Things are lookin' up.

So, the sleeping thing is starting to work better these past couple of weeks. Here's what's been happenin':

1. I started trying to set my clock back by 20 minute increments. I don't always keep to it, but I've been doing pretty good at working on this.
2. I think the thing that has helped the most, actually, is sitting in front of a light for about an hour in the mornings. I don't have one of those fancy happy lamps, so I've just been blaring my little desk lamp in my face in the mornings. I just have it on close to me, pointing towards my face while I read the scriptures in the morning, and it has totally helped me get back into the land of the living faster! I also think it is helping me sleep better at night!
3. While I'm still not getting sleepy as early as I'd like, I'm sleeping almost 100% more soundly! It used to take me forever to fall asleep, I'd wake up for every little noise, and it would take forever for me to fall back to sleep, if I could at all. Last week I probably had 4 days where I slept like a log! And this week I've had about 5 so far! AMAZING! I seriously can't remember the last time I've felt this rested!
   

So, that's the status of the sleep thing. I'm thinking that the lack of light in Ohio is the big culprit with my sleeping problems. Not only are the days shorter because it's winter, but in Ohio it is SUPER overcast all the time in the winter. I'm not just talking about lots of clouds here, people. I'm talking about concrete sky. The kind where you can't even see definition between clouds, where the whole sky is just one big gray slab for DAYS or MONTHS at a time. So, I think the extra "sun" light via my desk lamp in the mornings has been helping my body realize "oh, it's daytime! It's time to wake up!"

We'll see.