When it comes to health – aging too, I guess – one thing leads to another, one door closes, another opens, I learned that the body is one thing made up of many different things, but all are connected.

I learned to do my homework, to listen, and experiment. I learned to own my health and take responsibility for it. I found good doctors, talked to them, and listened to them. I am healthier in every way.

Sleep was one of the last frontiers with me. From the time I was a bedwetter to just a few months ago, I rarely slept well or for long. I experienced sleeplessness, restlessness, panic attacks, fatigue, and depression.

I woke up, as it were, last year.

I was shocked to learn that I was breathing irregularly or not at all 80 times an hour, something that is dangerous, of course, but also very harmful to my heart, which has enough trouble as it is.

My pulmonary specialist put me on a sleep apnea mask right away, and the number of breathing events has dropped from 80 to one or two an hour.

It took two or three months to figure out the different masks and “pillows'” which cover the nose and mouth before I found a healthy cruising speed.

This was all a revelation to me, and it led me to some research and conversations and a new understanding of sleep and its centrality to a healthy heart, mind, and body.

For almost all of my life, I slept irregularly, if at all.

I slept for three or four hours on good nights and woke up frequently, either in a panic or bathroom. Sometimes I got back to sleep, often not. I dreaded going to bed – a  holdover from my bedwetting, which lasted until I was 17 –  and spent an hour or two watching mysteries or other programs on my Iphone.

Now, I no longer wake up most nights for any reason. I sleep every between 6 and eight hours a night. I am genuinely stunned at this difference in my life, my frame of mind, and my health.

Along with my heart surgery and my changes in diet, this has been one of the most transformative experiences in my recent life.

I learned that a person my age should sleep between eight or nine hours a night and that deep and continuous sleep is essential.

My doctors and I went over my sleep habits – I also did this with my therapist. Here’s how I changed.

First, a urologist explained to me that I was going to the bathroom so much because every time my breathing was interrupted, my heart sent off testosterone and other warning signals to my bladder. That triggered the need to go to the bathroom.

I wrote this off (stupidly) as an old man’s thing that was common and unavoidable. My cardiologist explained that there was no medical reason for a man my age to be drowsy and rush to the bathroom all night.

In the absence of breathing interruptions, my bladder relaxed and stopped sending out alarm signals.

Secondly, in the absence of breathing events, I learned it was a mistake to watch anything electronic before sleep.

This was an ingrained habit for Maria and me. We get into bed together and watch a program on my Iphone. She then went to sleep, and I watched a mystery or two; I usually was up until one or 2 a.m. and was generally wide awake.

Although I was tired when I started watching, I was wide awake after a while. I now know why. Electronic devices do that.

Using electronic devices tends to delay the time when you go to sleep and reduces the amount of time you are sleeping. Technology affects the brain, stimulating the mind and making it harder to fall asleep. Sounds and blinking lights can cause unwanted awakenings when sleeping next to electronics or watching them.

The blue light emitted by my cell phone screen restrains the production of melatonin, the hormone that controls my sleep-wake cycle (aka circadian rhythm). This makes it even more challenging to fall asleep and wake up the next day.

By watching electronic programming before bedtime, I was making things worse, not better.

The mask has regulated my breathing, making it much easier to sleep. But I also chanted other habits.

I read books in bed, but I stop watching anything electronic in bed. I subscribe to Calm on the Web. It has often helped Maria and I get to sleep.

They offer soothing music. I can play music with ambient songs that stay within 50-63 BPMs.

This has a lot to do with the heart.

A composer’s most accurate way to indicate the desired tempo is to give the beats per minute (BPM). This means that a particular note value (for example, a quarter note) is specified as the beat, and the marking indicates that a certain number of these beats must be played per minute.

An adult’s average resting heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Generally, a lower heart rate at rest implies more efficient heart function and better cardiovascular fitness.

A normal heartbeat is within 60 to 100 beats a minute.

Listening to this sound can slow the heart and keep it in a good resting place. It works for me; I’m asleep within a couple of minutes of hearing the music; it is an excellent way to help get to sleep, much more calming than a detective solving a gruesome murder in England.

I stopped listening to the news or going online at least four or five hours ahead of bedtime, which I moved from two or 3 a.m. to 11 p.m., sometimes 10:30 p.m.

This was at my therapist’s advice. She said the earlier I went to bed, the more deep sleep I would have.

Like anything else, sleep is something I should not take for granted, especially as I grow older. The heart and the body need to rest and renew themselves.

So it matters what I do in the evening. I stop drinking liquids after 8 p.m. I make sure to eat early, I leave plenty of time for the body to digest dinner.

I can read what I want, but the evening is not a healthy time to watch the news,  go online, read e-mails or do much mind-stimulating work. I see from 9 p.m. on as a wind downtime, a good time to talk, meditate or read a good book.

It’s not a good time to read a book about serial killers who chop people up. It’s not a good time to read nasty social media messages.

All of these steps have come together in the last week or so. I am sleeping longer and better than I ever imagined, or even knew was possible.

The mask, the early bedtime, the BPM music, gentle stories from the Iphone (resting on the bedside table, away from my face), and the hour window. Unfortunately, the news is rarely healthy or calming; I stay away from it in the evening.

That is a good time for my book and spiritual reading and writing about the day on my blog. I see it as my spiritual hour. I also take an hour in the late afternoon to be alone, think and read or listen to music on my earphones.

Those are all calming activities, and my body has reacted with enthusiasm. I am calmer, have more energy, and have very little anxiety—a good night’s sleep matters.

And now, I look forward to sleeping; I know I won’t wake up in a sweat or have to go to the bathroom. I can sleep and get the rest I need.

I’m taken aback at how little I knew or thought about when it came to my body or health, but better late than ever.

It has made a big difference in my life.