Nocturnal News- The his/her perspective
His perspective:
Sleep is a simple thing. You lie down, roll on your side and fall asleep. The only decision is when to roll onto your side. This should be pretty simple, but if you’re married, you already know that it’s not. You can’t in good conscience roll onto your side in the middle of a conversation. But sometimes you just can’t help it. You may try to keep the conversation going by forcing yourself to respond, but you know that you just can’t hear once you roll onto your side. It just doesn’t work.
Alarms are also a simple thing, but there are various opinions of the purpose of an alarm clock. One opinion is that you set the alarm for the exact time that you plan to arise. This is a simplistic view of the world, but a valid opinion, I suppose. I prefer to view the alarm clock as a suggestion to arise. Its first warning is really just a test to see how good your reflexes are in the early hours of the morning. If you can successfully “snooze” the alarm without actually waking, you’re good. The next two times the alarm sounds are gentle nudges to remind you that it’s approximately time to get out of bed. Somewhere after that, it’s time to roll onto your back and turn of the alarm entirely. Since sleeping cannot occur if you’re not on your side, lying in bed on your back is a good way to start the day. It’s a good time for considering what you want to do, thinking about the weird and funny dreams you just had and generally for procrastinating actually getting out of bed.
Her perspective (true to form with women needing to have the last word):
I’ve always been jealous of my husband’s ability to fall asleep. Not only can he fall asleep in the middle of a conversation, he can fall asleep when he’s the one talking - mid-sentence. These are the nights when I must be very careful lest I fall in a pile of drool and drown. Additionally, little seems to bother him when he’s asleep and he can even get up for something and not remember it the next morning. That must be nice.
Sleep is enjoyable, but not so simple for me. I often need a good wind down period before bed or it may take an hour to fall asleep while I try to turn my brain off. If I get woken up or have to get up for something I seldom fall right back to sleep. I don’t drool. I don’t steal the covers and I don’t sleep on more than my side of the bed. Although I did find a handy trick recently to deal with the drool and bed hog….small and individual sized orthopedic pillows. One small step for man one giant triumph for woman. Now if I could fix the roll and steal cover routine and tap into the insta-sleep ability I’d have it made.
Alarms were invented to wake you up, thus they should be used for this purpose. About 10 minutes is my threshold for delay time between the alarm going off and getting out of bed. I disagree most completely with my husband’s method of alarms. If you’re not getting up at 5:30 don’t set the alarm for that time and then ignore it for an hour or more. But then, he’s the one who can fall back asleep in moments. Too bad they can’t create individual alarms for one’s own ear drum or pillow so as not to wake the sleeping princess multiple times in the early morning, thus awaking the wicked witch instead. It’s simple really.
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That’s hilarious Holly and oh so true!
My husband will hit the snooze button a half a dozen times before he gets up. Whereas I usually will drag myself out of bed. It also takes me a long time to unwind at night. He can just hit the pillow and snooze.
Well, always good to know I’m not alone!
Comment by Jamie — February 27, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
*giggle* I LOVE THESE!!!!!
My hubby and I are flip-flopped when it comes to reacting to an alarm. Actually, we’re just flip-flopped…usually. I’m usually the first one to fall asleep and I can sleep through anything. However, if he falls asleep first, that usually means he’s so dog-tired that he’s going to snore–and I don’t mean a quiet one. We’re talking it can be heard throughout the whole house–upstairs and downstairs. Then I can’t fall asleep. *sigh* Once I do, though, again, I’ll sleep through anything….
Love ‘em ear plugs!!!!
Ahhh - the snoring….that’s another post all by itself. LOL
Comment by Laura Bybee — February 27, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
This sounds so much like my husband and myself. I hate when he sets the alarm for 6:30 then doesn’t get up until 6:50 when thats the time I wanted to set the alarm in the first place.
By this time I have already be awake 20 mins longer then I needed to and he’s still snozing!
Ug - and it wouldn’t be so bad if WE could snooze during those in between times!!
Comment by katkat — February 27, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
My husband can fall asleep, it takes me up two or more hours to fall asleep. Sooo much time wasted trying to fall asleep. He gets up with the first sound of the alarm.. with the new baby, he gets up before it, usually when I go to feed her in the morning. I don’t use my alarm because I rarely need it. If I have somewhere to be or something to do, my body wakes itself up. It’s weird. It started in high school and just kept on going.. even for my prenatal appointments, even during naps. I just wake up when there’s something that needs to be done.
See, now if I have to wake up for something I won’t sleep. I’ll find myself waking almost hourly to make sure I didn’t miss it - even if the alarm is set. HATE that.
Comment by Vicky — February 27, 2007 @ 6:28 pm
My wife falls asleep fairly quickly and she is a bed and blanket hog. I have to go to bed late, otherwise it takes too long for me to fall asleep. Sometimes I “accidentally” wake my wife because she is sleeping in the middle of the bed with all the blankets wrapped around her.
What is it about the middle of the bed?
Comment by Daddy Forever — February 27, 2007 @ 9:25 pm
[...] Holly Schwendiman presents Nocturnal News- The his/her perspective posted at Holly’s Corner Blog. [...]
Pingback by Carnival of Family Life - Be A Good Dad — March 4, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
Marriage couselors and therapist will tell you that most marital conflict arises from lack of communiction, money problems and sex. WRONG! It’s all about quality sleep time! Great post!
Visiting from the Carnival of Family Life.
LOL - well, I know I’m addicted to it so it’s going to play a big role for me! Thanks for dropping by my corner and commenting!
Comment by skeet — March 5, 2007 @ 2:37 am
Would be nice if living down under (Australia) equated to DH sleeping under the bed so his rolling didn’t disturb me (or his snoring or his mid night feasting or his constant resetting of the alarm).
This was an excellent post for the Carnival of Family Life Holly - every family in the world can surely relate to it.
Megan
Thanks Megan! It does seem to be something that isn’t an isolated experience….LOL
Comment by Megan Bayliss — March 5, 2007 @ 5:24 am
[...] Holly Schwendiman presents Nocturnal News- The his/her perspective posted at Holly’s Corner Blog. [...]
Pingback by Be A Good Dad — March 5, 2007 @ 10:05 am
That sounds exactly like my husband and I. It is amazing how differently we view going to sleep and getting up.
Here via the carnival of family life.
Hi Lisa, thanks for dropping by! Glad to know I’m not alone.
Comment by Lisa — March 8, 2007 @ 5:41 pm