Recently I've been having some trouble sleeping. Mostly it's waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. Occasionally it's not being able to get to sleep as my mind races a mile a minute. I attribute it to various stresses like work and things going on in my personal life (I'm getting ready to buy a house for example, which is a BIG stress right now). To be honest, on weekends I don't mind a little insomnia. I usually get up, play some video games or read and go back to sleep. But during the week it really sucks.

I'm not a big fan of using chemicals to fix what ails me such as sleeping aids or even aspirin (unless I'm really miserable). Today I stumbled upon an article listing the top 10 sleep inducing foods. Some of the items listed are pretty obvious (like Turkey, according to the article it works differently than most people expect). The nice thing about this list is it's so simple, there is even a recipe for some sleep inducing muffins.

Some of my favoriate items from the article:

Bananas. They're practically a sleeping pill in a peel. In addition to a bit of soothing melatonin and serotonin, bananas contain magnesium, a muscle relaxant.

Honey. Drizzle a little in your warm milk or herb tea. Lots of sugar is stimulating, but a little glucose tells your brain to turn off orexin, a recently discovered neurotransmitter that's linked to alertness.

So the next time you have trouble sleeping go fix yourself a midnight snack and avoid the sleeping pills.

Read the article here.

Over the past few months I've been hearing about a challenge at Salvador Molly's, a local restraunt here in Portland that serves pirate food (aka Caribbean food). The challenge is to eat five cheese fritters. Doesn't sound to difficult does it? Ohh ya, their stuffed full of habanero peppers, the hottest peppers grown. Now I was a bit nervous when I ordered the Great Balls of Fire due to the many stories I heard of people hallucinating after eating them or the intense abdominal pain felt afterwards, but I put reason aside and put on my stupid college guy hat.

The first three went down with relative ease, mainly because I ate them really fast. When I started on numbers four and five I could light cigarettes with my breath and it was painful to close my mouth. But I succeeded, and what did I win? My picture on the "Wall of Flame" and the admiration of all those around me. Unfortunately the hallucinations of Mayan cities and spirit wolves running through the Amazon jungle I was promised never came. Oh well...