I have had trouble sleeping for many years.  It typically takes me between 30-60 minutes to fall asleep.  During the middle of the week this always got worse.  It used to be because my mind was still active from being in class until 10+pm.  Now I guess it is just the residual mid-week malaise carried over from two years of no sleep in the middle of the week. Concerned for my health, Sam aimed to change that.

When I moved to California I purchased a cheap mattress for a few hundred dollars and that is what I’ve been sleeping on ever since.  That mattress has seen better days, and it’s been a while since it’s seen them.  Sam informed me that for my birthday (and it’s a significant birthday …shudder…) she was getting me a new mattress.  So, two weeks ago we procured it and set it up.

I immediately got sick.  I’m sure it was just a coincidence (although those foam mattresses give off a terrible paint smell the first week), but it meant that judging my sleep pattern changes would be irrelevant for the time being.  In fact, that very first week I had the worst night in many years as my smoke alarm started chirping to replace the battery.  It took me hours to realize just what it was. At first I assumed it was the one high up on my bedroom wall and there was nothing I could do about it until I borrowed the really big extending ladder from the office.  Eventually I became so sick of the noise I went to the hall to get a ladder to possibly put on a card table (this was 3am and with no sleep, so I wasn’t making the smartest decisions).  When I wandered out I realized the noise was louder, and the alarm was the one in the hall.  This was great news, as I only had to climb on a kitchen chair get to the alarm. Unluckily this was one of the models that retains a charge to keep beeping after you take the battery out.  Which wouldn’t have mattered if I had a 9 volt battery. I did not.  So, still having received no sleep, at 4 in the morning I researched online and set out to the only 24 hour drug store which was about 6 miles away to get 9 volt batteries.  By 5:30 I was in bed, only to wake up in what seemed like mere seconds to the morning alarm.  The next morning I drank a coffee drink, which I nearly never do as my body is so sensitive to caffeine.  It didn’t really wake me up much, but when I went straight home and to bed (5pm)… I still couldn’t get to sleep till after 11pm.

Since then though I’ve been falling asleep faster and waking up less, undoubtedly due to the bed.

So, thank you, Sam, for a great birthday present.