I have been out of town a lot in the last several years.
So I have slept in a lot of different beds.
And I have actually been able to sleep.
The trick/method/key for me has been to put a blanket against me, under the covers.
One end of that blanket is folded under my feet.
I think I have mentioned I make sure to go to bed with warm feet. That allows me to fall asleep.
The blanket folded under my feet keeps them warm, makes me feel just tucked enough so I stay asleep.
Until last week I have used a blanket wrapped around the foot of my bed to really feel tucked. This is how our local Amish make a bed. A quilt placed horizontally and ticked firmly in the sides of the bed. That served me well for many years.
Last week I remade my bed with a sweatshirt blanket under the covers against me, two woven blankets, a quilt, another quilt folded at my feet. I tucked the two woven blankets at the foot of the bed. Nothing was tucked at the sides.
So I went from a bed wrapped like a mummy, to a bed only tucked at the end.
And I am sleeping.
This might be the most flexible I have been about being able to sleep in many years.
I take a sweatshirt blanket where ever I go.
I keep one in the car. I take one on a train, bus, plane.
If I have a sweatshirt blanket, I have been able to sleep everywhere/anywhere.
It is the combination of the thickness/weight and also the cotton.
It keeps air from "getting me" because it is snug against me.
I am still sleeping with white noise. I prefer a floor fan. But I can make due with white noise app on my iPad.
I now need circulating air.
I am not sure if I have always needed circulating air or if it is age related.
At home I sleep with the ceiling fan on a low setting. I know I need it, because if someone turns it off and I do not realize it, going to bed in the dark, I am awake and feeling suffocated a few hours later. Good science experiment.
Normal for me is going to sleep and staying asleep, not waking once.
If we are in a hotel room, we simply keep the temperature of the room low and then I am fine.
I think I mentioned, years ago I was asleep in a hotel and oldest was up grading papers. He said as the temperature of the room rose, just before the air conditioning flipped on, I became very restless. He lowered the setting and I slept easily. Good science experiment.
If we have traveled by car, I often take a floor fan with us. I always take one to Mayo. The circulating air, plus the white noise, helps. I sleep better, if someone is prepping for something, it helps them too. Circulating air helps middle with nausea hugely, for example.
In Europe, many hotels had electric fans available through housekeeping. That helped. Fans are inexpensive enough that if we flew somewhere and we're staying for an extended time, I would buy one and then just leave it there.
So that might not all sound very flexible. Dragging a sweatshirt blanket with me, taking a box fan if we can, turning the temperature if rooms down, etc. But this is the most flexible I have been, and sleeping easily, maybe in forever.
My husband thinks using props to help children sleep or relax just teaches the child to be dependent on the prop.
I am sure that is true. But it is worth it, in my opinion, if it works.
If the child is not going to sleep or not going to relax without the prop, then what is the point of with holding a tool that is going to work?
And my dependency is getting better. I have easy tools, doable tools.
As I read posts or talk to people, there are very few who sleep through the night. Very few. In the past year there have been a lot of posts about people sleeping with a monitoring device and realizing just how very bad their sleep is. At best people seem to be up once or twice to use the bathroom.
Yes, I take meds to help me sleep. Remember that. It is important. And I have my tools.
And the result is I sleep through the night pretty much every night. The nights I don't are because someone turned off the ceiling fan or changed the house heat setting unbeknownst to me. That just happens a few times a year. And if I wake, I know it is for a reason. I check the ceiling fan and the thermostat first. It is usually one of those two things.
My expectation and my reality is to not worry about sleep and to be able to go to sleep easily and be able to stay asleep. And no nightmares. It has been years and years since I had one.
I think this is a correlation to my expectations/reality/life with food. I expect food not to be a problem in my own home too.
And stress. I expect my family to live proactively. I expect us to do things as simply as possible. I expect good communication. I expect the house to settle down for the night early.
