How do you sleep?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’m really jealous of you guys that can sleep in the spoon position. Another one of my strange quirks: the only things I like touching me at night are my blanket, my pillows and the bed. If Saint Zero is touching me in any way, I can’t sleep.

It gets even better when both children have a bad night and they both end up in bed with us. A king size bed can only do so much. It’s interesting to wake up with a pair of itty bitty cold feet in the middle of your back…

Mauvaise, I don’t think you’re half as neurotic as I am! :smiley:

22

On my stomach, with crisp, Egyptian cotton sheets, and the noisy box fan running. Big fluffy comforter and a fuzzy blanket with the temperature around 60 degrees F. I can sleep in the summer with nothing on and the covers kicked off, but I have to have at least a corner of a sheet over the arm I’m breathing on. I can’t sleep unless I have one arm tucked under the pillow, but I also can’t stand feeling myself breathing on my arm! Weird, but from what I’ve seen so far on this thread, I could be much worse off. Once I’m asleep I sleep like a baby.

23

On my right side, and rarely on my back. I have a total aversion to sleeping on my left or stomach these days, primarily from having to spend several weeks keeping myself in that position as much as possible as part of post-op vitrectomy (a procedure used to repair a nasty-large retinal detachment) recovery. Interestingly, I generally fall asleep faster if I start on my right, turn to the left, and turn back after a couple minutes. It’s odd, but I don’t argue with my body about it. :slight_smile: Maybe something akin to dogs turning in circles first.

As long as it’s generally quiet when I’m falling asleep, noise when I’m sleeping is rarely bothersome, and light not at all, as long as it’s not sunbeam-directly-into-face. This sleeping feature is a necessity when you work graveyard and don’t have a handy basement or windowless room.

24

I used to be really picky. Then I hit high school and sleep happened when I had a spare ten minutes. Two scenes before my next duty for the show? Out like a light.

Now, with more time, I’m getting picky again, but that’s only because I’m slipping slowly into madness.

All things aside, here’s my favorite things for sleeping.

~comfy pjs. Worn, warm, ugly as sin, mismatched plaid flannel bottoms that are three sizes too large and a gray tank top. And when I’m really being decadent I sneak my hoodie into bed with me.
~Beloved. He’s a great sleepy partner. Close and safe, big muscly shoulders and strong encasing arms. And my face/cheekbone fits perfectly in the curve of his neck. OR curling up in a spoon. Its good stuff.
~Animals. Stuffed or real. More safe objects to burrow into.
~Blankets. Preferably large poofy comforters. (See above: Safe, burrow, hidey hole.)

But like I said, unless I’m going crazy that particular point in time I can sleep around anything.

My least favorite things:

~Jeans and a bra. Just not comfy sleeping.
~Cold feet. My nose is allowed to be cold. Not my feet. (Must have 47 inches of blankets up to my chin)
~Ear cuff on. I wear an earing that is a post linked to an ear cuff by a chain. I slip the cuff off and let it hang before I pass out.
~Bass. My neighbor’s bass to be specific. Earthquakes also fit here. If my bed is shaking I don’t feel safe and that is not good.

25

When I was first married, this was a problem. We both wanted the same side of the bed, but we were renting a narrow 50ft trailerhome near the college and the bed went wall-to-wall. There were on sides, you got in bed from the foot.

It also sagged in the middle, so even though the “spoons” position was what we wanted, we ended up “back to back” so we would each be facing “uphill” from the sag. Fortunately, we soon graduated and got a real apartment and a new bed.

26

Like Queen Isabella, I need pillows around me. I have two body sized pillows that I have on either side to curl around, and I always need at least a comforter on top, even if I am broiling, I will sleep faster with weight on me than cooler without it…though I prefer my bedroom be very cold when I sleep.

27

I don’t fall asleep easily. This is mostly due to the fact that I cannot stop thinking about the events of the day. (Note: This is a bad idea if you want to sleep soundly.) Consequently I need something to occupy my mind while I sleep. Oddly enough, things like mathematics or other mentally stimulating subjects let me abstract my way into dreamland. But that’s only if I’ve had that class that day.

On other days I usually leave the TV on. I find that human speech patterns can help me go to sleep. Unfortunately it only works if the talk is so inane that they never bring up any ideas I can obsess on, which is almost any subject. So lately I’ve been going to sleep to the spanish channel. They have all the rhythm of human speech, and I don’t understand a single word they say. Don’t ask me why, I just need something to shut my brain up so I can get some decent sleep.

I also just bought two extra pillows for my bed, bringing my total up to three. Somehow they go beyond comfort and let me sleep easier.

Of course this would probably all be easier if I didn’t ingest so much caffeine during the day.

By the way, I only have problems getting to sleep. I have no problem with staying asleep for many hours, or waking up and going back to sleep.

28

I sleep on my stomach. I love silence (aaaahhh, silence…) and the dark. I prefer to have a very thin flat pillow, and I lay my head on it’s outer edge. Failing that, I prefer no pillow at all.

I sleep well, wake fairly regularly if the radio alarm works (I set it for 6am, and get out of bed around 7.30 - plenty of time to properly wake). When I don’t need to get up early for work, I sleep in till 10am or so.

As for sharing the bed, I’ve only done it maybe 10 times in my life, and of course sex was never a factor in those instances. Or any other instances. So I feel a bit self conscious when doing that, but otherwise I sleep okay. I think. Well, relatively.

I like sleep, but I’m more a night owl than a lark, so I stay up late even though sleeping is such a wonderful experience that I truly enjoy.

I hope death is just like sleeping.

29

*On a big pile of money, surrounded by many beautiful ladies…*no, wait, that’s wrong.

Though, I could sleep like that. I’m one of those weird, sleep anywhere individuals. I started honing the practice when my mom & I used to commute for two hours (an hour there and an hour back) every day. I’d just put my head back and sleep the whole way if I was tired. Then my head would start flopping around, forward and back, but that couldn’t wake me up.
So I can pretty much sleep anywhere, anytime. Couches, beds, vehicles, classrooms (though I don’t).
Now, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Usually it is, but sometimes I fall asleep because of being exausted (no sleep for a long time). Some places where I’ve fallen asleep because of this:

  • sitting in front of a Steenbeck film editing machine (with my prof teaching; I nearly hit my head on the Steenbeck)
  • driving, yes, while driving (dozed off for a very short while, but very nearly went off a bridge)

Though, if I’m sleeping in my bed, I like to have the door closed, and any sound doesn’t really matter. I sleep on my stomach, though with knee bent up.
I don’t know about having another person there…never tried it. But I suppose I wouldn’t have any problem with that.

30

I used to be much stricter than i am now, but i’m not so much of an insomniac nowadays. But it does have to be…

Completely dark. As dark as can possibly be.
No noise. None at all. Really, none.
I have to be facing a wall. Not facing the door - that leaves you far too vulnerable to the axe murderers.
Sheet/duvet must be pulled up to my chin.
I must be lying on my right side.
My left leg is draw up bent, my right leg underneath it is stretched out (“stork position”). Arms are curled up foetal-style.

The right side/facing a wall law has lead to difficulties in the past… other people are so inconsiderate when considering the placing of furniture in guest bedrooms.

When my SO is sharing my bed, we have a little cuddle, then sleep back to back with our bottoms touching :o and our legs entwined. We often wake up cuddling though.

I just don’t understand those people who can sleep anywhere - my father can do it. How? How can you do that? It’s not comfortable! You’ll fall off the chair!

Fran

31

Who do you think you are, John Lennon? :wink:

I sleep on my left side.

32

I can pretty much sleep anywhere, in any light or noise condition. (I don’t know how I do it, I just can) But most prefereably with a warm, friendly male of the species… for whatever reason I sleep better with someone than alone.

33

I start on my left side and then turn over and usually fall asleep on my right. I like to spoon hubby but I generally don’t like him to spoon me, unless I’m cold! :smiley: Double standard!!

My favorite part is when hubby gets out of bed in the morning and I’ve got the bed all to myself - stretch out and fall into a DEAD sleep. This is usually when I do my most active dreaming. I generally dream every night, almost always remember them in the morning, and write them in my journal.

Least favorite is when the cats are busy at night and feel compelled to walk on my head 3 or 4 times, wanting under the covers. I can’t let Mr. Kitty under the covers when I’m just in panties cause he gets real interested in my nipples and usually wakes me up out of a dead sleep by licking one or touching it with his cold nose! CATS!

34

When I DO get to sleep, it’s usually with at least six pillows. I never, NEVER sleep under the sheets, only my comforter. I have just recently taken to sleeping in the nude and rather enjoy it, but it has been cold these past few nights.
My position is always on my stomach, with my pillows wrapped around my back and my arm under the pillow I’m using for my head. Now, I really don’t use this pillow for my head, or not all of it. I take the bottom left corner and use that. I cannot use the whole pillow or my neck will be frozen in place and REALLY sore when I wake up. Also, I need to be facing my door with my left arm curled under my chest.

35

I usually fall asleep on my stomach, with my arms folded under my chest (in a similar position to a corpse in a coffin, but upside-down). My girlfriend thinks it’s bizarre, but I can’t find any more comfortable position. Lately I’ve been turning one of my pillows sideways, but that’s because I miss the feeling of her against me at night.

When sleeping with someone else, I tend to spoon them for a while and then roll onto my stomach so that I can be halfway out of the covers. I can’t be fully under the covers or I get too hot to sleep - heat bothers me intensely. (This is a problem in the summer, too, even when I’m alone.)

36

I sleep on my side, and I need to use two pillows. I also need to use my comforter because for some reason I can’t sleep with just a sheet.

I’m a very light sleeper; the slightest bit of noise wakes me up. So about two years ago I bought a “sound spa,” one of those machines that plays nature sounds while you sleep. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t sleep without it.

37

I can half drift off anywhere - but that isn’t sleep, it isn’t relaxing, and I come out of it (it isn’t really waking up - I was sort of there all along, just not really fully there) just as tired as (if not more tired than) I was before.

But to actually sleep it must be as dark as possible. (curtains closed, all lights in the near vicinity off, if I can’t turn them off then something along the crack of the door so that the light doesn’t come through) & all doors must be closed. (Cannot sleep with the closet doors open. Or the down the hall bathroom door open.)

As quiet as possible - eventually I’ll get used to the white noise in the place, but no music, no television, no fans, no humming electric things that aren’t essential (it took me a month to get used to the refrigerator - I decided that I really did need to keep it on at night) etc.

Under a huge number of blankets (right now I’ve got the down comforter, the other comforter, the two blankets, and the flannel sheets.) Blankets must be tucked in on the bottom. If they’re not - my feet will be cold. There are generally anywhere from 2-6 pillows at the foot of my bed stacked up to keep my feet warm. I also cannot sleep without socks on. (It can be so hot that even I end up sleeping with no covers - but still, must have socks on.)

After that, the mattress has to be ridiculously soft, I don’t sleep with a pillow (under my head - people have mistaken which side is the head and foot of my bed), and I sleep on my stomach with the blankets tucked in around me. (I can sleep on my side, it just isn’t very comfortable…but I have never been able to sleep on my back)

If for some reason anything changes (there was a noise where there wasn’t before, a light goes on, a light goes off, movement, one sock falls off, a pillow falls off) I’ll wake up.

38

Starting from the right side of our king-sized bed:

Mrs. Pluto, who generally sleeps on her back.

A small black dachshund, under the covers at Mrs. Pluto’s feet. Except when she decides she is hungry or has to pee in the middle of the night. Then she climbs out from under the covers, jumps down from the foot of the bed and comes to my side of the bed and whimpers till I let her out/in/down/up, whatever. Then, when she’s wet or cold from being outside, she sleeps at my feet. Until she’s dry and warm. Then back to Mrs. Pluto.

A larger tan dachshund, on top of the covers, invariably laying east-west and taking up a LOT of room when it could just as easily lay north-south and take up just a little room. It’s a wiener dog for crying out loud! Skinny one way and long the other. I’ve tried to convence her to lay north-south but she will not learn. I physically move her but she creeps back. She has a built in compass and it’s stuck on “across the bed”. The only time she lays north-south is if she’s too hot and then she puts her paws in my back to keep from getting too close to me. Oh, by the way, dogs don’t have retractable claws.

On the remaining foot or so of the bed, I sleep on my right side. Unless I start snoring and then I sleep on my left side (after being pummelled by Mrs. Pluto). If the snoring (and pummelling) persists I sleep on my right side – on the couch in the spare room.

39

with my eyes closed (usually)

40

Like Rasta and Mike G - I must be naked - I just cannot fall asleep any other way. I also have to have the room at around 40-45 degrees. I don’t mind having a couple of blankets on my bed to offset this problem for whoever I’m sleeping with but I just have to have it cold. At night I become a little coal-burning furnace and unless it’s cold I have a hard time holding whoever’s next to me and that’s bad because that’s another thing I need to go to sleep.

If I’m alone it takes me hours to fall asleep. I’ll just toss and turn until I finally fall asleep from exertion. If I have someone with me I can just drop right off though. This is why I really enjoy having company at night.

Other than that I don’t really have any preferences for how I sleep except that I don’t sleep on my stomach ever since my chiropractor told me that it messes up your spine.

Tyklfe