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How do you sleep?

11:04 / 09.09.03

It's been occurring to me during a recent bout of insomnia that I've never learnt how to sleep. I mean, I've done it lots of times but never established a technique of any sort. I've developed comfortable methods for walking, sitting on chairs, reading newspapers and so on, but when I get into bed I'm at a loss as to what exactly I ought to do with my arms. Lying flat on my back with my legs straight and arms at my sides feels a little funereal, and a prone position soon begins to hurt my neck. Lying on my side seems to work better but I can never for the life of me recall which way round is best and then where my fucking arms are supposed to go.
In the course of finding mellow sleep I'll change position a number of times, but The position is obviously the last arrangement I try, and so I'm asnooze before I can think to remember it. I always promise myself that I'll take a note of the position I wake up in - but of course upon waking, concerns about how exactly I manage to stay that way tend to drown out any interest in how I achieved the other.

I'd have thought I'd have perfected something by now. Have you?

11:21 / 09.09.03

i can't sleep on my front because my boobs get in the way.
i also can't sleep without an eye mask, you know one of these.
i would also like to say that i have the best dreams ever when i'm having a stressful time in my life. my brain thinks up the craziest stuff to cheer me up. last night i was buffy the vampire slayer, and i made friends with all these people and beat up lots of vampires.
also last night i went to the bowling championships with my best friends. also, when i'm ovulating i have the best sex dreams ever.

11:32 / 09.09.03

I don't have much natural padding, so I find lying on my back the most comfortable position. I would stay in that position but then I start snoring and sleep badly, so what I do is lie on my back and relax my legs, arms, torso and neck one at a time to make sure they're all done. If I'm thinking about something I imagine folding up a piece of paper several times and putting it into a letter box. I keep repeating all of this until I realise I've dozed off for a bit and then I just turn over on one side, hopefully without thinking about it too much. If I do wake up at that point I just start again.

Avoiding coffee etc. after 7 p.m. also helps if I'm having a bad run.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

11:32 / 09.09.03

Everyone needs a bosom for a pillow Suds, have you considered renting yours out? (And don't get me started on 'everyone needs a bosun for a pillow you pirate/physicist fiends!) I toss and turn a lot at night, but I tend to read for a while before I try to go to sleep. It seems to soothe my fevered brain and give it some shutdown time before we get on to the tiresome business of trying to get to sleep.

The Original Dodger

11:34 / 09.09.03

I have no personal intel on ovulation as dream therapy

but here's what works for me:

Lie on left hand side, couple of pillows under head, left arm straight down my front, but not laid on. Left leg straight, Right knee pulled up to waist, two pillows underneath the thigh supporting the leg. Right arm either along your right side, behind you, or tucked up in front of you.

I had a back op a few years back, and that was the ONLY comfortable position! Now I guess it's just habit. Try it? In the night the "prop" pillows go awol anyway, but to GET to sleep it's really comfy...

11:44 / 09.09.03

on my side, with one or both of my legs pulled up, often with a body pillow wedged in between top knee and bed (my mother got me one when I was pregnant, as I was incessantly miserable and moms tend to be thoughtful like that...I have since become addicted to the things). my elbows bent and hands either clenched by my face, under my chin or tucked together under my cheek, like they make angelic little kids do in movies.

sometimes I just curl into a tight midget-sized ball, knees nearly to my chest and elbows tucked in to my stomach - which I pay dearly for the next morning.

and always the warm, purring cats

11:50 / 09.09.03

Flat on my back like a corpse, arms at my sides. And then I don't move all night. Unless, of course, I'm having an insomnia night, in which case I wriggle about and try every position under the sun. But that's more 'how do you not sleep', I suppose.

11:56 / 09.09.03

On my right side facing the wall I find it hard to sleep if I'm facing the open room. Arms pulled up beside me or sometimes now under my pillow now that I have one of those V-shaped ones.

I can't sleep on my back I feel really weird like I'm attempting astral projection.

When drunk I can sleep anywhere anyhow though...

12:00 / 09.09.03

I also regularly wake up with both arms sticking straight up in the air. My sister does the same, which got pretty weird when we shared a bed for a while, both of us lying there like zombies.

12:02 / 09.09.03

I'm picturing two ladies lying in bed, stretched flat out like that. and snoring.

the laughter is making my aching tummy muscles hurt.

12:10 / 09.09.03

Snoring? Moi? Only in a zombie-like fashion.

13:30 / 09.09.03

I'm most comfortable on my back, but unfortunately that sometimes tends to encourage the odd snore, which in turn encourages the odd elbow in the ribs.

Plus, a three month old baby ensures you don't have much above three hours at a time.

Tryphena Absent

14:00 / 09.09.03

I like to fling my arms across the bed really stretched out or above my head.

14:16 / 09.09.03

Starfish!

15:20 / 09.09.03

i've been training myself to sleep on my back, cos i like to sleep on my left side a lot, and if you do that, after years of it, one side of yr face looks different than the other and we all know that symmetry in the human face is what we humans find beautiful, and i'm really vain. not vain in that 'i'm so gorgeous' way, more like 'oh shit! am i ok?'
ariadne, that story of how you and yr sis sleep is so funny. sometimes i sleep on my back w/my knees bent, pointing up. it just happens, and various bed partners have thought it weird. which it is, but you've got me topped!

also, body pillows are the shit. in high school, i named mine beck cos i used to be obsessed w/beck. as in the musician beck.

15:32 / 09.09.03

also, suds, i'm jealous. my ovulation dreams (and luckily i don't have them all the time) suck ass. i won't get into details, but calista flockhart?!? ack! i'm not even into the womens, and if i was i wouldn't be into her.

16:20 / 09.09.03

I always sleep on my right side, resting my weary head on my right arm, possibly with one slender pillow interposed. Elephant god, spooned in behind, perhaps with left leg hooked over mine, is perfect.

I lie there writing the first chapter of one of several unwritten books in my head (unless thinking rude thoughts about Sax). I don't mind lights on but I don't like noise. Even in the depths of winter, I like to have some fresh air coming in from an open window.

If I can't get to sleep, I get up and read for a while and then go back to bed later. I got that from a radio programme years ago where some psychologist said you should maintain the association in your mind between putting your head on the pillow and drifting off to sleep at all costs. If you lie there, tossing (thinking about Sax again, sorry) and turning too often, you begin to think of bed as a place to lie awake rather than to be used for peaceful slumber.

I always have a book on the go for encouragement of sleep. Seldom manage to finish a chapter before the words blur. Harry Potter V, however, kept me up all night and should be avoided as a hypnotic aid.

16:39 / 09.09.03

I sleep with my body facing down, and my face to the side, without a pillow. Pillows make you soft.

Praying Mantis, people roll around in their sleep, so you don't have to use alternate sides every night.

17:42 / 09.09.03

i knoooow people roll around in their sleep but they do tend to favor one or two positions over the others...i already see a difference in my left side. (the horror!)

18:32 / 09.09.03

I also regularly wake up with both arms sticking straight up in the air.

Are you serious, Ari? I woke up last weekend with my hands sticking up. All the blood had drained out of them & they were numb, that's what woke me up. Not my whole arms, though.

18:41 / 09.09.03

I sleep on my back, obviously. If I slept on my side, I would've had to bend my hands up & even I'm not that weird.

19:52 / 09.09.03

Are you serious, Ari?

Yup. I don't do it so much any more but they'd be straight up and I'd kind of rub one arm and then the other. Now, apparently, I just sleep with my knees sticking up and crossed in some weird imitation of a bloke on the tube. Or so I've just been told. I'm getting worried about this and may strap myself down tonight.

19:57 / 09.09.03

you're right, zombies shouldn't snore...but the snoring makes it so much funnier!

one time I sat cross legged on the floor, then lay back (legs still crossed) and fell asleep. when I woke up, all groggy and confused, my legs were paralyzed! I flipped out and almost (-> <-thiiiis close) started weeping.

luckily it only lasted about a minute - but boy what a long minute!

20:48 / 09.09.03

Despite the fact that sleeping on your tummy causes puffy eyes in the morning, I always eventually end up lying that way, my face turned to the right side, and I always have my blanket tucked under my feet.
I also have a weird habit of sleeping ontop of my hands (right under my hip bones) which can be a pain because when I wake up,they're numb, and it's NOT fun trying to turn off your alarm clock when you can't control your hands properly.

22:15 / 09.09.03

On my stomach, head on the very furthest edge of my pillow, hands on my thighs. It's really the only way I can sleep comfortably. Sometimes, if I'm restless, I sleep on my side with my bottom arm curled under the pillow. Laying on the back is good for late-night contemplation, but I always end up belly-flopping if I'm going to get any sleep at all.

Matthew Fluxington

22:22 / 09.09.03

I'm not sure, but I usually fall asleep on my back and wake up on my stomach.

07:10 / 10.09.03

Ariadne is, simply, the coolest lady EVER.

I usually fall asleep on my left side, one small pillo under the neck (or sometimes no pillow at all) both arms sticking out and bent, left leg also bent, right leg stgaight. Unless I'm sleeping in a bed with someone that I'm NOT humping or cuddleing with. Then it's 100% vampire: flat on my back with arms crossed over my chest. It's not purposeful, it just happens. Every time.

What's with these Buffy dreams? I had one last week where I was little Dawn and wanted to marry Spike, so kept trying to hold his hand asking him what it was like to kill people becuase I was thirsty for violence. And we all lived in a castle. By the sea.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

08:16 / 10.09.03

Really badly and not for long due to new(ish) baby.

Must....sleep

08:48 / 10.09.03

On my side, usually left but sometimes right, head in crook of arm. Usually very soundly. Difficult one to wake, me.

Oh, and left is usually the side away from the wall though nowadays I'm not so fazed.

21:08 / 11.09.03

The Recovery Position.

02:09 / 12.09.03

Draped with beautiful women, on a bed made of money.

Oh, positionally. I fall asleep on my back or side, I almost invariably wake up on my side.

03:09 / 12.09.03

I don't really sleep well so there are two forms. Firstly, I get utterly wasted and pass out for many hours (bliss for me). Or secondly, I first try sleeping on my front, diagonally across my futon. Then the boards begin to dig into my hips and lower rib-cage so I roll onto to my left side, but the dim light through the window disturbs me, so then I roll onto my left side, but the light from my alarm clock disturbs me. Finally sheer fatigue kicks in and I begin to drop off - at which point my body goes into revolt and jerks me into wakefulness with this weird all-over muscle-spasm. This may happen a couple of times. Then I keep I trying for another hour or two, constantly disturbed by the noises outside and the sound of the cat scratching at my door (who seems to feel that the best way for me to sleep is for him to lie on my face so that I can snort fur whilst slowly asphyxiating) until finally I fall asleep for what seems an eternity of disturbing complex nightmares, which rip me sweating and shaking into complete alertness to find that just five fucking minutes have passed and I now don't feel like sleeping ever again. Cue another three days of insomnia until the weekend arrives and I can get so wasted I pass out for hours again. Something tells me this ain't healthy.