There is a link between the activities you do during the day, the food you eat and the calming techniques you have, to the amount of sound sleep. Sierra View Homes‘ new “Get Moving Program” teaches the important aspect of good sleep. Sleep helps repair damage, clears the debris in the brain, and enhances healthy aging. Actions in the brain while we sleep is a process of taking out the trash and repairing damage that can lead to serious illness. Nearly all brain repair occurs during sleep. Unfortunately, many older adults often get less sleep than they need. Falling asleep is a frequent complaint. Studies show that we all should get eight hours of sleep each night no matter what age we are. This amount of sleep allows our bodies to feel rested and our minds to be more fully alert during the day. Since many of us are not able to get a full night’s rest, we have a very good excuse for being irritable, tired and forgetful during the day.
Researchers are finding that our sleep pattern changes throughout our adult life span. Our sleep at age 70 is not as sound as a 20-year old. As we age, our bodies and our health also change and we tend to have more issues that can disrupt sleep. Older individuals tend to get sleepy earlier in the evening and dozing in the evening can lead to trouble falling asleep when it is time to go to bed for the night. Drinking alcohol and caffeine, as well as smoking in the later part of the day, can trigger sleep problems. Sleep disturbances happen mostly because of illnesses or the medications used to treat them. It makes sense that the more disorders one has, the harder it is to get a good night’s sleep.
Pain is a common cause of disrupted sleep. It can keep one from falling asleep or be the thing that wakes you up in the night. Not sleeping well during the night can lead to increased pain the next day. Lack of sleep keeps us from dealing well with pain issues.
Some medical issues come with medications that cause sleep problems. Many medications have stimulating effects that can keep you from falling asleep. Diuretics, for example, when used to treat water retention, causes repeated periods of waking up to go to the bathroom.
Sleep Apnea is a source of sleeping difficulty. People with sleep apnea tend to snore loudly, stop breathing for 10-30 seconds and then start breathing with a gasp. This routine can happen repeatedly throughout the night. Each time the breathing starts again the person wakes up for a little while. Sleep apnea can cause daytime sleepiness and cause high blood pressure and heart disease to worsen. It can be treated with some lifestyle changes or with the “continuous positive airway pressure” CPAP machine. Sometimes surgery can help, but it is important to talk to your doctor if you are experiencing these problems.
Another issue that can keep people awake is Restless Leg Syndrome. People who have a creepy-crawly feeling especially in the legs could be experiencing Restless Leg Syndrome. This feeling makes you want to move around. It tends to get worse in the evenings as your body is starting to relax for sleep. You could also have Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. A person with this disorder kicks one or both legs many times during sleep. Treatment that could help for these disorders is taking a hot, or cold bath,
placing hot, or cold packs on your legs, relaxation techniques or massaging the legs and feet.
If daytime sleepiness becomes excessive it may be time to talk to your doctor. Your doctor will try to pinpoint what is keeping you from a good night’s sleep. He/she may prescribe medication to help you get back into a routine for a good night’s sleep. The doctor may prescribe sleep aides to help you get to sleep. It is important to remember that those sleep aides can prove to be addicting and cause a worse problem in the end. Be sure to work with your doctor following directions regarding the sleep aides.
Getting adequate sleep requires both sufficient total sleep time and enough deep sleep. It is important to be mindful of what keeps us from getting that sleep. Establishing a bedtime routine that includes relaxation and going to bed at the same time every night, avoid drinking alcohol and caffeine in the late afternoon and doing some exercise every day helps one fall asleep more easily. Taking naps more than 20 minutes in length or dozing in the evening may keep you from falling asleep easily. Keep a diary of your sleep habits to determine if there are lifestyle changes you could make to improve your quality of sleep.
So, remember your childhood – a time when you did not have health issues, stress or interruptions that kept you from getting a good night’s rest. We all need to have a good night in order to have a great day. Chronic lack of sleep increases the risk of health problems, so if you are having trouble sleeping, I encourage you to keep a diary, adjust your routine to encourage sleep, and see your doctor if you have excessive sleepiness during the day. A good night’s sleep brings great days, good health and successful aging so it pays to take the time to assess your sleep habits to have a good night’s sleep.
Chaplain’s Corner: Beauty in Suffering
When we experience hardship and tribulation in life our tendency is to immediately question things. Question what we might have done wrong to deserve such hardship, question how a good God could allow us to experience such tribulation in the first place, question whether the universe bends towards darkness and not towards light.
Questions like these, of course, assume that our well-being is a priority over all else in the universe. It is not unreasonable that we think like this. After all, Psalm 8 tells us that we are “made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor” (v5). But then again, the first three verses of the Psalm are spent contemplating just how small we are when one looks at the whole scope of creation.
One of the mysteries of the universe seems to be that beauty is so often baked into sacrifice and hardship. In a recent article titled ‘The Beauty and the Sacrifice’, Pastor Jeryl Hollinger reflects that it is beauty that sustains the world and yet sometimes beauty consumes beauty. We see it all the time in nature. One animal kills another in order to feed its young. We thin out healthy carrots so the others may grow bigger. We pick flowers to make a beautiful centerpiece knowing that clipping them means their inevitable death.
Hollinger writes that this is not a problem to be fixed but “a reality to be faced and a truth to be remembered, a challenge to gain perspective…the heart of all spirituality is to see the beauty of life and rejoice in it, to serve it and sacrifice for it, to know its pain and feel its cost. Life, in all its forms, is never to be taken for granted.”
This paradox of beauty and suffering flows throughout our Gospels. Jesus walks the road less-traveled, loving, healing and creating community on the margins of society, knowing that the scandal it would create would cost him everything, including his life. It is the tragedy of all tragedies, and yet, out of his life was born the church, as well as a deeper revelation of what true beauty and true love can look like.
Jesus told his disciples once: “unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single kernel; but if it dies it produces a great harvest” (John 12:24). We need not look for suffering in this world, but when it encounters us, may we have the grace to let our kernels fall where they may, thinking always of the blessing of beauty that God’s transformation can bring forth.
– Caley Ortman, Chaplain
Chaplain’s Corner: Now What?
Acts 1 tells us that for 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and spoke about the Kingdom of God. It is hard to fathom the relief and joy the disciples experienced, after presuming him forever dead to them.
And yet, that feeling of comfort and security was short-lived. Jesus’ time on earth was done and the disciples would have to again return to the question that dominated in their minds: “Now what?”
We all go through “Now what?” phases of our lives. For years or perhaps even decades we can coast on the comfort of routine and normalcy. Everything in its right place, just the way we like it.
Then something shifts. The loss of a job or a loved one. A dear friend or mentor moving away. A trauma that fundamentally changes the way we see the world. And we too, turn our gaze heavenward and ask: “now what?”
Facing Jesus’ imminent departure, the disciples had a list of questions they needed answered, times and dates set in stone. But Jesus’ primary concern was not that of the disciples.
“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority,” he says. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8).
When the storms of change rage around us, may we cling to each other as the disciples eventually learned to do. May we open ourselves to the Spirit of God which accompanies us even when we feel it not. And when answers evade us, may we be content to stand witness to the simple yet profound love of the Kingdom until the answers are made clear in God’s time.
– Caley Ortman, Chaplain
Chaplain’s Corner: Advent – Actively Waiting
I love the hymn ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel.’ It is a haunting tune that reminds us to stay and sit a while in the tension of advent before the celebration of the arrival of the Christ child.
Advent (Latin for ‘coming’) is commemorated the four weeks before Christmas. It is a good reminder that God’s people spent years and years longing and waiting for a Messiah as they lived under oppressive empires, sometimes exiled from their homeland. The first words of the hymn cry out:
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
It is no surprise that we want to skip to the good parts (before the Thanksgiving turkey is off the table it seems!) but what might we learn by joining Israel in that time of anticipation and longing?
Advent is essentially a time of waiting, but it is not passive waiting, it is active waiting. Waiting that builds a holy longing. It is a waiting that is also a time of preparation for the coming Good News.
Just like the Israelites ate the bitter herbs of Passover with their shoes on their feet and their staff in their hand (Exodus 12:11), we too should use this month of December to prepare our hearts and minds, not just for the coming of Christ, but also for the challenge of the life and calling that Jesus would call us to partake in.
– Caley Ortman, Sierra View Homes Chaplain
Infographic: Sierra View Homes Satisfaction Survey Results
Sierra View Homes Retirement Community sent out our resident satisfaction surveys during the summer. The questionnaire was either completed by mail or by individual interview. Of course, we are looking for a “report card” to see how we measure up, but we are also trying to understand if some areas need to be worked on.
We are pleased to report that our scores were high for each of the service lines! Certainly we want to improve all the time. Of the questions, we pulled from the ones that capture the resident’s full impression of our services. Full details may be found in the office, but we would like to summarize here for each service line:
Independent Living: 94% of residents see Sierra View Home’s apartments as a good value for the money, and 93% would recommend our community to others. A few of you would like to see more variety on the food menu and an increase in maintenance helpers.
Assisted Living: 100% of the residents and family members are “happy with the care and service that is provided.” A few of you would like to see more group activities in the evenings and weekends. 100% would recommend Sierra View Homes to others.
Skilled Care: More than 85% of residents and family members are happy with the care and service that is provided and 100% of the family would recommend Sierra View Homes to others. Some of you want more choice and participation in making decisions about their care and routines.
We appreciate your support and encouragement, especially after a very difficult year and a half. You also have given us some areas to improve on, and we will be working on them with expediency and diligence.
Get Moving During the Day, Sleep at Night
There is a link between the activities you do during the day, the food you eat and the calming techniques you have, to the amount of sound sleep. Sierra View Homes‘ new “Get Moving Program” teaches the important aspect of good sleep. Sleep helps repair damage, clears the debris in the brain, and enhances healthy aging. Actions in the brain while we sleep is a process of taking out the trash and repairing damage that can lead to serious illness. Nearly all brain repair occurs during sleep. Unfortunately, many older adults often get less sleep than they need. Falling asleep is a frequent complaint. Studies show that we all should get eight hours of sleep each night no matter what age we are. This amount of sleep allows our bodies to feel rested and our minds to be more fully alert during the day. Since many of us are not able to get a full night’s rest, we have a very good excuse for being irritable, tired and forgetful during the day.
Researchers are finding that our sleep pattern changes throughout our adult life span. Our sleep at age 70 is not as sound as a 20-year old. As we age, our bodies and our health also change and we tend to have more issues that can disrupt sleep. Older individuals tend to get sleepy earlier in the evening and dozing in the evening can lead to trouble falling asleep when it is time to go to bed for the night. Drinking alcohol and caffeine, as well as smoking in the later part of the day, can trigger sleep problems. Sleep disturbances happen mostly because of illnesses or the medications used to treat them. It makes sense that the more disorders one has, the harder it is to get a good night’s sleep.
Pain is a common cause of disrupted sleep. It can keep one from falling asleep or be the thing that wakes you up in the night. Not sleeping well during the night can lead to increased pain the next day. Lack of sleep keeps us from dealing well with pain issues.
Some medical issues come with medications that cause sleep problems. Many medications have stimulating effects that can keep you from falling asleep. Diuretics, for example, when used to treat water retention, causes repeated periods of waking up to go to the bathroom.
Sleep Apnea is a source of sleeping difficulty. People with sleep apnea tend to snore loudly, stop breathing for 10-30 seconds and then start breathing with a gasp. This routine can happen repeatedly throughout the night. Each time the breathing starts again the person wakes up for a little while. Sleep apnea can cause daytime sleepiness and cause high blood pressure and heart disease to worsen. It can be treated with some lifestyle changes or with the “continuous positive airway pressure” CPAP machine. Sometimes surgery can help, but it is important to talk to your doctor if you are experiencing these problems.
Another issue that can keep people awake is Restless Leg Syndrome. People who have a creepy-crawly feeling especially in the legs could be experiencing Restless Leg Syndrome. This feeling makes you want to move around. It tends to get worse in the evenings as your body is starting to relax for sleep. You could also have Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. A person with this disorder kicks one or both legs many times during sleep. Treatment that could help for these disorders is taking a hot, or cold bath,
placing hot, or cold packs on your legs, relaxation techniques or massaging the legs and feet.
If daytime sleepiness becomes excessive it may be time to talk to your doctor. Your doctor will try to pinpoint what is keeping you from a good night’s sleep. He/she may prescribe medication to help you get back into a routine for a good night’s sleep. The doctor may prescribe sleep aides to help you get to sleep. It is important to remember that those sleep aides can prove to be addicting and cause a worse problem in the end. Be sure to work with your doctor following directions regarding the sleep aides.
Getting adequate sleep requires both sufficient total sleep time and enough deep sleep. It is important to be mindful of what keeps us from getting that sleep. Establishing a bedtime routine that includes relaxation and going to bed at the same time every night, avoid drinking alcohol and caffeine in the late afternoon and doing some exercise every day helps one fall asleep more easily. Taking naps more than 20 minutes in length or dozing in the evening may keep you from falling asleep easily. Keep a diary of your sleep habits to determine if there are lifestyle changes you could make to improve your quality of sleep.
So, remember your childhood – a time when you did not have health issues, stress or interruptions that kept you from getting a good night’s rest. We all need to have a good night in order to have a great day. Chronic lack of sleep increases the risk of health problems, so if you are having trouble sleeping, I encourage you to keep a diary, adjust your routine to encourage sleep, and see your doctor if you have excessive sleepiness during the day. A good night’s sleep brings great days, good health and successful aging so it pays to take the time to assess your sleep habits to have a good night’s sleep.
Chaplain’s Corner: Do Not Let Your Regret Define You
We all have regrets. The thoughts of what we “should have” done instead of what we did, often nibbling at the corners of our minds as we fall asleep at night or when we find ourselves in a reflective mood. Joan Chittister, in her book The Gift of Years, speaks of the two faces of regrets: the regret of our failures, and the regret of our life choices.
Regretting our failures is a painful thing, but it also is a sign of growth. Whether it is injury we have caused to ourselves or to others, realizing this harm is a reminder that we have grown and matured. If the circumstances presented themselves again, we would choose differently, because we are no longer the person we used to be.
Regretting our life choices is just as common, but not as healthy. Chittister writes that this type of regret is a temptation that “entices us to lust for what never was in the past rather than to bring new energy to our changing present.” There are many ways to fullness in life, all of them different, all of them unique. To regret the paths we did not choose is to miss the gratitude for the path we have chosen.
Paul functions as a good model for this. Formerly a persecutor of Christians, Paul, through his growth in Christ is able to acknowledge the regrets of his failures from earlier in life. And yet, he does not let these life choices define him. In Phillipians 3:13-14 he writes:
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Let us allow our regrets to remind us of the people we have become while resisting the temptation to let them hold us back from the people Christ is calling us to be.
– Caley Ortman, Sierra View Homes Chaplain
Chaplain’s Corner: Unboxing our Faith
It seems to be a fairly universal human trait to want to know exactly what goes in each box. We have a work box, we have a family box, we have a faith box and so on. This pandemic year has turned our boxes upside down into one pile in the middle of the floor and the experience has been overwhelming to say the least.
The box we guard most closely and tend to be most protective of however, is our faith box. We like things a certain way and we like them predictable. There has been nothing predictable about church this last year, which has ranged from distanced indoors with masks, to drive-in, to pre-recorded, to Zoom from the couch, to no church service at all.
It has been a year of frustration, but also a year of stretching, and as it turns out, sometimes in stretching we find new growth. We have become more creative in finding meaningful ways to sing, worship and fellowship from digital spaces. We have involved the gifts of more people instead of leaning only on one pastor. We have supplemented our Sundays with intentional spiritual practices during the week, leaning on friendships and taking advantage of the quiet spaces that isolation has given us. We have lived into the phrase “the building is closed but the church is open.”
Pastor Meghan Good, in an article called Taking Jesus Out of Your Box, brings to our attention our tendency to “become wedded to the vessel instead of the thing it was made to contain.” She writes: “We see God somewhere, build a box around it, and celebrate the divine capture, never noticing that God is standing behind us, tapping on our shoulder.”
All of us are looking forward to the day when we can return to our sacred spaces, embrace each other without fear and sing praises to God without masks. And hopefully when we do, we remember the ways we have been stretched. May we be willing to shed some of the of the old that has perhaps been holding us back, and embrace some of the new that surprised us with meaning during our pandemic worship. May our boxes of faith serve to hold, but not to contain the wild and living God that is always revealing to us something new.
Chaplain’s Corner: Struck Down But Not Destroyed
As this year wraps up not many of us are sad to see it go. It has been a year none of us anticipated a year ago when we excitedly watched the ball drop on New Years Eve. COVID has cast a shadow on almost every part of our lives this year, from our health, to our relationships, to our finances to our politics.
Entering a new year we find ourselves unsure of how to feel. Glued to the news cycle we are continually warned that the worst is always still coming and that we are left to helplessly watch as the country and the economy circle the drain. On the other side of things we hear a giddy optimism that seems to promise that as soon as the clock strikes 2021 all of this will be over and we can go back to exactly the way things were. So which one is it? Which one do we pick?
Another way may in fact be neither! The apostle Paul had a way of navigating through the waters of fatalistic pessimism and naive optimism and presenting a third way that was both realistic and hopeful. In his correspondence with believers in Corinth he writes:
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (2 Cor .4:8-10)
Paul knew the pain and hardship of trying to hold together the early church in all of their squabbles and misunderstandings. He lived his life with the oppression of empire that was a continual threat to his life. But he also knew what it was to know Christ, and to know that there was nothing in this world that could separate him (or us) from that kind of hope and love.
As we enter 2021 let us take on the posture of Paul, preparing ourselves for the challenges yet to come, while refusing to be consumed by them. Let us look back at the ways 2020 made us stronger and continue forward as a community of faith that has known the love and hope of Christ, carrying that life in our bodies, bringing light into the darkness.
Chaplain’s Corner: Advent – Waiting Out the Darkness
But are we getting ahead of ourselves a bit? In the Christian calendar, the end of our Thanksgiving holiday also marks the start of Advent. It is not a season marked with jubilant celebration (that will come), but rather of waiting and anticipation.
It is a time to read the Old Testament prophets and to remember how long Israel cried out for a messiah during their years in captivity and exile. It is a willingness to set aside “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and join the haunting prayer of “O come O come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel.”
In Assisted Living we have set up an Advent wreath. Every Friday we will light a candle and read the designated scriptures. The four candles around the wreath represent hope, love, joy and peace. On Christmas day we will light the Christ candle in the center to celebrate Jesus entering our world and forever changing us.
We are living through a dark time of our own. We wait for a vaccine, we wait for political and economic stability, we wait for the day we can give hugs without the burden of fear and uncertainty. The waiting of Advent is not a passive task, sitting around distracting ourselves with wishful thinking. It is an active posture, in which we join with determination and hope, believing that God hears our cries, God cares and God saves.
Wherever you are this season, join us in lighting a candle every week and remember that “a light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
– Caley Ortman, Chaplain
Chaplain’s Corner: Pyramid Schemes
Our culture has an unhealthy view of aging. We draw the trajectory like a pyramid. Everything is looking up until midlife, and then it is all downhill from there. It is no wonder we are conditioned to see life like this, considering our disproportionate value on sexuality and productivity. But scripture paints a different picture.
The psalms talk of flourishing in old age. Not the kind of flourishing that comes with competitive athletics and managing a financial empire, but one that is steeped in the wisdom that can be nurtured through knowledge and life experience.
Scripture abounds with stories of God calling people late in life. Much later than even the individuals themselves expected! Our vitality and service to others continues until we are called home, sometimes in ways we are used to and sometimes in entirely new ways.
Richard Morgan tells this story: “A tourist, tramping about in the villages of New England, came upon an old woman sitting in silence on the front porch of her cabin. The tourist asked, ‘Lived here all your life?’ She replied, ‘Not yet.’ That is the spirit of the older person who lives every day with joy and expectation.” Reject the pyramid and embrace the endless possibilities of God.
– Caley Ortman, Chaplain