Sleep is very important to me. This may actually be an understatement. It’s vital to me. I love sleep. I love going to bed. I love my bed. Have I communicated how much I like sleep yet? I could say that it becomes even more precious after becoming a parent, but I’m not sure that’s true for me. I needed my sleep (eight hours please and a fan of the early night) before I had children, and I need it now. And the sleep-deprivation of the early years of parenthood are a distant memory as the twins have been good sleepers for years (*touches wood superstitiously*).
It’s not actually the kids that are the cause of my bouts of sleeplessness, it’s sharing a bed with my husband, who happens to be a snorer (sorry Ben, it’s true). Yes, I am with the 49% who, in a recent survey on sleep compatibility by Bensons For Beds, are disturbed by a serial snorer. We don’t fight over the duvet (much), argue over the number of pillows (surely you can each choose your perfect number of pillows?), or compete over the TV (we don’t have a telly in the bedroom), but I am regularly consumed with nighttime rage when I’m kept awake by the sound of a tractor right next to my head.
We go to bed at different times. I don’t know if this is normal couple behaviour, but he’s a night owl and I’m a morning person so I mostly turn in much earlier than him. There are various steps I take in the quest for a good night’s sleep – no caffeine after 4pm, no phone on in the bedroom, hot drink before bed, read a book before lights out – and it means I’m normally in the land of nod before the snorer of the house joins me, which minimises how much he disrupts my sleep.
And there are other times of respite. Ben’s a shift-worker and I have to admit that sometimes I look forward to those nights when he’s working and I can lie diagonally across the bed, starfish-like, and know that the room will be quiet all night long.
Oh, and Ben has obviously read Bensons’ suggestion that a good night’s sleep is the best Valentines gift you could give, because he’s working a nightshift this Sunday. Happy Valentines to me…
Disclosure: This post is written in collaboration with Bensons For Beds,
but all opinions and words are my own
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