A new sleep study reports that women in unhappy marriages suffer from more sleep problems than those in happy unions, and sleep problems, in turn, lead to other health issues. This is the first study to track marital satisfaction and sleep. Unfortunately, divorced women are prone to sleep issues, as well. Not getting the most out of your eight hours? Check out a directory sleep clinics.

The magic little pill may spell trouble. According to a June 2008 report, a Harvard Medical School study said Viagra may add to marital stress. A couple used to dutifully kiss and go to sleep. Now he's popping pills, looking to reclaim his sexuality. Some wives may say Hallelujah, others may feel ambushed into re-creating his sexual fantasies. And all that while the laundry needs to be done.

Then there's another possibility. The study doesn't say it, but it's also possible he's met someone new, someone young and frisky. That's why he's taking Viagra.

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I ran across an interesting article the other day. A young couple married, lived together, had a child in their seven-year relationship and got divorced. I know. There's nothing earth shattering about that. Keep reading.

It was a same-sex couple, except one of the two didn't know it.

Jennifer Jack married Andrew Mireles at 16. They parted ways after one child and seven years. Jack decided to flip through a high school yearbook one day, and she found a picture of her ex-husband, Andrew - or should I say, Phyllis?

Phyllis Mireles changed "gender" at some time in her life, taking on the name Andrew. No sex change, no funky surgery, and all the equipment was perfectly female, reports Fox News. Mireles claims Jack knew of Mireles' true gender all along — and I'm having trouble swallowing that Jack states otherwise.

It seems a judge is swallowing Jack's shocked disbelief - he's allowing an annulment.

I must be missing something. I mean, seven years, people. And a child. It's pretty tough to hide that you don't have a penis for that long. The courts buy this?

Mireles now finds himself in a custody battle for his (her?) kids. Jack's attorney states that Mireles is "a convicted felon and has some indiscretions that would put him back in jail if his probation was revoked."

I'm wondering where this came from? Were these issues before Mireles was outed from the proverbial closet? Was Mireles a bad person with his kids? Is this just some scheme to get back at him for being cross gender?

And what about Jack? Why the horrified reaction now? Is Jack embarrassed that she lived with a woman and now wants to protect her self-identity through revenge?

Remember — seven years, one child. And Jack didn't know her husband was a she? Yeah. Right.

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With Valentine's Day coming up, every form of media is full of images of people getting engaged or married and the jewelry stores are obviously doing big business. But for the large segment of the population that is divorced, it's an entirely different thought process when it comes to wedding and engagement rings. The San Francisco Chronicle ran an interesting story on Friday about the question of what should happen to your rings once your marriage is over.

The accepted protocol on engagement rings seems to be that you get to keep it. Legally, it's not considered part of the marital assets because it was a gift given to you before you were married. And aside from that, a guy would have to really be a greedy bastard to ask to have it back. I can see a guy doing that, though, if the ring was a family heirloom. I think I'd have a hard time holding on to the engagement ring if it had belonged to my ex's grandmother, or something like that.

The wedding rings are a whole different story. Some people attach a lot of emotional meaning to them and choose not to part with them. Some people have them melted down and made into other pieces of jewelry. Some women sell both the wedding and engagement rings to pay for lawyers. One man quoted in the story said his wife sold her rings so she could get a boob job.

I think it's all a matter of personal preference. And it's probably a function of how amicable the breakup is, too. If it was angry and bitter, you might be more inclined to get rid of the rings, along with everything else in your house that had anything to do with the guy. One woman said she wanted both of the wedding rings to be kept together after her divorce, just because it seemed to her like the right thing to do. Her ex didn't see it that way, so it didn't happen.

So let's hear from all of you. What happened to your rings?

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It seems like it just gets worse and worse in Afghanistan.

In what seems to be a not-very-uncommon tragedy, an Afghan woman set herself on fire outside a courthouse in Mehtaralam. A judge had just chastised her for seeking a divorce, and without much else to do instead, she doused herself in gasoline that she'd smuggled into the courthouse under her burka and set herself on fire.

The international press knows little about the details of the incident, except for the woman's first name — Pakhtana — and that she's 25. Back in December, we wrote about a similar case with a girl going through a divorce at the age of 11.

While Afghanistan has officially lossened the rules for women in the post-Taliban era, tragedies like this are occurring almost daily. It is so common in that part of the world that incidents like this one are barely making the papers.

I have to wonder — are these women doing this because they want to die? Or is it like the ever-increasing trend of cutting and self-mutilation that takes place among young women in the West? Experts say that the victims of this type of self-abuse do it not as a suicide attempt, but because the pain is so great on the inside that any kind of physical expression of it is a relief.

Pakhtana is in a local hospital, recovering from her injuries.

It looks like when Amy Winehouse's incarcerated hubby threatened divorce, he thought it was the only way he could make her see reason. Both Blake Fielder-Civil and Amy's mother believe that she is flirting with overdose and may have only months to live.

"I've already come to terms with her dead," says her mother, Janis. "I've steeled myself to ask her what ground she wants to be buried in, which cemetery. Because the drugs will get her if she stays on this road. She's invited me to the Grammy awards next month, but part of me thinks she won't be alive by then."

Recent TV stories have shown grainy video footage of Amy lighting and smoking a crack pipe, and everyone around her is worried. It looks like Blake's pleas have worked in the short-term, at least, and Amy checked herself into rehab on Saturday.

"Every day I fear the prison chaplain is going to walk into my cell and break the news that Amy is dead," says Fielder. He has given up drugs for good, and wants her to do the same. He says he wants them to grow old together and sees no possibility for that while she's still spending $1000 a day on cocaine.

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The public turnaround of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, is an inspiration to divorced women everywhere. Where our own marriage and personal failings and mistakes are embarrassing in front of our families, friends, and maybe the readers of our blogs, Fergie's have been published everywhere. Yes, splitting up with my husband was difficult, but not as difficult as waking up to find you've been renamed The Duchess of Pork by the entire British press.

No wonder she gained so much weight.

Fergie gave a talk in California on Monday night as part of their Distinguished Speakers program and talked about her divorce, her kids, her weight issues — the whole gamut. "My only friend was food," she said. "My pet ponies and food got me through."

She went on to explain that she and Prince Andrew still share a home together, where they raise their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, although they have no plans to reconcile. It's simply a convenient and secure environment in which to raise their daughters. "I still do love my handsome prince, but it just works better for us this way to keep things the way they are."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all that well adjusted?

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The latest news on the Pamela Anderson front is that she's not pregnant, but she's still going ahead with her divorce from hubby Rick Salomon. Wonder if another reconciliation is in the works?

Despite many claims that Pam wasn't pregnant, news media sources have stuck to the prospect that she was, and that it would be of great advantage to her in the impending divorce proceedings.

Now, however, whether she miscarried or was never pregnant to begin with, there is no baby in the equation. As crazy as this whirlwind marriage of hers has been, you do have to feel sorry for her. Either she wasn't pregnant all along with millions of people insisting she was and really only talking about what she would gain from the divorce, or she really was pregnant and instead of focusing on that loss, again, it's the monetary loss that seems most mentioned.

Again, plans are still on for Pam and Rick to split. The two have started to get chummy however, so don't be surprised if there's a hold placed on the proceedings.

I'm not certain if I reached the proverbial "end of the Internet" the other day, but I read an idiotic blog posting by a writer from London's The Business magazine. If it wasn't the end, here's hoping it was damn close, or else the Web has become a very dumb place.

He says the reason divorce rates are rising is because women are using the pill and it's screwing up our sense of smell.

Yeah, see, before I even try to explain it, you're already tuning out. The reasoning is that we pick prospective mates based on a sub-conscious sense of smell that attracts us to them. That much I can deal with. I know all about pheromones. But he says since the pill mimics pregnancy, it alters that whole chemical balance and leads us to be attracted to the wrong guys.

Not much scientific reasoning behind this one. Just a blogger needing to fill his space for the day, I think. And that means the Internet is turning out just like TV.

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Here's one of those medical study stories that you're not sure whether to believe. But if there's any credence to it, this one is pretty scary.

Researchers in Sweden say that babies of separated parents are three times more likely to develop diabetes. The theory is that children — even babies — pick up on the stress their parents are feeling and it causes them to becomes stressed, themselves. And that, in turn, leads to auto-immunity, a condition where the immune system attacks insulin-producing cells.

I only saw a brief mention of this and didn't see much else in the way of support for the theory. But if there's anything to this study, it's something worth looking into. Here in the U.S., we have increasing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, and I don't remember hearing anyone link up these problems with our sky-high divorce rate. Is there a correlation? Maybe there are some more researchers out there willing to check it out.

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