Sleep. A short word.
Sleeeep! I can hear it. The sound is enough to make me want to curl up in a favourite chair and let the world pass by on the other side, while I drift off to nothingness.
Ha Ha!
I go to bed tired, with socks on, make sure my feet are warm, snuggle under my 13.5 tog Down and Feather duvet, with only my nose and mouth uncovered, then close my eyes and relax. I may drift off for an hour, some times two, but three consecutive hours seems to be my limit at any one time. I wake up FROZEN. Deep cold through my body, like someone has stolen my duvet , or placed me beside the open door of a freezer!
I remember Jack telling my mother, shortly after we married, that I frightened him one night. I was asleep, no sign of movement or breathing. He placed his face close to mine, but there was no sound or feeling of breath. My right arm was cold and felt like marble. It took him a full hour to massage the arm back to normal heat and softness.
Mammy informed him AND me, that I was like that all through childhood, She said she kept a small vanity mirror from a handbag in my bedroom, so she could hold it close to my nose & mouth for signs of breathing.
I remember her teasing me, that at times there was no need to remake my bed, I never moved to toss it about.
Radio is my answer with the voices low enough to just hear the sound.
Now if I do sleep, it is always after Sailing By* and I am regularly awake for the change over from BBC World Service to BBC Radio 4 at 05:20 each morning.
Reading is hopeless, My eyes get tired quickly and I lose concentration as the words dance about the page, re reading the same paragraph over and over is a pain in the proverbial.
I have tried audio books but the Narrator’s voice has to be right or I just cannot listen for more than a few sentences.
* “Sailing By” composed by Ronald Binge in 1963 and performed by the Alan Perry/William Gardner Orchestra, and below is the version used by the BBC for the lead in to the late night shipping forecast.
Sweet Dreams, my lovelies!
Maybe you can knit yourself a “sleep shroud” to keep you warm throughout the night?
A shroud? My brothers might get rid of me in double quick time! 😆
Have you tried a good hot water bottle under the duvet, GM? Your sleep patterns sound like hell to me. I’ve been lucky with my capacity for sleep except in times of pain or stress or grief. I totally feel for you, good that you have found some comfort in resources to help you cope 🙁
XO
WWW
WWW, I think I need a man to sleep with. SLEEP being the important word here, it is the heat of a real body I am talking about. I do have a hot water bottle but that always went cold and was uncomfortable under my feet. I do have a microwaveable wheat pack, well it is really the contents of two in a larger homemade fleece cover. It is like a small cushion and never really gets cold but very comfortable to keep my feet on. I do have an electric blanket, but I do not like leaving it on all night. I place a soft pillow on top of the duver across my feet on extreemly cold nights.
It may be the time of year, but I am very tired at the moment.
I don’t know if it would help, but a heated mattress pad may keep away the chill. I listen to BBC 4 and 4x through the night as well. However, being -8 GMT does means Radio 4 is available through most of my night.
I sometimes wake up freezing, as well. Chilled to the bone. I was told that once being exposed to hypothermia (in the military, in my case) the body will often have problems setting it’s thermostat properly. I don’t know how true that is, however.
Frank, I do have an electric blanket and use it to warm the bed before I get in. On one occasion when I had a borderline stroke, I had hypothermia by the time I reached cardiac care. My hands and feet are always cold 24/7. When people shake hands with me, they seldom say “How are you!” It is usually something like “Your hands are freezing!”
In winter we are mostly in the 20’s and sometimes in the teens during the night. I love our flannel sheets. I am like you. I wake in the night and find I can’t shut my mind down and go back to sleep. I listen to the radio. Though I use an ear plug so I don’t disturb my husband. Today the sun is shining and I am thinking of spring.
We began with snow this morning, but bright sunshine soon shifted it, It tried to regain ground severaal times during the day, but to no avail. We are down to 0°C and it might stay that way for most of tomorrow with humidity of 90%. Touches of Spring only last about half an hour here.
I wish that I could offer some advise. I didn’t know that you had such a problem with your sleep pattern and body temperature. To me it sounds very different from what I am used to and what I have heard from others. As you know, I am blessed and can sleep well both during the nights and in the afternoons. When I can squeeze in a mid morning nap for about ten minutes, it is a bonus!
Ramana, there are no answers, and I have learned to live with it. Both of my parents slept well we often teased mammy that she could sleep on a clothes line.
Dear Grannymar, my heart goes out to you. Some time ago in true doldrums, my sleep pattern was abysmal. Terrible. Not that I minded. I just did things. Middle of the night. Until my doctor told me that continued lack of sleep is not good.
You are miles younger than my mother but she too does report two things: One – which considering her age is astonishing – she literally sleeps round the clock. Obviously I can’t say it to her but can’t help thinking that it won’t be long and she won’t have any choice [other than to sleep forever]. So why waste time NOW sleeping whilst she can still be awake? She also told me about my beloved grandmother (her mother) who was tiny and always afraid of the cold. You know the cold I believe you are talking about – chilled to the bone. So, when we buried my dear sweet Grandmother all my mother could think about was how cold she’d feel six foot under in the snow.
I wish I could give you some comfort. Other than, yes, hot water bottles, socks and all that. Naturally, what would you expect, Grannymar, at least as the cold goes I run on the entirely different spectrum to you. Anyone, whether sibling, spouse, child, friend, who has ever shared the same bed with me said it’s like sleeping next to a hot oven. Which is why I always so appreciated my mother’s naturally cool hands on my forehead when I was in grip of a fever.
Sweet dreams, as and when they come,
Ursula
Thank you Ursula. When writing the post above, it was more a statement of fact about lack of sleep, than anything else. Perhaps it will bring some comfort to others to read that they are not alone. The last time I had a full nights sleep was December 1991. Yes. I can pin it down to that month and year, it was the beginning of Jack’s journey through cancer and mine of being a 24/7 lone carer. Lack of sleep will not kill me, but the cold might. I have no worries about dying and the good thing about it is I will never feel the cold again!
Hmmm. Very interesting dilemma. I don’t know what to suggest.
Gigi, I doubt there is an answer.
I’m the opposite. I get really hot during the night, and when Jenny cuddles up to me she says I’m like a furnace. Sometimes I get a full night’s sleep, sometimes I wake at 4 am or 5 am. I don’t think there are many people who get a “normal” night’s sleep, whatever that may be.
I envy Jenny, Jack was like a lifesize hot water bottle. I am inclined to agree with you, Nick, no such thing as a “normal” night’s sleep.
Odd to become so cold. You must go into a deep hibernation of some kind. Just don’t forget to wake up.
It seems natural to me nowadays, I am thin – no insulation! It certainly make me glad to greet each new day!
I’m an oddball sleeper as well, sometimes when I wake up – I believe it is around dawn but usually I find I’ve been asleep about 20mins! And it’s just after midnight. When I do sleep most of the night and woken by the alarm, I astounded!!!
I just go with the flow, and if necessary have short nap mid arvo…
I go with the flow, but never nap in the day time.