Nooooooooovember

[El Gordo]

The layman's conclusion I've drawn is that lack of a good night's sleep is a health risk.

Oh dear. This is something I've long suspected and always struggled with.
Early nights are alien to me, as this is when I like to catch up with the world away from work.

I have no clue what any of my readings are. This is not dumb bravado, I just don't go to the Docs often. I'll book myself in for a service & oil change this week and report back.

I hate using the word "should" but it will appear a couple of times here:

Never a bad idea to go to the doc's but you should consider getting a BP monitor and try to get into the habit of taking a reading first thing in the morning. You can get very capable monitors very cheaply on Amazon -- http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=blood+pressure+monitor&sprefix=blood+pressure%2Caps%2C0

I have one of those Omron ones which are highly regarded. Could be the best 15 or 20 quid investment you'll ever make. [NOTE -- the upper arm cuff versions are regarded as more reliable than the wrist versions.] Also, you'll find a number of iOS / Android apps for keeping a record of your readings and turning thm into fancy graphs and moving averages. Warning: A bit like my weight-averaging over a week, I always take 3 or 4 readings and take the average as you can get rogue readings. And you notice things, like your BP is much higher if you need a pee!

But seriously, anyone over 50 should know their current BP.

Regarding sleep, like you I've always been a night owl, but recently I've tried rediscovering this simple pleasure over the past 6 weeks. Man, what a difference!

If you have 4 minutes to spare, you should watch Arianna Huffington's TED talk -- http://www.ted.com/talks/arianna_huffing...sleep.html