Sleeping Places

Following on from the insomnia attacks of late, I’ve also been thinking a lot about the things that do work for me when it comes to sleep.

Because I’ve also been doing a lot of travelling and visiting, it’s given me a wide range of reference points, which always makes things more interesting.

One oddity I have noticed is that I seem to sleep better on sofas than I do in bed.  It’s strange, but true.  I’ve also had a few occasions of coming home in the afternoon and getting a nap on my own sofa, but that’s more for catch-ups when they’re absolutely needed, rather than becoming a routine.

It’s been true for a long time though – certainly right back to the Norfolk house, where I’d sleep on the sofa-bed when we had bad weather and I had to take Hound in to the smaller bedroom to stop her being an arse.  When I think about it, it’s also applied a lot of times over the years, when going to see friends and so on, and preferring to crash on sofas rather than spare beds.

As a result, I’m doing a lot of thinking about whether I change my bedroom and bed, investing instead in a decent sofa-bed.  It’s food for thought at the moment, but not going to be a change I make quickly. After all, if I make the change and don’t sleep any better, then it’s been a loss/waste of a bed and so on.

It may be that I leave it until I move house again – which is something that’s on the agenda, but not any time imminently. That’ll definitely be to a bigger place – hell, it’d be a challenge to find anywhere smaller – so I can look at it seriously at that point.

I’ll think about it more – there’s other factors in that kind of decision-  but we’ll see where things go, I think.

 


4 Comments on “Sleeping Places”

  1. Z says:

    How interesting – might it be possible to work out why that is – that is, what is it about a sofa-bed that helps you sleep? They might be firmer, for example, or maybe smaller so that your head has to be higher, something like that.

  2. Lyle says:

    Oh, I wish I knew what it was that worked vs. not working. It’s driven me crackers. It’s actually sofas rather than sofa-beds that I sleep best on, but used to do OK on the futon sofa-bed thing in Norfolk Place.

    Other than that, I wish I knew.

    • It’s not firmness – i’ve got a firm mattress already, but slept badly on a super-firm one in Malmaison (like a board) and on regular and soft ones.
    • It’s not head height (so far as I can tell) – I always sleep with head raised on pillows anyway, and in some cases I sleep better on higher (or lower) ones on a sofa, but there’s nothing consistent
    • It’s not (so far as I can tell) being smaller/scrunched up either – I usually sleep quite scrunched, but it can be good or bad on both 2 and 3-seater sofas

    I think there are just too many variables, which is why I can’t work it the chuff out. And that’s annoying in and of itself!

  3. Z says:

    A sofa is narrower, so you lie more still and don’t wake up through restless thrashing about? If you had slept better in a hotel room with a single bed, that might be a thought. Perhaps you could consider sleeping on your own sofa at home to see if it works consistently. I’ve occasionally slept on mine, though I can’t quite remember why, and found that the first night is fine but after that I want to be able to turn over.

  4. Lyle says:

    Hmmm, that’s an interesting (and valid) point that I hadn’t thought about before.

    I can (and do) sleep better on sofas for multiple nights, although I haven’t tested it long-term yet. Definitely some food for thought on that, though…


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