Friday, May 4, 2012

Which Side of the Bed Do You Claim?

Comic from chaoslife.findchaos.com

To those that are able to have a bed all to themselves, I envy you. I know my fiance would kill me for that comment, but it's true. Nothing like crashing into a bed, after a rough days work, all by yourself, crawling into a ball or all spread out, without a care in the world whom you may accidentally slap, scratch, or kick, and just fall asleep. That must be the life. Sadly, most of my adult life, I have shared the bed with someone. Although, there was this short period of time that I could claim the bed all to myself. Oh how wonderful that was. I slept like a baby.

I never really had a claim to a certain side of the bed in a relationship. It was always the guy. Here recently, well maybe in the past year I should say, my insomnia has been in full swing. I would not wish insomnia on my worst enemy. Let me give you a little insight to my daily sleeping pattern. 

     I crawl into bed, ready to fall asleep. I drift off peacefully to dreamland and escape the stressful world around me. My dreams begin to stream before me, like a movie marathon of a life of mine that is unknown to me. Then in my dream, I am frantically searching for a place to relieve myself because I seriously have got to go pee. After fail attempts in my dream to pee, I realize, "Dammit! I have to pee!" So, I  awake from my dream and stumble into the bathroom. Once I am done, I crawl back into bed, but first, I have to check the time. "Are you serious?! I have been asleep for a whole two hours?" Discouraged, I tuck myself back in and fall asleep again. Except this time, not peacefully. I usually end up waking up groggy or unknowingly to sit up on the side of the bed or just sit up in the bed, have awake wondering why am I up. I am exhausted. Then I try to lay back down and fall asleep to do the same thing again, over and over again. FML!

I have tried everything to reduce the insomnia- from decreasing active stimuli to taking Melatonin as a sleep aid. I can't take Tylenol PM, Nyquil, or anything that is meant to help you sleep that isn't an herb. The diphenhydramine, aka Benadryl, causes me extreme anxiety and restlessness. That's worse than insomnia itself.

In the past month, I think I had found a solution, or at least a temporary solution to my insomnia. It was found by accident too. One morning, after getting home from work, I woke my fiance up so he could get ready for work. Once he got up, I crawled onto his side of the bed because it was warm. As he hopped into the shower, I drifted off. Eight hours later, yes eight hours later, I wake up fully refreshed and had the best sleep ever! I thought maybe the insomnia had caught up with me and I was able to just sleep. Not the case. It so happens, that when we moved into the new place, we switched sides of the bed. I have been suffering from bad insomnia since we have moved here.

Anyway, my fiance and I have been discussing for the past month about switching sides of the bed so I can rest better. When we finally did it, I have not had much of a problem of not getting enough sleep. I still get up to pee in the middle of my sleep. I still look at the clock after I pee. What I don't do is sit up, toss and turn, anything that disrupts my sleep completely. It has been a wonderful week!

So...apparently, the right side of the bed (the right side of the bed if you stand at the foot of the bed facing towards it) is my favorite side to sleep on. What's yours?