Only-Slightly-Belated Question of the Day: December 23, 2018

[brin_bellway]

questionoftheday asks: Do you sleep in silence, or do you have to have background noise? Is there a reason for this? How about light? Does it have to be pitch black, or do you need at least a sliver of light to sleep?

My answer: I keep a humidifier running in my bedroom at night throughout the year, because even when I don't need much humidification it's still a very good white-noise machine. (it's the wicking kind that inherently adapts to the ambient moisture level, so it doesn't over-humidify in summer: it just uses very little water then)

I also recorded the humidifier's sound and keep a copy on my phone, as an emergency backup in case of power outage or travel. (Haven't tried using it yet, not sure how well it'll work.)

I have a very hard time getting to sleep if I can hear snoring, though: I would definitely much rather have silence than that.

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A nightlight in the same room is excessive and keeps me awake. A bit of indirect light is best. The streetlights out the window work well for this.

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(My mom and occasionally my dad snore, and when I was a kid they always used a nightlight. I did not realise how terrible sleeping in their bed was until after I stopped. I actually resisted using my own bed at the time, because better the devil you know.)

Comments

[another_normal_anomaly]

Oh man, trying to sleep when someone else is snoring is the worst! Like, not only is it a reminder that there is another person in the room with you, that person is sleeping and can't breathe right, so *what if you won't be able to breathe right if you sleep either aaaaa*.

[brin_bellway]

I think it's pretty purely a sensory thing for me (especially the frequent-but-unpredictable intervals), but yes, it is Terrible. I'm so glad I eventually learned how great sleeping alone is.

(And nobody breathes in your face! Or leaves you with your face up against a sweaty back! Or overheats the blankets with their body heat!

...kid!me kind of figured taking an hour or two to get to sleep each night was just How Things Were.)

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The time a few years ago that we had a 16-hour power outage (10 AM - 2 AM) in winter, I moved my mattress into my parents' bedroom--not easy! my bed is a loft bed!--so we could share warmth and all that, regretted my life choices, and went and slept on the couch bundled in blankets and clothes instead. (By the time I realised Plan A wasn't going to work everyone else was asleep, so I couldn't enlist them to help me move the mattress back.)

My neck hurt the next day, but at least I could sleep.