If you haven’t considered holding a pillow over your sleep partner’s snoring face, you’re either a saint or a liar.
Snoring is often more than simply irritating to those around you (or rude, if you happen to be in church). It is oftentimes a symptom of sleep apnea. We have heard more and more about sleep apnea in the last two decades as the disorder has become more prevelent. Linked to an obese lifestyle, sleep apnea can lead to unrestful sleep (and therefore unrestoritive sleep) all the way to death.
Sleep, that beautiful, restorative slumber we strive for each and every day continues to prove vital in the fight against dementia and Alzheimer’s later in life.
When we fall asleep our brains go through a number of processes – they take memories and things we’ve learned and make connections to the other parts of the brain. It solidifies memories it deems important and wipes out the unimportant (which is why you have so much trouble remembering what you had for breakfast yesterday, but can remember the breakfast you tried two months ago at a new restaurant).
The long and short is that insufficient sleep or sleep disturbed by apnea reduce the cleaning our brains have the opportunity to do.
It’s worth stressing that this recent study between Australian and Icelandic scientists continues to point to a link between sleep and Alzheimer’s, it’s inconclusive yet to if disturbed sleep leads to Alzheimer’s or if part of the earliest indicators of the disease is disturbed sleep.
This recent RMIT University Release does a great job of explaining the study results in everyday language. The actual study is a bit more scientific than I can digest, but includes a wealth of information!
Waking up in the middle of the night, but this time instead of the uneasiness of tomorrow’s to-do list coming to mind there’s another sensation. You’re hungry.
This article from CNET offers the foods to choose when the midnight munchies come around. A couple quick takeaways: *While pizza is going to be my go-to, it’s not going to help me get back to sleep. Spicy foods can flare up the heartburn (of course, an adjustable base mattress can help you deal with that!). *High protien foods are going to serve you best, which is good news with the upcoming holiday leftover feasts!
While her advice might have been to get more peace and quiet during the day if you let the little one rest, Grandma’s advice was definitely on point. UCLA published a study last week that identifies other benefits. Namely, that from birth to age two and-a-half sleep allows the brain to grow. From 30 months for the reminder of their lives, the brain goes into repair and maintenance mode.
As you might have seen from calling or going by our store Monday and Tuesday, we were out to meet with our BrandSource buying group (virtually, of course!) to learn more about what is happening across the country with appliances and mattresses.
The conversations revolved largely around inventory.
Starting in April, states shutting down their economies led to bulk buying of food and small chest freezers were bought up before we could put them on the floor. We even had a customer come down from the Twin Cities to buy one because they were already out up there.
Larger freezers weren’t far behind as packing houses closed and the cost of beef and pork shot up. Butchers are out through parts of next year with orders, and it all needs to be stored somewhere. Couple that with freezers being out of season for manufacturers just exacerbated the problem.
We have over $20,000 worth of freezers on order. And about every six weeks we receive two or three in and immediately head to some grateful clients.
Beyond freezers, we were okay with getting appliances at the beginning of the spring. But as the summer rolled along, assembly lines needed to start social distancing cutting efficency and demand for appliances went up as people were cooking at home more and wanted an upgrade.
No manufacturer has been immune from this. The limited ability to produce while demand is at an all-time high has hit everyone.
Some manufacturers have even gone as far as not accepting new orders until they catch up with backorders.
Others are making it clear that they are 6 to 10 weeks out on current orders. But that’s just a best guess, because even their computer system can’t manage the number of backorders in the system to produce an accurate ETA.
No retailer is immune from this, either. We just met with hundreds of retailers, big and small, all experiencing the same thing.
We had a concerned client call the other day asking why we can’t get him his refrigerator when Lowes and Home Depot are advertising great sales. Clearly, they must have the product in if they’re advertising it, right?
No.
Out of curiosity, we shopped Home Depot in Sioux Falls’ website for their model fridge only to see that it was out to November. Later that morning, we checked the site again before reaching out to the customer and it had November now became December 10.
The long and short of it is that if the product isn’t in-stock at the moment and the store told you it’d only be 2 to 3 weeks to get the rest in, they’re taking you for a ride.
We have tried our best to be on top of the situation and not over-promise customers. But the absolute truth is we just don’t know with any certainty when a product will be in. There is no advantage to buying from the big box stores to get the product sooner.
So if you’re going to be waiting in line anyway, why not wait in a line where you’re a name and not a purchase order number?
What does this mean for people in the appliance market?
I know this sounds like a sales pitch, but if you think you’ll be in the market for new appliances in the next six months, consider buying now.
First, supply and demand can only stretch so far. GE and Speed Queen have already issued price increases effective this year. The others won’t be far behind. Right now, LG has some pretty nice sales going on yet, but there is no indication that Black Friday will even be a better time to buy.
Second, reserve your place now. Just like in the online shopping example above, waiting even a few hours changed the outcome of delivery on that refrigerator. Orders get fulfilled on a first come, first served basis at these manufacturers.
Finally, remember that this is impacting the entire market. We pay dues out of our bottom line every month to a buying group that gives independent dealers the same influence with manufacturers as Lowes and Home Depot. And after the last quarter where the demand in sales is largley coming from independent dealers like us, that influence is only going to get stronger. We wouldn’t mind taking those membership dues home with us each month instead, but we know strategically how much better our clients are served by us being a part of it.
We want your business because we truly enjoy serving Rock County with appliances, mattresses, flooring and cleaning. It’s fun for us to find the products that work for you, especially when we can find great deals on it, too!
There has been a lot of frustration all around, and we wanted to share this to offer a little background, but also as advise. To that end, if it makes a difference in your shopping experience, Schomacker’s will accept payment on delivery instead of up front. We want you to know we’re with you.
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
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