Consumer Reports

The other night, I was awake the whole night. I haven’t had a night like that in a long time, but it reminded me of my past issues with insomnia . I was pretty young when it dawned on me that I didn’t have the same sleeping patterns as my sisters. I had frequent episodes of getting very little, or no, sleep 3-4 times a week. While my sisters were sleeping, I was awake for hours thinking, thinking, thinking. I would think about happy things, things that worried me, or sometimes I would ponder world problems. One night I didn’t want to eat my stew. My mom told me that children were starving in Africa and they would love to have that stew. I stayed awake the whole night thinking about it. I was only 8, but it seemed impossible to me that anyone would want to eat my mom’s stew… no offense Mom! I spent the rest of the night plotting how I could send those kids my stew. Around 3:30 am, I came up with the idea of borrowing my dad’s thermos on Friday night and, when my parents weren’t looking, filling it with the stew. I could take it to the post office on Saturday to mail it to those hungry, African kids. As long as they got the thermos back to me by Sunday night, my parents would never know. Around 4:30 am, I figured out I could probably ship them my mom’s liver, spinach, and beets too! My parents would take us to drive-in movies. While my sisters were zonked out after the first movie, I secretly watched the rest of the movies with my folks. One movie had zombies in it. The zombies roamed around at night and they didn’t sleep. Hey, that was my problem! Oh no, I was becoming a zombie! Of course, zombies also had sharp teeth and ate people, but I figured it was just a matter of time before I started snacking on arms and legs. For a while, I spent sleepless nights not only pondering those hungry, African children, but feeling my teeth to see if they were becoming pointy. Despite the fact that I outgrew my zombie fears, to this day, I still have this mental association with sleep disorders and being a zombie. These sleepless episodes followed me into adulthood. At some point I understood that I was experiencing insomnia. I read up on insomnia and tried various things to help myself. Nothing really seemed to help. I signed up for a relaxation class and was surprised to discover that it helped me a little, but the truth is that the “real cure” for my insomnia was… to develop severe sleep apnea . Yeah, isn’t that a kicker? I no longer had trouble falling asleep, but while I was sleeping, I would stop breathing 100s of times a night. In order to keep living, I had to wake myself up to breathe. Oddly, I didn’t even know that this was happening to me. It took me years to get a sleep apnea diagnosis, but eventually I got help. Sleep disorders impact a person’s life in many ways and they are quite dangerous to have. If you suspect that you or a loved one may have a sleep disorder, you may want to check out these additional resources: Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep How Much Sleep Do You Need How Well Are You Sleeping Insomnia Podcast Restless Leg Syndrome Sleep Studies Sleep Walking Teacher’s Guide: Information About Sleep

It could be my response to one of those icebreaker games: People don’t know that I… am a proud member of the Disabled American Vets Auxiliary. I’m a member because of one night during WWII when my dad’s lungs and leg were burned from mustard gas that leaked from the train he was guarding as a U.S. Army soldier. Dad sustained permanent scars because he didn’t abandon his post. Like a lot of members of the military, my dad doesn’t think anything he did during his years of service warrants “thanking.” “I was just doing my job,” he always says. But especially this time of year, many people want to show support for the men and women who are serving or who served in the U.S. military. Want to help? The U.S. Department of Defense offers a list of organizations that can send your care package , card, or letter to troops. Or e-mail the troops a holiday greeting and thank you. Some of the nearly 255,000 e-mail messages sent so far are particularly heartwarming to read. And be sure to check out the video messages from service members deployed around the world. Veterans also should be remembered during the holidays. You could visit vets at your local VA hospital or nursing home , or simply mail a holiday greeting to local VA hospital patients or local VFW or American Legion members. If you know any veterans, you might show your appreciation by offering to get them some groceries, mailing or e-mailing them holiday cards, inviting them over for a holiday meal, or even just shoveling their walk. Need more ideas? Visit DoD community relations or “101 Ways to Thank a Veteran.” Have you thanked a military member or veteran this holiday season? I’d love to hear from you.

The United States Postal Service estimates that roughly 97 million customers visit the post office during the holidays. Are you going to be one of the many standing in line this year to buy your Christmas stamps, purchase your boxes, or mail your gifts to your loved ones? Well, you don’t have to! The USPS Holiday page is organized to help you streamline your holiday postal tasks. Unless you have decided to send an alpaca from the Andes to your Aunt Agatha in Anchorage (try saying that fast 3 times), almost everything that you need to do can be done online. My husband does a lot of shipping, so he ordered multiple-sizes of the free flat rate boxes and had them delivered to our home. With the flat rate boxes, you choose the proper size box to mail your item for one flat rate, regardless of the weight. I suppose if you were shipping very heavy gold bricks, there might be a problem, but as the USPS says, “If it fits, it ships.” Two days ago, hubby wanted to ship a gift, so he went online to print the postage and scheduled the package pickup. The next day, our postal carrier came to the door to pick up the package. That is how easy it was. The USPS has some Mailing Tips to Avoid Holiday Glitches and Quick Tips for Holiday Mailing that will ensure your package makes the journey smoothly. If you are sending a gift to a loved one in the military, the USPS has a Shipping Gifts to Military Addresses page that has some helpful guidance and USA.gov Search has links to additional resources when sending gifts to military personnel . Did you know that the USPS has a Letters to Santa Program ? Every year the USPS gets many letters from children that are addressed to Santa. In 1912 the Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock authorized a program called Operation Santa that allows local postal employees and citizens to respond to the letters. Today, postal facilities in cities around the country allow charitable organizations, major corporations, local businesses and individuals to adopt letters to Santa. Although the Postal Service Mailing Statistics page doesn’t have any statistics about how many Andean alpacas have been sent to Anchorage during the holidays (a statistic that I was very curious about), it does have some other amazing numbers. Let’s just say there is a whole lot of activity for the USPS during the holidays, so be smart and take care of your holiday mailing early. P.S., here is a bonus photo of the Andean alpaca.

This week celebrates the second birthday of everyone’s favorite government blog! In the past year, the Gov Gab bloggers have addressed all kinds of topics. We’ve debated the merits of the Post Office dropping service on a Tuesday or Saturday and discussed where people can find information on the digital TV conversion. We’ve covered the Presidential Inauguration and many of the celebratory balls. Whether we were stirring up controversy or just sharing some of the government information we’ve found helpful in our daily lives, you’ve been with us the whole way and for that, we want to give you a big “Thanks!” We appreciate every comment you leave, whether or not you agree with us. It’s great to have so many of you joining our discussions. To celebrate, we thought it would be fun to show you which posts you found the most interesting this year. Here are the top five posts that got the most of you talking: The Post Office Dilemma : 38 comments Contacting President Barack Obama : 34 comments Inauguration Day : 26 comments Questions for the President : 26 comments Your Turn: Making the Most of Libraries : 26 comments

The issue is still on the table, you know. The Postal Service is pursuing the idea of cutting back to a 5-day mail delivery schedule in order to save money. In spite of a postal rate increase earlier this year and the reduction of overhead costs, the Postal Service is projecting a 7 billion dollar loss this fiscal year. It appears that the problem is simply a drop in mail volume. We’re using commercial services to deliver packages, paying our bills online, sending e-mails and e-vites to our friends and family instead of the old snail mail. This change in our communication habits is having a big impact at the post office. Personally, the idea of no mail delivery on Saturday doesn’t much bother me. My mail consists mainly of catalogs I don’t want, junk mail and an occasional bill. It’s rare to find a card or letter in the mailbox anymore, so I really don’t think I will miss Saturday mail delivery, if it’s eliminated. Maybe I’m missing something and Saturday mail delivery is more important than I think. I wonder though. In the modern era, is 6-day mail delivery still a necessity, or is it a comforting holdover from our past? If you’ve got a strong opinion on the matter, I encourage you to contact your representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate to let them know how important it is to you.

About two weeks ago my mail didn’t show up one day. I thought it was a little odd because I usually get some kind of junk mail, circular or bill every day, but other than that I didn’t think too much of it. But then the mail didn’t show up the next day, or the next or the next. It didn’t show up the following Monday either. So I called the Post Office to see what was going on. Because it was after hours, I called the 800 number and spoke with an extremely friendly guy who told me someone at my local Post Office would call me back by end of business the next day. I wasn’t totally sure if I believed that would actually happen, but to my surprise around lunch time the next day I got a call from my local Post Office wanting me to tell them what was going on. I explained that I hadn’t gotten my mail in almost a week and no one had put a hold on it. After assuring me he’d talk with my mail carrier, we hung up. When I got home from work that day my mail was there. Not a whole bunch of it to make up for the days I missed, but something was there. And a few days later, I was surprised when I got a follow up phone call from the Post Office to check on the situation. The man on the phone told me my mail carrier said I just didn’t get any mail those five days. I find that a little hard to believe, but at least my mail is coming again. Overall I was extremely impressed with the customer service from the Post Office. They called me back promptly and fixed the situation really quickly. If you’re having problems with your mail delivery, you can find more information on filing a complaint . Feel free to share your Post Office stories in the comments.

About two weeks ago my mail didn’t show up one day. I thought it was a little odd because I usually get some kind of junk mail, circular or bill every day, but other than that I didn’t think too much of it. But then the mail didn’t show up the next day, or the next or the next. It didn’t show up the following Monday either. So I called the Post Office to see what was going on. Because it was after hours, I called the 800 number and spoke with an extremely friendly guy who told me someone at my local Post Office would call me back by end of business the next day. I wasn’t totally sure if I believed that would actually happen, but to my surprise around lunch time the next day I got a call from my local Post Office wanting me to tell them what was going on. I explained that I hadn’t gotten my mail in almost a week and no one had put a hold on it. After assuring me he’d talk with my mail carrier, we hung up. When I got home from work that day my mail was there. Not a whole bunch of it to make up for the days I missed, but something was there. And a few days later, I was surprised when I got a follow up phone call from the Post Office to check on the situation. The man on the phone told me my mail carrier said I just didn’t get any mail those five days. I find that a little hard to believe, but at least my mail is coming again. Overall I was extremely impressed with the customer service from the Post Office. They called me back promptly and fixed the situation really quickly. If you’re having problems with your mail delivery, you can find more information on filing a complaint . Feel free to share your Post Office stories in the comments.