Author: papabearbts@gmail.com

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3 of the Best Sleep Aids for Us Grown-ups

As we get older, it becomes more and more difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Whether it’s due to stress, anxiety, or simply the fact that our brains are always going, it can be tough to drift off when our heads hit the pillow. If you’re struggling to catch some z’s, you might want to consider a sleep aid. Sleep aids come in many different forms, from supplements to prescription medications. Here are three of the best sleep aids for us grown-ups:

This article does contain affiliate links. By following the links, I may make a small commission on your purchase. The statements below are personal reviews, and are not meant to be used for medical advice. Everything below is strictly anecdotal; for medical advice, please seek advice from licensed medical professionals.

1. Drift Off – Zhou

Drift Off is one of those supplements that is pure relaxations. With natural herbs like chamomile, melatonin, and tryptophan, a solid night of sleep awaits. Drift Off comes in easy to swallow capsules, meaning there is no lingering taste in your mouth that comes with other tablets or liquid sleep aids. The herb blend in Drift Off provide a strong push to sleep without the lingering effects in the morning that come with many other sleep aids. Within usually 30 minutes, I was ready for sleep when it usually takes 3-4 hours for me to fall asleep naturally. Drift Off gave me an almost whole body relaxed feeling, and whisked me off to sleep. This is the one supplement from this list I put on for a monthly subscription with Amazon to keep my supply coming. 

2. Power to Sleep PM – Irwin Naturals

Power to Sleep PM is another herb blend supplement that gave me a great push to sleep at night without the hangover from other common sleep aids the next morning. Like Drift Off, Power to Sleep PM comes in capsules for easy dosing. Taking this supplement is super easy, and puts me to sleep within an hour. My sleep while taking Power to Sleep PM was still a solid night of sleep, and should I come across it if Drift Off is unavailable, I would gladly pick this up again. 

3. ZzzQuil Pure Zzzs – Vicks

As much as I love a good night’s sleep, I really love fruit snacks. The lab rats at the Vicks factory finally put together a tasty treat for bed time with these ZzzQuil Pure Zzzs gummies. With a blend of melatonin, chamomile and lavender, these gummies have a great taste and a mild effect. They will get you to sleep (this is probably my wife’s favorite for when she has trouble sleeping), but these gummies are not the strongest aid on the market. Like the supplements above, the Vicks gummies don’t give that sleep aid hangover the next morning. Sleep for me comes around an hour to an hour and a half after eating them. For those who look for something more mild, the Pure Zzz gummies would be a great fit.

Bonus Sleep Aid… Single-Use Foam Ear Plugs – Howard Leight

I became a light sleeper during basic training just over 15 years ago now. I could hear those footsteps coming to wake us up before all hell would break loose, and ever since, noise has been an issue. My favorite remedy for this has been ear plugs. I’ve tried using in ear headphones, but they hurt my ears especially after laying on my side. I’ve also tried re-usable ear plugs, but so far, they don’t fit my ears correctly and they either fall out, or hurt the same as the headphones. The single-use ear plugs quickly became my best friend at night. These are super soft foam, and form to your ear so gently you hardly notice them, but you’ll certainly notice the 32 dB of noise cancellation. Even if your partner or roommate is a snorer like somebody I know… these ear plugs will mute the noise sufficiently to get to sleep.

Best wishes and sweet dreams. Love ya’, buddy.

Papa Bear

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Solo Saturday

Being a parent, there’s not much time that just you alone. That is exactly what I was able to achieve today. While technically not alone, I had a day away with a group of my friends, it was a day out without my kids. It was a day in which I didn’t have to keep a constant, vigilant eye out for what my band of mischievous ninjas was up to, and it was wonderful.

I got to meet up with my group of friends and head across the Mississippi to Illinois and head to a German brewery, Hofbrauhaus. For those who have been an you know the place is absolutely brilliant. A huge interior dining area fit for an Oktoberfest all of its own, but still spilling out to a vast patio, and today, an extra tent set up for a separate Fest I didn’t catch the name of. Wurst Fest maybe? Doesn’t matter. This place is huge. They have a standard bar of liquors, but the highlight (naturally) is their selection of beers. There’s a lager and a dunkel plus a rotational beer served in a .5 liter glass or a massive 1 liter stein. The food is some phenomenal German fare; I got a version of jägerschnitzel.

While the food and drinks were great, the real star of the day was being out with friends. So often, we make our kids and our spouses the priority, and neglect to take care of ourselves.

About a year ago, my wife and I went to marriage counseling. We weren’t at each other’s throats, divorce wasn’t on the line, we just weren’t at our best functioning selves. One of the first things the therapist asked about was how much time each of us had to ourselves. Like many of us, our answer was almost none. For me, my only real alone time was driving to and from work. My wife was in the same boat as me. We were spending all of our collective time watching the boys, we weren’t talking time or for ourselves.

Constantly being there with your kids sounds like good parenting, I know. But the problem is you neglect your own needs, and you’re wearing yourself out. The therapist stressed that we can’t really be there for our kids without taking time out for self care. Think of it like your car, it can’t keep running without regularly stopping to top up with fuel and occasional maintenance. So take regular time and set it aside for you, and a little less frequent, take a bigger chunk of time and get away for the day.

Keep up with your friends, schedule time each month at minimum to get out and do something not at home. Start a hobby to take a step back for yourself if not daily, then a few times a week. And try to keep healthy habits. Take up yoga, go for a walk, learn a new skill. Do something to better yourself, you’ll see your life start to come together again.

None of us are perfect machines. We all have things we need to do to keep ourselves operating the best we can. Know that you aren’t perfect, and that’s perfectly ok. But give yourself some time for you, and you’ll begin to see more of what you remember from your past.

Love you, buddy.

-Papa Bear

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Smoking Saturday

One of my favorite things about having the nice weather spring brings, it’s finally smoking season. Sure, during the fall and winter I break out my smoker, but those days are few and far between.

Today I’m smoking up a nice 12 pound brisket I grabbed from my local Costco. This one is a prime brisket – something they’ve had on sale fairly often lately. I took it straight home and trimmed it up to get some of the extra fat off and make it look good while I got the smoker started. I’m using a local bag of charcoal, the bag says local Missouri hardwood lump charcoal. I wish I had a brand, but I can only find it at my local meat market (more from them to come soon).

My primary smoker is an Oklahoma Joe’s Bronco smoker. It’s a pit barrel smoker, and had been the best smoker I’ve owned or used. I grew up with and previously owned offset smokers, so I grew up tending the fire and adjusting airflow. This Bronco has been a champ for me with maintaining temperature with minimal adjustments. I only have two complaints for it: to add fuel to the fire (more charcoal or wood), you have to take off the cooking grate or the hangers (whichever you using to cook) and the heat deflector to get to the charcoal bin at the bottom; and while using the cooking grate for things like brisket or pork shoulder, the cooking surface area leaves a bit to be desired. For that reason, I usually max out my brisket at around 15 pounds, or else I won’t be able to close the lid well without possibly closing on the meat itself. Beyond that, I absolutely love that smoker and have had some of the best barbecue I’ve ever made in there.

But enough about my smoker. After getting the brisket trimmed, it’s time for seasoning. I am “fine tuning” my own brisket/beef rub. I’ll give the proportions down below, but I don’t have exact measurements yet. I tend to cook like Justin Wilson on his Louisiana Cookin’ show, eyeballing what I put in, but it comes out just right. The seasonings that go in are kosher salt, course ground black pepper, Lowry’s seasoning salt, brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes, and ground coffee. Believe me when I say, this is some killer brisket rub, and it goes great on any cut of beef. I normally use a yellow mustard binder, but my last brisket I used Worcestershire and I felt it gave a better flavor to the beef. So I rub in the Worcestershire sauce on the brisket, then sprinkle a liberal layer of my rub on the bottom first, then flip and repeat for the top. I cook fat-side up, so that is the top for me. I’ll also take this time and place my meat thermometer in the point and be ready to go when the temperature in the smoker comes up.

I was in a bit of a rush today, so I cooked a little higher temp than normal. I usually smoke the brisket between 225°-240°F, but today I stuck 275°-300°F. Usually it takes 5ish hours for me to get up to 165°F internal, which is where I like to wrap my brisket, today was about 4 hours today because of the higher cooking temp. I wrap my meats using peach butcher paper, and I poke my meat probe through the paper to keep watching the temp and get it up to about 195°F in the point and pull it off, typically another 2-3 hours. Once off the smoker, I set it in a deep baking pan and cover (while still wrapped in the butcher paper) with a layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil and leave it to rest for about 1-2 hours before slicing. I find those layers help keep the temp a little higher for longer and helps break down the collagen in the meat a little further leading to a super moist and tender cut of meat.

With a starting weight of 12 pounds, even with all the trimming, this was more than enough to feed my family of four and a couple friends. Now to find a new recipe for the leftovers…..

For the rub (measurements are approximate, measure with your heart):

  • 1/4 cup Kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup coarse ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup Lowry’s seasoning salt
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. paprika
  • 1 Tbsp. chili powder
  • 2 tsp. ground cumin
  • 2 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • 1 tsp. onion powder
  • 1 K-cup’s worth of ground coffee beans