I don't like to sleep alone.

Do you?

What's it like to sleep with me? Usually quiet, sometimes a little noisy. Always pleasant, peaceful, with vivid dreams. I should know, I've been doing it for several years, now. Doing it and doing it and doing it. Sleeping, that is!

HAH!

Did your mind just go dirty? tsk tsk. :)

Sleep wasn't such a big deal to me for a long time. Mostly because I hated to be tired, to sleep. It seemed to be such a waste of time to be laying unconscious for several hours doing nothing, accomplishing nothing. Just unconscious, vulnerable, nearly comatose. When I sleep? That's it. I'm gone. Dead to the world. Not much could ever wake me, now, nothing does except my body clock, occasionally the pre-set alarm. 

I used to stay awake as long as I humanly could. There was a bit of caffeinated infusion involved sometimes. Usually, there would be a project I was working on that kept my mind buzzing, concentrated effort spurred me forward as I worked long into the night ever closer to completion. VICTORY! The finish was in sight! The crowd would be cheering, no, it was the birds singing! Time to go to bed.

Usually I orchestrated my life events so that I could make it to my goal of getting dressed by 1400. That's 2 o'clock in the afternoon to those who need to know this. Shameful, hmm? So, it could be said that it wasn't that I didn't like to sleep, I had to be at the brink of exhaustion so I could just fall on the bed into a deep sleep within a minute. Yep, that fast! 

It could also be said that I didn't like to sleep at night. There's a myriad of reasons, yet, I know that for a long time I loathed sleeping at night. At one point in my life, I had to sleep at night so that I could get children up then off to school. I really hated doing that. After the last one was out the door, I would crawl back into bed with a smile!  Get up 3 hours later, then get the housework done, the laundry, take the dog for a walk, come home, get dinner started, sit down work on a project until everyone started trickling in the door.

After the divorce, that changed. I had business to take care of, appointments to keep. The life of leisure was O-V-E-R  over! Everything was dependent on me. It was then, that I began to discover the true value of sleep. Long, restful, blissful, deep sleep. 

I was squeaking by on 4 hours per night, which was way more than I'd become used to ~ ever!

There was another problem.

The bed.

With just me, in it, it felt so cold, so empty. Although I had come to realize the value of sleep, I couldn't fall asleep alone. During my marriage, the only part that never suffered was our sex life. At least once a day, usually 2 - 3 times per day. We were two very very passionate people with high drives who enjoyed sex a lot. We were good together in bed. Everything else besides that was quite miserable for me

Sex was gone, too.

Cold, empty bed, no sex, no affection, no sweet pillow talk. It was difficult to sleep. No, it was nearly impossible. I became a light sleeper, every noise, every shadow, woke me. 

Totally gave up caffeine.

Am not one to take meds or consult a doctor, was going to handle this on my own. Whole Foods was a place I loved to go to even when not looking for anything specific. On one meander through the aisles of "cool stuff" I saw a sweet Teddy bear. Not just an ordinary one, oh no!! This one could be warmed, then taken to bed.

Interesting concept. Taking a hot guy to bed! Here Teddy - Teddy - Teddy!

I bought one, took him home. He didn't help me knock out cold right away, however , the warmth was comforting.

I'd push him to the foot of the bed to warm my cold little tootsies. He made my stomach settle if I'd had a tough day, by placing him on my stomach then eventually hugging him to my chest to turn on my side.

Sometimes, I would place him against my back, it felt as if someone was there.

Sometimes....put him between my thighs, it felt as if......well, you know!

Hey, the bear was wonderful to have for many many reasons. Get your mind out of the gutter! ;)

One sad day, I nuked poor Teddy too long, he smelled like burned toast! Yucky! Luckily, Whole Foods had one of Teddies' twins there, so, once again, I was sleeping with a hot guy every night. In fact, I couldn't sleep without him. The warmth was nice, I had gone through 4 Teddies when the effect wore off. That was a very sad thing for me.

I looked into OTC meds, they left me groggy the next day. I had business to take care of, couldn't be groggy. 

Then, I discovered these little blue gel capsules when looking through the generic sleep aids. Selected one, took them home, followed the directions. Taking one, 2 hours before bed made me able to fall asleep ~ 3 hours later! The effect only kept me asleep for 5 hours.

The next night, I took 2, was able to sleep within 1 hour yet, woke up every 1 - 3 hours. I didn't have any appointments the next day, so, the next night, I took 4 at 7 pm........BOOM!

I fell into a deep,restful sleep by 2030, woke at 0800 feeling like I could take on the world! leap tall buildings! become POTUS! I opted for a very long, intense, sweaty workout!

With my lil blue buddies, I can knock out cold by 2100, wake up with no alarm @ 0500 feeling refreshed, ready for whatever life has planned for me.

Now, the freaky stuff! I had been hearing about how eating different foods before bed can induce different types of dreams.

I experimented with different suggestions. This may be a psychosomatic suggestion, yet, it did cause some very interesting dreams to occur.

These were the effects on me, personally:

Sharp Cheddar Cheese - Vivid, pleasant dreams of a sexual nature

Cottage Cheese - Nostalgic, surreal dreams of the past

Deviled Eggs w/Cilantro - Violent dreams with big black snakes, rapists, murder

Swiss Cheese - Dreams of being very powerful, invincible with lucidity.

Of course, I don't use these foods to induce a type of dream every night, however, it always produces the same type of dream from eating the same type of food.

Now, I have a heated mattress pad, as well as a heat pad which can do the same double duty as Teddy did. Yupp. heh heh. feels like someone is there.

I don't like to sleep alone, yet, life is, such as it is. I decided a long time ago to be happy, so, I will be happy, no matter what!

Now...

Go to sleep!

;)