still I lie sleepless

I'm always hot. It's most annoying when I try to sleep. In that trickster way that the Universe seems to enjoy of pairing couples who run at opposite ends of the hot/cold spectrum, my wife is always cold. The thermostat wars are played out most fiercely in bed, she with her electric blanket on high, me with my fan(s) and brutally cold air, whether from an open window in the winter or an AC set so low it's ecologically criminal in the summer.

To make it even more difficult, I can only sleep really well covered by a heavy blanket - and by heavy, I mean weighty. But then, of course, I burn up.

I look at these thick, plush beds below and I'm torn: oh, don't those look divine, the perfect heft to snug you down to sleep...and, oh my god, don't those look frightfully hot, guaranteed to make falling asleep a miserable impossibility...


My wife, of course, would suffer no such quandary. She would love them unequivocally.  


What do you think?

A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by

One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,
Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky -
I've thought of all by turns, and still I lie
Sleepless...

~William Wordsworth, "To Sleep"

the weary head

I hear my perfectly rumpled bed calling my name. I'm trying to stay awake until bedtime, but I'm so sleepy, I could drift off in the middle of a blink. 

 all images via weheartit

O bed! O bed! delicious bed!
That heaven upon earth to the weary head.
~ Thomas Hood, 

Miss Kilmansegg - Her Dream

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/

finish every day

My bedtime mantra:


Lord, let me sink down like a stone, and rise up like new bread.  

 

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some 

blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. 

Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be 

cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too 

dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/

sink in good oblivion

I'm sleepy, tired (those are two different things - think about it), and I have a headache.

I want to crawl into a soft bed in a dark room. The bed should be piled high with downy pillows, smooth sheets, and fluffy blankets. The window may be slightly cracked to let in the cold night air. The only light will be  a bedside lamp, just enough to illuminate the book I'm reading. The dogs will sigh deep, contented sighs, and relax, warm and heavy at my feet. After a few pages, I'll close the book, lay it aside on the bed, and just manage to reach out to turn off the light before I slip into dreamless slumber...

And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.
~D.H. Lawrence

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/