Got any? I have a few requirements to get to sleep:
My head has to be on its side (either side), with the covers covering my ear. If it’s very hot, the rest of my body can be uncovered, as long as I have a t-shirt or something covering my ear. I can sleep with no noise, prefer white noise (fan, AC, white noise generator), and can’t go to sleep with any other noise like the TV or radio.
I can’t fall asleep “accidentally”. I can’t remember it ever happening (though it must have when I was little); I’ve never fallen asleep while reading, or watching TV, etc., that I can remember. I used to have trouble falling asleep most nights, but I learned in the Navy to fall asleep any time at any level of tiredness. I don’t fall asleep immediately, but it’s a very rare night that I have trouble getting to sleep.
I need to lie on my right side to actually go to sleep.
I can doze in other positions, but to really drop into slumber, I have to be on my right side.
This may have to do with the battle scars (from episode 24: The Killing Force) on my left side and the resultant neuralgia.
Or, it could just be my overactive imagination.
I have to have some kind of cover over me. Even if it’s just a corner of sheet over my butt. I love the fan blowing when I go to sleep, but I can live without that if it’s too cold.
I am a side-sleeper, but after I had an eye injury years ago I was not able to have anything touching my (closed) eye, such as a pillow. I developed a method of both resting my chin on my scrunched hand while bunching up the pillow so that the edge of the pillow is between my eye and ear. I wake up frequently with a numb hand. I also switch sides a couple times per night and have to repeat this set-up. No other part of my life is this anal.
Also, I like to have one leg uncovered, maybe to control temperature.
Ever since my shoulder surgery four years ago, I can’t sleep on my left side. My right hip gets sore and I’d like to be able to sleep on my left, but I just can’t. My shoulder is long since fully healed and isn’t painful or intrusive, but I cannot sleep on that side anymore.
I can’t stand being breathed on when I’m trying to sleep - either my own breathing on my arm (side sleeper, arm tucked under pillow) or my husband breathing on my shoulder while “spooning”. He has to tuck the blankets all around my back so he can’t breathe on me.
I can only fall asleep accidentally - I have to sneak up on sleep or it runs away from me. I wake up several times a night and sleep about .5 - 3 hours at a time. I’m told that I move nearly constantly and with some force when I’m asleep.
Oh, and there’s Dr. Woo’s 17 Rules of Sleep Posture, which are apparently necessary to keep me from having stupid joint and connective tissue problems. Things like my wrists must not be bent, my arms must be below the level of my shoulders, elbows bent at just the right angles. Just a bunch of crap, but if I don’t follow the rules, I get pinched nerves and bursitis and tendinitis.
I have to start out the night on my back for about 10 minutes. I don’t sleep on my back; it’s just my pre-sleep relaxation position. Then I roll to my left side (facing away from my wife) and I’m usually out within about 3 minutes. If I start out on my side, I lay there for an hour, and I’ve missed my window, and I have to go downstairs, have a glass of wine, watch something mindless, and try again.
But if my wife is away or I’m on a business trip, I lay on my right side and hug a pillow, and I’m out. Which is weird, because I can’t fall asleep facing my wife, and I don’t hug her to fall asleep when we’re together. But I need the pillow to sleep when I’m alone.
I start out on my side with a pillow between my knees, a pillow snugly hugged, and a pillow under my head (Yes, three. Traveling is a bitch). I do this until I’m nearly asleep, then I roll on my back and my right leg must be laying over the pillow that was formerly between my knees, the hugging pillow gets discarded, and my head is buried into the pillow so that the pillow makes a U shape around my head and muffles my ears.
I sleep flat out on my stomach with my arms at my sides. People tell me that’s very weird. And oh yeah, I sleep on the floor with a floor mat without a pillow.
This is my method too. My body ends up at a 45 degree angle facing down towards all the pillows. I do manage to go through all positions every night though. That means shifting pillows from left to right and then off to the side for stomach and back sleeping. That’s right, all 4 positions, every night. Side sleeping is the main way though.
I don’t move in my sleep. I sleep on my side, it doesn’t matter which side. I have two flat pillows, or one fat pillow under my head, pillows must be solid foam. I have an oversize leg pillow that goes between my legs, hip to foot.
I sleep between 2 & 4 hours in that position, wake up, get out of bed, re-arrange the pillows, then get back into bed on the other side. Rinse & Repeat until morning.
I have to have at least a blanket over me. I can’t sleep on normal cotton sheets - at home it’s always flannel or jersey cotton. If I travel I wear flannel pajamas. It’s often very difficult for me to fall asleep. Generally I tell myself stories to fall asleep but if I’m sharing a room I sometimes can’t think of one. And I tend to make weird facial expressions as I mentally act it out, which is awkward when there’s another person.
I’ve sucked at proper sleeping patterns my entire life, and I’ve never managed to sync up with the rest of society. If I’m left to my own instincts, my sleeping schedule tends to drift all over the place, with an emphasis on sleeping mostly in the daytime and staying up at night. Whenever I’ve had to get up in the mornings on a regular basis, I’ve usually tended to stay up to late and ended up chronically short on sleep. Recently, however, it occurred to me that as long as I get eight hours of snoozing sometime during a 24 hour period, I should be OK - they don’t have to be all in one go. So now I’ve started sleeping in intervals, usually about four hours in the afternoon after working hours, then the rest in one or two parts during the night or early morning. Seems to work, and any wonkyness that results can be fixed over the weekend.
(You’re right, I do live alone. No, I don’t have a girlfriend. How did you know?)
I can usually only get to sleep with no noise. Even rain or a ticking clock bothers me. The crickets bother me at this time of year, so I use earplugs.
I’m very bad at sleeping when there’s someone else in the room.
I grind my teeth in my sleep and have to wear a “nightguard” in my mouth to prevent damage to my teeth. As a result, my mouth is often forced open while I sleep, which makes me snore.
In spite of my disliking noise when actually trying to fall asleep, I have occasionally fallen asleep accidentally in places where there’s a lot of noise.
As long as my face is washed, teeth are brushed, and mouth guard is in, I’m good to go. Since I got fitted with this guard, I “have” to wear it or my teeth are sore in the morning now that I’m used to it. I can fall asleep in several different positions, but my 17-year-old cat has an opinion on how to go to sleep, so if he’s decided to come to bed at the same time, I have to be on my left side with my left arm out so he can get in by my side/armpit with his paws over my upper arm. If I don’t do this, he turns in circles, paws at the sheets, and generally makes a nuisance of himself with all the fussing until I assume the position.
I do sleep with either a fan or white noise cd, and need at least a sheet over me unless it’s crazy hot/humid. I’m also annoyed by being breathed on, whether it’s someone else or my own breath on my arm. Sheet for that, too.