyway,</I> a few tricks you may or may not know about to help you get back into a "<I>sleeping-when-it's-dark</I>" lifestyle. Don't eat for 3 hours prior to laying down, your liver will be working on digestion all night instead of detoxifying your body which means you'll wake up <B>tired</B>. If you live in a place where the sun actually shines during this time of year, spend part of your awake time outside looking at it. A bright lamp is no substitute, you have to walk around in the sunshine for it to reset your body's cycles.<P>And the obvious one, if you can give up caffiene, do it. Even if you only drink a cup of coffee to wake up, that still screws up your ability to sleep right. (I'm irrevocably addicted to the stuff, but maybe there's hope for others.)<P>An option to your radical "will power" and curfew strategy would be to give someone your phone number and have them call you every 15 minutes and ask either, "are you awake" or "are you sleeping" depending if it were day or night.<P>sleep tight,<P>doc chuck

[Randy]

I'd never heard the detoxifying/digesting thing. That's interesting.

And yeah, caffeine is prob'ly a part of it. I don't buy soda ever, except when I'm out to eat, and I'll get a Dr. Pepper. With bee pollen, zinc, and caffibooster.

The curfew thing is working out pretty well this week, but I keep waking up at 1:30 or so AM. I'm wondering now if that's when my email dings in the office -- I get Dictionary.com's Word of the Day around then. But I don't remember hearing the dinging, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was part of the problem.

And what's the deal with cold sweats? Yee-ikes, I hate that! Think we need a better blankey.<P>------------------
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[Somebody Strange]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Randy:
<B>And yeah, caffeine is prob'ly a part of it. I don't buy soda ever, except when I'm out to eat, and I'll get a Dr. Pepper. With bee pollen, zinc, and caffibooster.
</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Randy?<P>I do NOT mean to be disrespectful at ALL in this post. I have a question about your caffeine consumption.<P>Am I incorrect in making the assumption that you are not "supposed" to have caffeine, according to Mormonism? Or am I incorrect in assuming you are Mormon? (I thought Howard had said you were, at some point.)<P>I only ask to clarify; I know there are so many misunderstandings among different beliefs that it's easy to get caught on outdated and/or inaccurate assumptions. Which explains why I'm constantly getting pissed at my Protestant friends who are concerned that my Catholic wife must be "worshiping" Mary and "using ritual in place of true spiritual communion". Grrr.<P>(I grew up about two steps shy of fundamentalist, and I'm regularly astonished when I learn that things I assumed to be true while growing up are completely ridiculous. For example, it wasn't until a year ago that I learned that polygamy was not only not sanctioned by the Church of Latter-Day Saints, but was grounds for excommunication. At least that's my CURRENT understanding.)<P>--Strange
<P>------------------
Neurotic -- sane, but unhappy about it.

[Randy]

No disrespect taken.

There is room in the Church for different beliefs about caffeine consumption -- the original revelation, given to Joseph Smith in 1833, stated "hot drinks are not for the body or belly." (<A HREF="http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/89">D&C 89:9</A>). This was originally given as counsel, not "commandment or constraint." It was, however, made into a commandment later, when Brigham Young was prophet. Then, and I'm sorry about sketchy details here -- it was in the 1950s, I think -- "hot drinks" was specified as "coffee and tea." Specific Church statements are at <A HREF="http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,11-1-13-38,00.html">http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,11-1-13-38,00.html</A>, but don't say much more than that hot drinks "means coffee and tea, which contain harmful drugs." Caffeine.

Now plenty of Church members still drink sodas and whatnot, and eat chocolate, and all that caffeinated jazz. Sort of obedience to the letter of the law, but not the spirit. But the Church doesn't ask "do you drink caffeine" when you're being interviewed for a recommend to the temple (only worthy members can attend the temple -- not the chapel where we go on Sundays, but one of the 50+ dedicated temples in the world -- and I'm a bit ashamed to say that I haven't been in more than 2 years, but that I'll be getting my temple recommend next week, so I'm back on track). They ask if you obey the Word of Wisdom (the name for the law of health -- D&C 89), which leaves it open to the discretion of the member to judge their own worthiness as far as caffeine goes. (Alcohol, tobacco, and harmful drugs are all explicitly forbidden, though you still get some variety of opinions with NyQuil and whatnot.)

Wow. I'm poking around the <A HREF="http://www.lds.org">official church site</A> and finding cool video clips. Well, <A HREF="http://www.lds.org/media/video/enr/WordofWisdom/WordofWisdom_MR.mov">semi-cool</A>.

As for polygamy.... whew-boy. THERE'S a can of worms. You won't find much on it in our <A HREF="http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,11-1-13-1,00.html">basic beliefs</A>; though it's true that anyone in the past century to have entered into a polygamous relationship would be excommunicated (starting with <A HREF="http://scriptures.lds.org/od/1">this</A> in 1890), it's also true that the Lord did give <A HREF="http://scriptures.lds.org/dc/132">commandments</A> to some people to have plural marriages back between the 1830s and and 1880s. These <A HREF="http://scriptures.lds.org/jacob/2">changes in commandment (Jacob 2:27-30)</A> from an unchanging God are difficult for lots of folks, but they go right along with basic beliefs. These links are scripture, so you'll find them in our works with The Book of Mormon and the Bible. But they're also some of the deepest beliefs we have -- as missionaries teach people, they don't delve into these deeper doctrines before people have prayed about the Book of Mormon to ask God if it's true, and if the message we're bringing them is true, and have <A HREF="http://scriptures.lds.org/moro/10/4">gotten an answer</A>. If He tells you it's true, that the Church is His Church, then you no longer worry if imperfect men are making up doctrines and policies, which would be my first assumption when looking at any organization, religious or otherwise.

Took me a loooooooong time to get my answer.

Never cared for the taste of beer anyway. <P>------------------
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[Randy]

Yeah, talking religion can end a thread pretty quick, eh? <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif">

[Bill]

Hello Randy!

[Somebody Strange]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Randy:
<B>Yeah, talking religion can end a thread pretty quick, eh? <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/smile.gif"></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>LOL -- sure can -- but it doesn't phase me any. I was just without access since Friday. Sort of. I can READ the site, but not post anything when I'm accessing from home.<P>Anyway, I really appreciate your taking the time to answer. I picked up a Book of Mormon from a hotel (it was next to the Gideon Bible in my dresser) and started reading it, and then kind of stopped pseudo-unintentionally for the same reason I never got through the Bible from start to finish: namely, it reads like the Bible. Heh.<P>My religious background is only moderately interesting. I grew up Protestant; both sides of my family have been Protestant for centuries. In fact, on one side, Dr. Samuel Fuller was a deacon of the church in Plymouth. (He was also the only person with medical training on the Mayflower.)<P>I went to a "non-denominational" Christian school, which meant we were 99.5% Protestant and .5% Catholic. The school had sort of a schizophrenic feeling due to the different churches and belief systems represented. For example, some people believed that speaking in tongues was the only sign that God had touched you; others believed that it was a deception used by the devil. Some people believed that you were going to go to hell unless you were baptized; others thought baptism was appropriate but a personal matter. Some people thought once you "came to Christ" you were saved forever, no matter what else you did during your life. Others believed you were saved forever as long as your heart was tuned to God "the majority of the time, and God knows". Still others believed you were only saved if you were right with God at the moment of death. And a minority of others believed that if you "came to Christ" and then committed any "serious" sin, you had little if any hope of redemption.<P>You can imagine how confusing this can be to certain youngsters. I don't think there was necessarily anything wrong with the school, but it probably needed some more coherency.<P>So, I grew up extremely, EXTREMELY conservative; I'd even venture to say fundamentalist. Since then, I've liberalized quite a bit, theologically. I was always liberal socially -- I never bought into the beliefs that interracial marriage was a sin, for example (which my grandparents believed, based on their church's interpretation of a verse in the Bible that says "be not unequally yoked").<P>The reason I mention all this is just to explain that the only contact I had with Mormonism was a family that attended our school at one point, despite being told -- and I believe this is word for word -- that their children would be required to attend a standard class in which the students were taught that Mormonism "is a cult". My mother, who taught at the school, told me about the family (the students were in highschool, I was in elementary) in the same hushed tone that people in the 80's would mention that someone was gay. I thought "how awful to be a Mormon".<P>Oh, and then there was the Mormon girl who became my ex-girlfriend's lesbian lover. (I'm not kidding.) But I appreciate your taking the time to set straight information that I was taught in a school where teachers are more likely to apply denominatorial doctrine than research and critical thinking.<P>--Strange<P>------------------
Neurotic -- sane, but unhappy about it.