Okay... Now I use lemon balm (melissa officinalis) knocks me out... I can have a whole tea ball full of the stuff and sleep 10 hours. Plus it's a minor anti-depressant. PLUS, you can adapt it, for instance, I am a light weight, for a good night's sleep I only need a teaspoon full in a tea ball for tea, but if you need more, you can up the dose, whereas with a pill you can't. Easy to find and cheap, you can even grow your own, but it will take over.

"Sleep medicine" is one of the newer and growing medical specialities. Unless y'all live in a very rural or remote location, there's likely to be such practitioners at your nearby medical or university center . Poor sleep can lead to a long list of serious (and sometimes fatal) medical problems. Everyone needs enough restful sleep and advancing age can complicate the picture. Problems like chronic insomnia or spending the night tossing are common but none the less can adversely affect your health. If you don't get restful sleep or find yourself feeling sleepy or unalert at times during the day, see a sleep doctor.

Yes, I decided to face my sleep issues head on a while back. I went in for a couple of sleep studies and discovered to my shock that I had numerous episodes of apnea....I had no idea! But I also knew that I had insomnia, as well. That was the difficult nut to crack! I had to find a sleep specialist, someone trained in resolving sleep problems unrelated to apnea. It took a couple of years of trial by error, sleep diaries, making changes to my bed, my bedroom, my bedtime habits.....all of which helped. But the clincher came when my very patient and thorough doctor taught me how to do deep breathing and thought clearing exercises. Sitting in his office, in a chair, I could drop my pulse rate significantly within five minutes. After that, I never had a sleepless, anxious night again. I do the deep breathing meditation every single night. All told, I have a new, much needed mattress, a new pillow, a dark and cool room, no naps allowed, a routine bedtime, no alcohol after dinner, and the deep breathing thing. Edited to add that apnea and insomnia are different issues. The doctor I went to for the sleep study was not trained in nor even very interested in my other sleep problems. I had to seek and find a phychological specialist. We had to deal with nightmares, anxiety, terrible habits, etc. Now, I fall asleep within five or ten minutes and sleep all night other than one bathroom break...deep breathing exercises put me straight back to sleep.

I have AMD. I have the wet version in my left eye [required/and may require additional treatment] and the dry version in my right eye [requiring no treatment but continual observation in the event it changes]. Luckily, this struck me at a very advantageous time in medical research. There's a relatively new [and successful] treatment for AMD called Eylea. AMD is actually actively bleeding tiny blood vessels in the back of the eye. Eylea injections stop the bleeding. Instead of losing all the sight in the eye...with vision turning to a black blob...you may only lose a very small area of view. I have what I consider a small grayish circle where I've lost vision...and my right eye compensates. I've adapted very well to this loss but the one side effect that is more annoying to deal with is the loss of depth perception. I continually watch where I put my feet when I'm walking in strange territory. In any case...I can tell you with a surety...having thoroughly researched this malady...as well as having discussed it with several expert medicos...that blue light does not, has not and will not...in and of itself...cause AMD. I am an inveterate reader, writer/ researcher. I don't own an iPad or similar reading tool but I rarely go to sleep at night without at least 2 hours of book reading [in bed] under my belt. And...yes...that can cause eye strain if you don't have proper lighting and the font is very small....but it will not lead to AMD. I do, however, spend a lot of time reading/writing on my PC. That, too, will/can cause eye strain if I don't have the proper lighting and I don't increase the font size to an easily readable number. But, again, it will not cause AMD and no blue light has caused me any harm. If you have some other disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure...or physical impairments such as cataracts, a detached retina or other ocular damage...or you take daily doses of aspirin or are/were a smoker...these may contribute to AMD. Actually, probably the biggest contributor...segregating those mentioned above...is old age. Like most body parts...our eyes do wear out in time. Your doctor, as Snidely mentioned above, is equipped to advise you where these issues are concerned. I, personally, inherited the genetic predisposition for AMD. I have no other contributing factors other than I am in mid to late 70's and I've used my eyes excessively throughout my lifetime for copious amounts of detailed work and enjoyment.