After 16 Years, Is It Really Time for a New Bed?

Yep. I have been sleeping on the same mattress set for 16 years. I think that's probably 6 or 8 years too long - even for a good mattress, which this was. In an effort to take whatever measures might help with a number of bodily aches and chronic daily mental fatigue that means I'm seriously unproductive for several hours in the morning (one reason I don't usually blog in the morning), I've decided to buy a new mattress set and maybe some bedroom furniture.

Of course, that also means that I'll need to buy spiffy new sheets and stuff. Probably some new pillows, too. Now, neither sheets nor pillows currently on the bed are as old as the mattress, mind you. Those things I do buy replacements for every couple years. I'm thinking I'd like to buy the sheet sets to go with some kind of decor...but right now the bedroom has no decor. It has few random occasional tables in lieu of real bedside tables and piles of stuff that don't fit anywhere else in the house. I have living room and dining room decor, so the stuff that doesn't go with, goes in the bedroom.

I prefer a simple modern - kind of "urban" look. I saw a picture online of a platform bed with extensions on the side that served as bedside tables and the headboard had nooks that you could put stuff in. Problem was it was too inexpensive, so I doubt if it looks good close up, it's probably made of cheap veneers over compostion wood, and comes in a flat box labeled "easy assembly" with lots of pieces and parts and instructions that were badly translated from Serbo-Croatian into Italian and then English with a buggy bootleg copy of BabelFish.

I want solid real wood furniture. I've had pieces of inexpensive furniture where the faux wood grain laminate started peeling when the humidity got over 20%. Assembled it myself, too. Have the scars to prove it. When you don't have a hammer a shoe can work - and it can smash your thumb as well as a hammer would. I'm always proud when there are some bits left over - it's much better than being short one crucial bolt or "fastener part, use hex key provided."

Anyway, back to reality. I've asked the SO along to test out the bed as well - I'm not going to make this decision on my own - he has to sleep on half of it, well 3/4ths of it, too. I'm fairly certain that we'll both find the same firmness level comfortable. We're compatable sleepers - that is, if I'm not breaking the local sound pollution ordinances with my snoring and he's not pushing me off the bed with his unconscious migrations, or trying to steal my pillows. Get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, lay back down and "wham" the head goes right thru where those pillows used to be and slams into the bed. The whiplash effects make it a bit tough to get back to sleep, even after I've pried the pillows out from the death grip in which they are clutched. In the morning he feigns complete lack of knowledge that this has occured and infers that I'm having "weird dreams, again." My weird dreams are not about stolen pillows. Ask me about the pastel bunnies some day. They were in graduated colors and sizes (like the Cat in the Hat little cats A-Z). But I digress again.

The other thing compatible about us, is that we're both "cocoon" sleepers. I have two pillows and 4 blankets because I'm always cold. He has 2 blankets and 6 pillows - and I have no idea why he needs 6. He surrounds himself with pillows and I roll up in blankets. I often wonder if we're unusual in that or if there are lots of folk who share a bed and do the same thing. Feel free to mention it in the comments if you're like that. :-)

Sleeping in a hotel bed is always stressful because we're stuck with one set of bedding. I'm going to be cold and he's going to want all my pillows. And they're always teensy flat pillows, too. If we drive, we bring our own pillows with - but most times when the two of us travel together lately, we've flown. We have a queen sized bed at home, so, when we're in a hotel, it's nice to sleep in a king sized one. But, if you get a room with two doubles, then you have extra blankets and pillows that you don't have to bug the front desk for.

Unless you're at Embassy Suites - they already have that stuff in the room because the sofa in the living room is a pull out. I like Embassy Suites for the free breakfast, too. I don't like Embassy Suites when it's full of kids running around all hours of the night. Since the plan of the hotel is inward facing rooms around an open central atrium area, the noise outside, regardless of whether it's on your floor or five above it, echoes terribly. What the heck are these kids' parents doing letting them run wild? I'm thinking they've locked themselves behind the door into the bedroom half of the suite, put in their earplugs and are hopeful the kids will just sit quietly on the sofabed and watch tv until the little darlings fall asleep. Right. I *do* live in fluffy bunny universe and I'm not that naive.

The other thing the SO and I can't sleep without is the fan. The SO needs something to mask distant outdoor noises that only he can hear - I claim it's small, stealthy creatures making noises their predators can't hear but the SO insists he can, he tells me to stop being so snarky. Perhaps there's some truth to the idea that I'm jealous because I'm going deaf. Anyway, I like the fan noise just fine and now I'm addicted to it. I even have a little desk fan I pack with me when I go on business trips.

I've probably bored you to tears. If not let me know and I'll send you an email all about the time we went out shopping for the living room couch. Talk about excitement.

Dawno, mattress, Significant Other, Togetherness, decor, hotels