INSOMNIA REMEDIES TO INCLUDE IN YOUR TRAVEL BAG

There you are - finally underway on your grand tour of India or back in the old neighborhood at your high school reunion or visiting Aunt Amelia in Ft. Lauderdale - and you're tucked into bed, planning to get up early in the morning because there's so much to do - when suddenly there's some unexpected problem - like your head is still buzzing from the jet vibrations - or the teenager of the house is playing really disgusting music at 1:30 in the morning - or you can hear the people in the next room of the cheap motel go at it - or there's a mosquito buzzing about the room.

Damn! You can't get to sleep!  That's when you're going to be real happy to find what you need in your little travel bag.

Here are Jonella's recommendations:

1. Plenty of valerian/passionflower herbal capsules and/or other over-the-counter sleep capsules and herbal preparations. Very important!  (We like the antihistamine:  Dyphenhydramine - 25 mg does it for us - inexpensive - comes as a generic - available at all drugstores....)

2. Ear stoppers - (at least two pairs - these things have a tendency to jump out of your fingers and roll under the bed at 3 a.m., when you're not going to want to crawl around searching for them - at which point you'll be especially thrilled you have that extra pair!)  Can be purchased for 99 cents (approximately) at any drugstore - and weigh, literally, nothing.  (We recently went to our high school reunion and shared a hotel room with a dear old friend with whom we had one of those late-night, great long talk fests - and then we turned out the light and she immediately fell fast asleep.  But, it quickly became apparent, she had a tendency to snore very loudly - big guffaw type snoring - and also THRASHED ABOUT IN HER BED IN HER SLEEP!  It seemed almost hopeless for us - sleepwise - until we got ourself up and started searching through our cosmetic bag.  Yup! - We did indeed have ear stoppers and sleep medications and we did finally get to sleep! - whew!!!)

3. Sleep mask. You go to sleep in Aunt Amelila's lovely dark guest room and suddenly it's 6 a.m. and the room is aglow with this amazing amount of bright sunlight shining right at you. Sunlight is wonderful, of course - beautiful! - but not when you need to sleep! That's when you'll be glad you tucked one of these into your travel bag. Usually a black satin thing (like the Lone Ranger wore but without the eye openings), with an elastic band that fits around the head. (Ours is a zebra fake fur mask that a dear friend with a fine sense of humor gave us years ago - delightfully crass but does the job well.)

4. Tiny flash light to use in the middle of the night when you have to get up and pee, or have to get something out of your bag - like valerian pills - or bug repellent...

5. Bug repellent. Extremely important in summer or when traveling in warm climates - but could come in handy at any time of year - anywhere.

6. Bug bite salve (or small amount of witch hazel or diluted amonia.)

7. Pain killer (like buffered aspirin (always take these things with some food!) - or ibuprofen) - for unexpected aches and pains - or headache.

8. Travel diary/notebook to write down your thoughts and, if necessary, dump your misery. Can be extremely important and helpful - calming - when traveling with people who are, shall we say, on the difficult side - such as inconsiderate, selfish, hurtful, rude, chronically complaining, visibly unhappy, quarrelsome, depressed, etc. companions you're stuck with - sometimes close family members. Unloading our misery onto a travel diary has gotten us through some pretty trying journeys with some pretty trying people. Definitely recommended.  

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