How well are you sleeping?

It's been raining a lot lately, which is a bummer because it's too cold and wet for my spring clothes and open-toe sandals. But the one good thing it's done is wash away the pollen that was giving me such a hard time.

Just to show you how much health damage - including lack of sleep - the pretty flowers and trees were doing, I thought I would share my graphs from the Sleep Cycle app on the iPhone. I'm still fascinated with the app and use it every night - just out of curiosity, really. Three graphs from the worst week are in the column on the left. And on the right I've included the 'after' graphs.

And here's what I had to do. I went to see my doctor, who prescribed me some drugs and a nasal spray that cost a whopping EUR 60 / GBP 51 / USD 76! For a tiny 6ml bottle! Absurd. (but who's the fool? Me, for buying it?!)

Spring cleaning also helped. My cleaner happened to bring someone (to be her substitute whilst on holiday) and I got both of them to stay for four hours. That's eight hour's worth of cleaning! I felt so much better afterwards :-) And the substitute (who has come again on her own since) does a better job - she doesn't just clean, she also tidies up. Hmm I feel bad about getting rid of the usual cleaner and employing someone she introduced but...? I'm still thinking about it. Should I do it?

And those nose plugs... I tried some one weekend when I had a terribly runny nose and I quickly discovered that they can't replace tissues. But they weren't as uncomfortable (or visible!) as I'd imagined them to be.

One other thing I'd started taking were homeopathic tablets but I kept on forgetting (three times a day is such a hassle) so I've now given up. I'm not sure they do anything, anyway... Do you believe in homeopathy?