Home Checklist

Resetting the alarm clock is easy; body clocks take a little longer.

After the switch to daylight saving time, many people take awhile to adjust their sleep schedule. As the days lengthen, this can be hard – there's more light and less dark.

The experts at mattress and pillow maker Sleep Innovations offer these tips to make the most of a night's sleep:

• Location matters. Light tells the body to wake up. A noisy or overly hot bedroom can make it hard to relax. Strive to make your bedroom a cool, dark, quiet environment. Reserve your bed for sleeping; read or watch TV on the couch.

• Be active during the day. Exercise is key not only to better health but also to better sleep. Get out, get moving and get your body ready to rest.

• Go to bed healthy, not hungry. Late-night snacks can keep you awake, but a hungry sleeper is a poor sleeper. If you crave a bedtime snack, make it light, healthy and easy to digest such as a small bowl of cereal and milk, a couple of cookies, toast or a small muffin. Avoid chocolate (it contains caffeine) and hard-to-digest proteins such as meat or cheese.

• Cut down on smoking, alcohol and caffeine. They all have a negative effect on sleep. Avoid within two hours of bedtime.

• Stick to your schedule. Keep a consistent bedtime – even on weekends – to make it easier to fall asleep each night.

• Find time to relax. Take time to unwind before bed; read or watch TV (but not in the bedroom). This letdown time helps your body get in the mood for a deep sleep.

• Unplug. Smartphones also serve as alarm clocks, but sleeping next to your phone offers too many distractions. Get an alarm clock and leave the phone in another room.

• Mattresses matter. Pick one that feels right for you and your sleep style.

Spring also traditionally brings new mattress introductions and innovations – some in unexpected places.

For example, Sleep Innovations' Gel Memory Foam mattresses are available at Kohl's; the queen size comes in a portable box on wheels that can be rolled to the check-out counter and to the car.

For more tips on sleep and mattresses, click on www.sleepinnovations.com.

Garden Checklist

• In the vegetable garden, plant seeds for beets, carrots, celery, chard, endive, fennel, jicama, mustard, radish, spinach and turnips.

• Watch out for slugs and snails. Spring brings them out in force. An hour after nightfall, check your tender plants with a flashlight and hand-pick snails and slugs off foliage.

• To deter snails, sprinkle wood ash or crushed eggshells around plants. Or try this trick: Put boards (such as two 2-by-4s or 1-by-6s) flat in the garden and leave them overnight. In the morning, you'll find the critters hiding under the boards. Scrape the pests into the trash and dispose of them.

• Catch stink bugs early. Their eggs – in neat rows – soon will start appearing on the underside of leaves. The young stink bugs look like long-legged aphids. They can be controlled by such organic products as Nature's Pest Fighter, Safer brand insecticidal soap or Bug Buster-O. Or, with gloves, pick them off and drop them in an old coffee can containing an inch of soapy water. Then, cover the can and dispose of it.

• With warmer weather comes mosquito season. Empty standing water out of saucers under pots. Also, eliminate any other standing water that may have accumulated during spring showers.

– Debbie Arrington

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