Weighted Blankets

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year has to be this weighted blanket. I’d read about them before, and I’d wondered if they would actually be worth it. I mean, the thing cost $100. That seems like a bit steep for a blanket. How much difference would it make? Like many of you, all the uproar in the world has left me struggling to sleep sometimes. Could this be the trick? I decided to stop wondering and give it a go. After all, if it did work, then $100 was cheap for the amount of benefit I’d get out of it.

When I got it, I was first surprised by just how much this thing weighs. You’re supposed to get one that’s 10% of your body weight, which is why I went with the 20 pounder. And you wouldn’t think 20lbs would weigh that much. I think it’s the weight distribution that’s wonky. I’m just not used to having a blanket that looks that light end up being so heavy. When I’m lying under it, it doesn’t feel too much; it’s carrying it from spot to spot that’s more of a pain than I imagined.

But man do I love being under it. For a long time growing up, I had this massive down comforter that was inside a denim cover. The thing weighed a ton, and I really liked sleeping under it year round. I just liked having that weight there. It felt like sleeping with a hug. This is like that, but evenly distributed. The glass beads inside the blanket at super tiny. They feel more like sand. I got a queen size, and I worried it would go over onto Denisa’s side of the bed some, and that she wouldn’t like it. However, on our king size bed, it takes up just half and completely covers me witj room to spare. Definitely glad I got the larger size. Denisa said it does make it more difficult for her to move the covers around on her side at night, but she hasn’t said it’s a big problem.

I will say that the thing can get hot now and then. But mind you, I already sleep with a down comforter, heavy blanket, and flannel sheets. It’s also below 60 in my bedroom, so it has to get pretty warm for me to get uncomfortable. When that happens, it’s not the easiest thing to just throw that cover off in the middle of the night. That hasn’t stopped me from using it at all, but I thought I’d mention it.

I’ve spoken to some people who wish they’d gotten larger blankets. The queen size has been plenty for me, and I’m glad I chose it. I’ve been sleeping better at night, and waking up feeling much more refreshed. Could it be the placebo effect? Sure. Do I care? Why would I if it’s working. And anyway, it just feels nice.

I could see that they might not be for everyone, but if you’re on the fence about getting one, I vote for just going for it.

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Putting Myself to Bed

I haven’t been sleeping particularly well the last while. Mainly it’s a problem of waking up early and not being able to get back to sleep. I know I struggle with that, but then I’m not sensible enough to actually go to bed at a reasonable time. Add a few of those nights up, and I end up on the sleep deprived side.

This all came to a head yesterday when I woke up at 7am on my day off. I had been hoping to sleep until at least 8:30 or so, just to finally get caught up, but that wasn’t happening. I was still very tired, but just unable to turn my brain off and go back to bed. So I got up and got going.

And I was not in a good mood. I was grouchy about everything, with everyone. I found myself arguing with Denisa over something that I can’t even remember now. Something silly that I didn’t care that much about, but I was treating it like it was something much more important. And suddenly it hit me: I was over tired. If I were a toddler, I’d send me to bed with strict instructions to sleep some more. So I admitted as much to Denisa, apologized, and stopped arguing. Last night, I got in bed at 8:30. Yes, it felt ridiculously early, but I wanted to make sure I could fall asleep as soon as I was tired.

I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night, and I woke up feeling absolutely wonderful. That’s good, since today is the first day of school at the university, and things have been crazy here. But the difference between the two days was stark.

As a parent, it’s often easy to tell when my kids aren’t getting enough sleep. Yesterday was a reminder to me that it isn’t just toddlers who get grumpy and ill-tempered when they’re sleep deprived. It’s just no one can typically tell an adult when they need to go back to bed. For that, we have to recognize it on our own.

So if you’ve been feeling off the last while, might I suggest getting more sleep? Your family and friends will thank you . . .

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

One Bed to Rule Them All

Denisa and I have been married over 17 years now. And so we finally decided it was time for the two of us to have some more space between each other. Hmm. That didn’t come out right. How about . . . “We decided to find alternate sleeping arrangements?”

Nope. Still not great.

We bought a king-size bed. When you’re talking about sleeping, I guess the direct approach is best.

The main impetus behind the bigger bed was that Denisa wasn’t crazy about the new bed we got after the one we’d used for 10 years had reached its end. So we had a new bed, but that one only lasted a four years or so before we got a different one, which has also not been super. Denisa’s back has been hurting when she slept on it, to the point that some nights she’d just go find a different bed to sleep in.

Not ideal.

So when we saw a beautiful king-size sleigh bed go up for sale, we bought it, sans mattress. The plan was to buy a mattress later. But buying a mattress is a bewildering experience these days, or at least it can be. When we first got married, it was more streamlined. You went to a department store, you lay down on a bunch of mattresses, and then you paid a bunch of money ($1,000+ at least) for a good mattress. Because you should pay a lot for a mattress, seeing as how you spend so much time sleeping.

This time, I’d heard a lot of good things about foam mattresses you buy online. Denisa wanted one that was more environmentally friendly. After a fair bit of research, we settled on the Tuft and Needle mattress. It has a ton ton ton of good reviews, and all the sites I saw said it was really solid. Better yet, many of the people I spoke to about mattresses said they’d bought that one.

But we didn’t buy a king size mattress for our king size bed. No no no. We decided to buy two XL twins, because they fit the frame just as well, and because this way, when one of us moves at night, there’s no chance at all of it shifting the whole bed. The best thing? It was only $750 total. (Yes, this is still $50 more than just one king size mattress, but whatever. It’s still a ton less than the fancy pants beds we’d bought before.) We had gotten old twin size box springs, and these mattresses don’t even need box springs if you don’t have them anyway. Score.

It’s one thing to have a plan and another to actually put it into play. What if we got the mattresses and hated them? (Tuft and Needle has a 100 night guarantee. If you don’t like it, they donate your mattress to a local shelter and give you a full refund. Very nice.)

Well, they arrived. And after taking down the queen size mattress and box spring, disassembling the old bed, taking it to the garage, bringing up the new frame, assembling it, bring up the box springs, and putting out the new mattresses . . .

I’m happy to say we both love the new bed. Super comfortable. Better than any foam bed I’ve slept in before. Feels plenty firm (we’d worried it would be too soft). Really, no complaints at all.

Though a king size bed is huge. It’s like we’re sleeping in two different hemispheres, really.

Anyway, if you’re in the market for a new bed and want a great sleeping experience and don’t want to pay a lot of money, definitely check out the Tuft and Needle. Highly recommended.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Grownups Need to Be Told to Go to Bed

So I get home from work yesterday, and I’m just exhausted. No idea why. It wasn’t a really stressful day at the library or anything, but I was pretty darn tired. To make matters worse, I discover that I’m really grumpy and short tempered to boot. (Does that happen to any of you? You realize you’re grumpy and want to not be grumpy, but you seem to be stuck in one gear and can’t get out of it? That was me.) My family suffers through me through dinner, and then I just put my head down on the table and found myself almost snoozing off right then and there.

Denisa suggested I might want to go to bed.

Seemed like a good idea to me. At 7pm last night, I went to bed just to take a break for a bit.

I woke up at 7am, 12 hours later.

It’s so easy to look at my kids and know when they’re tired. They become different people, almost. They’re more easy to upset, they argue more often, they get grumpy–and it’s really easy as an adult to just tell them to go to bed and sleep. You know what? I think every grownup needs to assign a person to be in control of their sleep schedule. Someone who can take an objective view of what the grownup is doing, and then order him or her to bed when they just need more sleep.

I know what you’re thinking–you’re thinking that you know what’s best for you, and you know how much sleep you need, and you don’t need somebody to tell you when to go to bed. You know who else makes those exact same arguments?

My kids.

We’re not that different from children, when you get down to it. It’s not like someone waves a magic wand when we turn 18 and leave home and suddenly we need less sleep. I’m sure this would apply in other areas as well. Someone to step in and tell us when we’re behaving like a jerk and need to apologize. Someone to tell us when we need to share our toys, or when we need to stop eating.

Maybe it’s a copout. Maybe we’re here on earth so we can learn how to do all that without a grownup telling us to. That’s why I’m not going to advocate for anything more than assigning someone to tell us when to go to sleep.

I’m feeling much better this morning, thanks for asking. I don’t feel foggy-headed, I’m not grumpy, and I’m not overwhelmed with everyday tasks. Sleep is our friend, and sometimes we need someone else to step in and remind us that no, checking Facebook for an hour and then playing World of Warcraft for another hour is really not as important as sleeping for both of those hours.

My advice? Find someone in your life who you’re in contact with a fair bit. Someone who knows what’s going on in your life. And authorize that person to be able to order you to bed. Then, when they do (and they will), remember why you authorized them to do that . . .

And go to sleep.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise: An Experiment with Ben Franklin

I taught Seminary again this week, which meant that I had to be getting up around 5am every day. Last time, I didn’t change my sleep schedule that much–I just got up earlier, and I was exhausted each day. So this time, I decided to put Franklin to the test. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” And let’s be honest, in light of yesterday’s post, I need all the health, wealth, and wisdom I can get. So each evening, I tried to get to bed by 9pm.

N-I-N-E.

As in, the hour before ten. Two hours before eleven. Two and a half hours before I normally go to bed.

Each day, I woke up at 5am as planned. And you know what? I haven’t been tired–despite all the other stressful things happening in my life. I’ve yawned much less. I’ve been a better thinker.

And I’ve absolutely loathed every minute of it.

Really. I hate going to bed early, I’ve decided. Hate it with a fiery passion that just might cause flames to shoot out of my eyes. We’re talking Mrs. White hatred, people.

Why do I hate it? For many reasons. First of all, my favorite time of day is the night. I love my evenings. I look forward to staying up late, reading books or watching movies. I would rather have an entire day with me being tired–and me having a real evening–then a day with me feeling fine and missing out on those few hours. Does that make me odd? Second, I hate what it stands for: I am not one of Those People. I remember once on my mission, my companion and I knocked on a man’s door at 4pm. He came to the door and yelled at us for having come by so late, informing us that all “good minded people” were already in bed by then.

At 4 in the afternoon.

Yeah. I don’t want to be that guy, and each evening before I turned off the light at 9pm, that’s the guy who flashed through my mind.

Is it any wonder I didn’t enjoy the experience?

So the question is–will I do it again next time I teach Seminary? Honestly? I probably will, as much as I hate to admit it. I’ll feel like an old fuddy duddy, but the cold hard truth is that I’m beginning to have a hard time functioning on just five hours of sleep a night. I’d go to bed a bit earlier–say 10:30 or so–but the problem then is that I can’t typically fall asleep at that time. I get sleepy around 9, and I usually fight through it. Once I clear that bump, I don’t get sleepy again until around 11:30. So it’s pretty much an either/or situation.

Have I been wealthier than normal? Certainly not. More wise? I don’t think so. Healthier? Possibly. But I’m sorry Mr. Franklin. 1 out of 3 just ain’t gonna cut it.

How about you–when do you go to bed and get up each day? Normally, I’m an 11:30 to bed, 6:30 out of bed kind of guy. When I’m not being a fuddy duddy. Do share!