The older I get, the more difficult it seems to get into a comfortable sleeping position. I used to prefer sleeping on my stomach, but this led to me having foot problems from sleeping with them pointed. I have frequent back aches, so I started making sure I have a pillow supporting my back or my chest when I sleep on my side. I’ve started having aches in my hips when I wake up, so I bought a foam mattress topper and have started putting a pillow between my knees. I’ve always preferred a pillow to rest my arm or wrist on, and lately I can’t stand not having any extremities not covered by blankets. I have to have my complicated ‘nest’ of four regular pillows and a body pillow these days.
I’m sure it’s not just me. Anyone else need a weird or complicated set of stuff to sleep?
I, too, have gotten older and stiffer, and certain positions don’t work any more.
Still, all taken with all, I sleep like a big bag of puppies. I can sleep on bare granite – I’ve done this. Modesty Blaise once joked she could sleep on a clothesline on ten seconds notice. This, I have not done. But I’d be willing to give it a try.
I do have a psychological need to have some minimal cover, if only something over one of my feet. Otherwise, the monsters can get me.
OMG ! I have a hard time getting comfortable now that I am older , I have a bone spur in my right shoulder so I can’t sleep on the side too long . I wake up in pain and have trouble going back to sleep. Getting old sucks to me !
The zone between too hot and too cold is about .1 degree. I thrash around wildly, worrying about every damn thing in the world until I fall into a dreamless (and all too short) sleep. I ache after about 6 hours in bed and have to get up and move.
On the other hand, if I’m watching a boring documentary I’ll be chin down and lights out in no time at all. wtf.
Generally I sleep on my side or partially over on my stomach. I can’t sleep on my back.
All I usually have for cover is the doona, (I think their called a Duvet in the US) no top sheet and nothing tucked in so quite often I’ll have my feet sticking out the bottom.
Minimalist. I sleep on the floor with a folded blanket under my hips, and a pillow. I go to sleep on my right side, and usually stay in the same position all night. At age 77, more than 5 hours sleep is unusual, typically sleeping from about one to six. At bedtime, I read until I start yawning, then fall asleep within a minute or two. Never with AC on, even here in south Texas or when traveling in the tropics. I usually leave the light on, which doesn’t bother me, and windows open. I suffer from leg cramps in the night quite often. I never wake up with a sore back.
I’ve never taken a sleeping pill in my life. In hospital, their favorite game is to wake me up to try to force me to take one, and I refuse and go back to sleep.
Occasionally, maybe once a year, I suddenly and inexplicably go into a phase of sleeplessness, in which I can’t stay awake in the daytime. It lasts a couple of weeks, and I have lucid dreams then, which are wonderful. I haven’t had a nightmare since I was about ten years old.
I’m pretty simple, but then I’m not that old yet. I do have a few quirks:
I can’t sleep on my back, but either side or stomach works. I love to sprawl out all over when I can.
I absolutely cannot have anything entangling or wrinkled around me. No pajamas, no way. I’m not a big fan of the top sheet, but it’s OK if it is smooth. If it isn’t smooth, I’ll swipe my feet across the wrinkled area to make sure it is, smoothing the excess sheet into the edges.
I like it cold. My father said he liked to see his breath in the morning and I’m all in favor of that. A room temperature over 65 will keep me awake. 55 is better. When I go camping, every know-it-all says “That sleeping bag isn’t rated for cold temperatures” like I’m doomed the second it goes below 40.
Don’t touch me! I can’t sleep with people or animals touching me. I toss and turn a lot before I actually fall asleep and if I’m worry about disturbing them, I’ll simply never sleep. Plus, people are hot and I want it cold.
When I was a Boy Scout, I had to sleep out in the open on the bare ground for my Order of the Arrow initiation. It rained all night. I snuggled down into my sleeping bag and covered my head with a rain coat. If I can sleep through that, I can sleep through anything. The room can’t be too hot, though. I sleep with a fan turned on in my room during the summer.
I used to sleep on my stomach, but gained weight and now it’s uncomfortable so now sleep on my side. This means I’m more likely to have an arm trapped under me awkwardly, which subsequently goes numb, making me wake up, which is annoying as I otherwise sleep through the night mostly uninterrupted.
8hrs exactly seems to work best for me, though after any natural waking, which seems to be an end of a regular 90 minute cycle*, I feel fine.
I wrap myself in a duvet. No blankets, single sheet (flocked during winter), occasionally stick a single foot out to regulate temperature for warm nights, or wear socks on cold nights.
*No idea if this is a myth. My own anecdotal evidence seems to support it, though.
I’m lucky in that if I’m tired enough I can fall asleep in pretty ungodly conditions and I sleep soundly; nowadays I may slide out of bed for a midnight pee, then roll right back into sleep. I’d rather get silence than darkness, if I have to choose between them; I prefer bed sheets and blankets (the heavier the better) to “Scandinavian duvets”, to the point where in the summer I’ll fall asleep under a blanket and kick it off as soon as I’m asleep. Dad did the same, so my excuse is genetics. I sleep on my side so I prefer a high, hard pillow.
Mom OTOH sleeps with three pillows: a full-length one to hug, a butterfly for her neck and a regular one for under her knees. The first time I took her on vacation she insisted in bringing all of them, the back of my Yaris hatchback was full of pillows! I made her a bet that if we only took the butterfly to the hotel, she’d be able to use the hotel pillows for the rest of the nest; I won the bet, so now she only travels with the butterfly.
It looked interesting so I watched several Youtube videos on hammocks and discovered the forums at hammockforums.net . Between the reading and videos, I made a late night run to Walmart to buy an Equip Travel Hammock to try. (Look for the little bright blue bundle in the sporting goods department in the aisle with tents and sleeping pads. If you’re less impulsive than I am, you can do even better with a Grand Trunk Ultralight Hammock.)
The thing really is comfortable; the lack of pressure points is real and very noticeable – and you don’t sleep in a banana shape, you sleep flat. It’s been rainy, chilly, and blustery all week so I haven’t had a chance to actually trying sleeping a whole night, but I have had a couple afternoon naps. It seems promising enough that I have ordered and am awaiting delivery of a Hennessy Deep Jungle Asym, intending to do some back yard sleeping and some backpacking with it.
I see quite a bit of discussion on the hammock forums about people who have replaced their bed with a hammock and sleep in it full time. Since my mattress is very old and needs replacing, I’m giving this idea a lot of thought.
Same here. Also on flattened reeds under a boat in the middle of a swamp during a thunderstorm. Both, I will grant, were when I was younger, but I suspect I could still manage it. More recently, I’ve crashed fairly often on hotel-room floors (usually the floor of a closet or under some furniture to avoid getting stepped on in the night) with my backpack for a pillow.
I do like to have something firm to support my head. My favorite pillow is a super-heavy memory-foam thing that’s sort of like an upholstered rock. I’ve been known to use less cushy objects–the aforementioned backpack, pieces of wood, un-upholstered rocks… If I don’t have anything solid handy, I support my forehead on my fist.
I have to be on my belly, with two flattish down pillows, my head turned to the left, my right hand smushed under my chin and my left hand under my hipbone. Only then can I fall asleep.
I need it totally dark and with white noise like a box fan. If it isn’t totally dark, I often sleep with an arm over my face or with my head under the covers. I also need to have some weight on top of me, whether it be a sheet, blanket, or comforter. Don’t like it either too cold or too hot.
I usually fall asleep curled on one side (right or left, preference tends to switch randomly every few months), with a medium pillow, but I can also sleep with no pillow and usually do in hotels because the really thick, squishy ones make me feel like I’m suffocating. During the night I’ll roll onto one side or the other, or also onto my stomach. Oddly, the only position I’ve never been able to sleep in is on my back.
