Catadromy

To the surprise of absolutely no one who really knows me, my passion is sleeping.  I believe sleeping to be vastly underrated. Did you know that a good night’s sleep can help you to improve your memory, curb inflammation, boost creativity, improve your grades, sharpen your attention, maintain a healthy weight, lower stress, avoid accidents and avoid depression?

There are two types of people, when it comes to sleeping habits—larks and night owls. Or morning people and night people. “Larks” are up and at it early in the morning and tend to hit the sack at a respectable evening hour; “owls” are most alert at night, and typically turn in long after dark. We’re really talking about a spectrum, rather than either/or and people may start out as one and become the other. Or, stay the same their entire lives.

Contrary to what Benjamin Franklin may have written, ‘early to bed and early to bed makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’ hasn’t been proven via statistical research. What has been shown, is that night owls are, on the whole, a bit smarter. Researchers measured mechanical and electrical engineering knowledge, general math and reading ability, working memory and processing speed and concluded that night owls were smarter than larks. Night owls are also more prone to infidelity.

Night owls are partial to bad habits—namely smoking and drinking. Well, they stay up late, go out. What does one do when one goes out? One smokes and drinks, of course.

But larks are persistent, co-operative, agreeable, conscientious and proactive. Well, if you like that sort of thing.

Larks also procrastinate less. Hmm.

I proudly declare my membership in the night owl group. My daughter, as well. She is known around my house as the Vampire Princess.

Back to my passion for sleeping. I am extremely particular about my sleep environment. Even the smallest of elements must be just perfect. A few years ago, we were at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colorado and had the best nights’ sleep imaginable. So, the final morning of our stay, I ripped off all the sheets and blankets and searched the mattress, looking for the name of the manufacturer. I found it and proceeded to search the internet for a retail store close to me. It took some time, but I found a store that sold the same type of mattress. The names on retail and hotel/commercial mattresses are a bit different. The day it was delivered and set up was a very memorable one.

This mattress is quite thick and I had to buy all new sheets. I only buy 100% Egyptian cotton sheets, minimum thread count of 600. The last time we were in Paris, we stayed at a 4-star hotel and the bedlinens were like sleeping on a cloud. Of course, I had turned the air conditioning down to 19° centigrade, so that might have had something to do with it. But the sheets were pure bliss. I located the name of the manufacturer and looked for them online, only to find out that they aren’t sold at retail…yet. So I wrote to them, asking when they might be available to consumers (instead of only to hotels) and was told that they are planning to open a storefront on Amazon and will let me know when they do.

I have a winter blanket and a summer blanket. The winter blanket is goose down and floats over me like a warm, fluffy cloud. The summer blanket is a cotton quilt and looks like it was made by someone’s grandmother. (Not mine, however.)

I have two pillows and they are identical. Both are king-size pillows, stuffed with the finest goose down. They are covered in pillow protectors and then pillow cases. One pillow goes under my arm and I wrap myself around the other one. I also have a third, smaller pillow that goes in-between my knees.

There is no light in the bedroom at all. The windows have blackout shades on each one. They were specially-made to not allow in any light. Even the lights on the cable box and the television are covered up. I also have a rule about no electronics in the bedroom at all. No iPad, phone or gaming devices.

There is also one window that is always open, because my bedroom must be cold or I cannot fall asleep. See earlier comment about Paris hotel room.

Once the conditions in the room are absolutely perfect, I snuggle under the blankets, arrange my pillows just so, close my eyes and drift off to sleep, only to wake up 7 hours later, fully refreshed and ready to begin another day.