Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Cold Side of the Bed

Dave and I have on-going disputes about exactly how cold/hot it is at night and who has more/less of the blankets. I tend to sleep hot and can’t stand to have too many covers on me. In fact, I’ll often sleep with one leg stuck out from under the covers even in the dead of winter to help regulate my temperature.

Dave claims to sleep cold and has to have lots of covers on him. I dispute this claim because the man is usually sweating every time I try to scoot over for a snuggle. It drives me absolutely crazy for him to be sweating and to still have the covers on him. It doesn’t bother him in the least (so he claims), but it absolutely makes me nutty. (Sounds fun, eh!? Don’t you want to be married to me, too!?)

In the midst of one of my tirades about sweating while one is sleeping, Dave finally admitted that yes (!), he does get hot. But he also gets very, very cold because the air conditioning vent is right below his side of the bed. A-HA! I thought. The solution will be for us to switch sides: me sleeping hot by the cold vent and him sleeping cold by the non-ventilated portion of the room.

Oh. My. God.

First, it is cold on his side of the bed. I’ve actually taken to sleeping more in the middle of the bed because it’s frigid if one gets too close to the edge.

Second, what kind of sleeper are you? Do you have a side of the bed that you prefer to sleep on? Or are you one of those people who can sleep any where and on any side?

I am, apparently, a one-side-of-the-bed sleeper. And this is not my side. The main problem is that I can’t get into my favorite sleep position (on my belly, right arm under my face, left hand under the pillow and left knee at a 90 degree angle to my body with my left foot crossed over my right knee) without butting knees with Dave. (And being 6’ 4”, he takes up a fair portion of the bed). When I was on “my” side of the bed, my knee could hang over the edge and be happy. Now it’s got to fight for a spot in the middle of the bed.

I don’t like fighting in bed. I like lying and sleeping with plenty of comfortable tepid space.

However, I like less having a sweaty husband when I want a snuggle; so we’re staying as is for now. I am hoping that by the time winter gets here, we can switch back over and assume our proper sleep positions. I also think it’s pretty radical though to “switch sides” of the bed. I’ve only known one couple who does that. This ability to switch didn’t seem to translate to any other thing—they seemed a pretty normal couple most of the time.

But it’s pretty crazy for us.

9 comments:

OneTiredEma said...

I never thought I would be able to get used to the "other side" of the bed. I also prefer sleeping as close as possible to a wall/window. But when I was pregnant with Miss M, Taxman's side of the bed was next to the a/c and closer to the bathroom. So his side became my side.

Then when she was born and we became accidental co-sleepers (we weren't properly equipped) I insisted that she was in between us. I used to make him switch sides with me in the middle of the night so I could nurse the other breast. (And yet he didn't divorce me.) That didn't last forever, thankfully, and I settled on the side of the bed near the window.

After AM was born we switched again, though, because the cosleeper (an upgrade from the pack and play!) can't squish in next to my "side" of the bed.

How grateful am I that Taxman can sleep anywhere, at any time, in pretty much any condition???? If there were two of me we'd be dead in the water. He does run hot, though. And so do the kids. All of them--oozing heat from everywhere but their foreheads. Weird and vaguely disconcerting.

Anita said...

Kate--

This totally made me laugh!!!

OneTiredEma said...

Yet somehow we appear normal...you really can't judge a book by its cover, apparently.

:-)

Anonymous said...

I guess we can sleep on either side. Strangely, when we are on vacation we seem to sleep on the sides opposite the ones we sleep on at home. Hmmm... Come to think of it, the house we live in now is the only one we've slept on the sides that we do, and that is because my side of the bed is not visible from the door and therefore I can have stacks and stacks of books and magazines by my side of the bed and the room still looks neat when you are just glancing in.

Karen said...

SWITCH BACK! NOW! Before you go insane!
trust me on this one, anita

Anonymous said...

I have the dual problem of preferring not only a particular side of the bed, but to be sleeping next to an outside wall. Right now it's perfect, but we need to put curtains up before next winter, and Scott's side is right up against the window, and we are considering moving the bed to the opposite wall so the curtains can hang and not be smushed by the bed. So that leaves me in a panic deciding which is worse--to be on the wrong side of the bed, or sleeping next to the hallway instead of the outside wall. I'm a real freak about this. In fact, I put off hanging the curtains over it. I guess another option would be to get a headboard, which could keep the bed sufficiently away from the wall/window. But that means finding one that's cheap as well as nice enough for our room. I totally understand what you're going through. I also sleep on my stomach with my left leg off the bed or outside the covers for temperature regulation (although I tend to sleep cold).

@alyssa ettinger said...

i need to sleep on the side where the nightstand is. and i only sleep on one side of the bed, because i have to sleep on the side and have the edges of the blanket... and only in fetal position, with covers pulls around me like swathing

i slept with a teddy bear till college, then switched to a pillow. recently, however, i got one of those giant body pillows and i'm embarrassed to tell you that it's wonderful.

i think this makes me seem like a total needy freak.

Piratewench said...

Not only can I, and do I, like to swap bed sides every 4 or 5 months, but I insist on rearranging the furniture when I do. That's because while I can sleep on the other side of the bed, I can't do without my own bedstand table, lamp, desk, etc. Sheesh...this also means that I must move a "faux fireplace" that's in our room, which also means I must move the pictures on the wall that go over the fireplace, etc...and so on. All that and yes, I'm still married.

I also sleep with one leg out...the air conditioning on and a ceiling fan too. My hubby complains of dry nose, sore throats, stiff necks and anything else that cool air might cause.

Max, on the other hand, never complains and his spot in the bed is always the same...right in the middle, where I can take bites out of his thighs and smooch his forehead while he sleeps.

Recently, he (Max) has taken to loading up the bed with every stuffed animal or toy he has (nearly 20) before retiring at night. I clear them off before I go to sleep and when Max awakens in the morning, the first thing he does is load the bed back up.

My husband has resigned himself to this too...

Anonymous said...

OMG, it is totally impossible for me to imagine becoming a side-switcher. It's not the position on the bed that would be the problem, it's the complete impossibility of cuddling from the "wrong" side. We've tried it numerous times for various reasons, and it just does not work! Either my head doesn't bend in the necessary direction, or his shoulder is thicker on that side, or his arm becomes distorted somehow, or my under-the-body-while-cuddling arm falls off after 20 seconds, or SOMEthing. But whatever the reason, it simply does not work. We've been known to rearrange furniture in motel rooms because of this. I mean, if the alarm clock isn't visible from "his" side of the bed, and if the bathroom isn't accessible in the pitch dark from "mine", well, what were those motel room decorator people *think*ing?!