Earlier this year I was unfortunate enough to go camping! Now I’m not one to shy away from nature or getting grubby. I merely say ‘unfortunate’ because my sleeping experience was a dreaded one.
Every time the prospect of a camping holiday is brought up to any grown person half of you is filled with dread, the other with complete excitement. Everyone has a child within them that would just love to go camping, especially if you didn’t get to go much as a child. But you’re an adult now, so you’re the one that’s got to pitch the tent, cook the food, remember to pack everything, light the fire, drive all the way there, look after the screaming, bored kids, all whilst making sure everyone (yourself included) is having a good time!
After you’ve wrestled with the tent for 2 hours, it’s only then that you realise all the stuff you forgot to bring. Food, clothing, and most importantly – bedding. I can handle screaming kids, driving, rubbish food and boredom, but when my rest time is jeopardised I can’t handle it! The first night was bearable, I found the flattest part of ground I could (despite the field practically being a minefield for cow dung) and placed half of my sleeping bag over it, whilst using the other half as a cover.
“Great”, I thought. It wasn’t super uncomfortable and I was too tired to care. I dropped off like a light, and woke up not being able to feel half of my body. The next night I doubled up the blanket, but this was only accompanied by a family moving right next to us, who seemed to have an unrealistic amount of children with them. They didn’t go to sleep until about midnight, and then awoke at 6am, more excited than anyone ever, running circles around all the tents and kicking balls right against mine.
I had a rubbish day that day, and an even worse night’s sleep. After 3 nights I returned home to find that my mother had bought us an enormous inflatable double mattress. It’s a shame I’m never going camping again.
For more articles please go to: Memory Foam Mattress Reviews
These days we take everything for granted. If it doesn’t flash, make noises, do our work for us and update the world about our dinner last night then we’re not interested. But the most underrated and overlooked miracle of the last century and beyond is flight.
But let’s face it, it really can be all too easy to trivialise such a miracle of physics when you’re 7 miles high and some fat housewife going on a package holiday has elbowed you in the head for the 10th time in as many minutes.
Beyond the horrible check-in experience, the waiting, the boarding, the awkward bumping of limbs as you load your luggage into the overhead compartments, there is the most powerful and undeniably horrific saga of sleep. Or lack thereof.
On long-haul flights, or even cross-continental trips, sleep is the one thing that turns the average passenger into a snarling beast! After wrestling with your headphones to watch the craptacular film that’s being displayed on the half-inch screen a million miles away from you, you then have to find somewhere to put your feet.
If you had a modest ticket then you will soon become aware that leg space is something of a rarity. In unmoveable seats 10 inches away from each other it’s all too easy to boot the seat in front of you with the slightest movement. Hell hath no fury like a sleep-deprived passenger who’s been kicked in the back the 7th time by a fidgeting child.
There’s a saying “he could fall asleep on a washing line”. If that were true I’d also be able to sleep sitting up, but unfortunately nature has made pretty sure that’s never going to happen. Reclining is another issue. You’re either going to place someone’s drink tray firmly in their forehead, or crush their legs whilst you wriggle in your sleeplessness. There should be a term specifically targeted for mid-air “sleep guilt”. I’m sure there’s a ratio for angle-declined versus guilt gained.
The only time I’ve managed to ever get any quantifiable amount of sleep on a flight is when it’s on a huge 747, with 3 rows 3 seats, only me and one other passenger on the row with the middle seat as a “no man’s land” in which to rest limbs. That, combined with several blankets and pillows got me a few hours, but at the price of a neck like the letter ‘L’.
For more articles please see: Memory Foam Mattress Reviews
As someone who’s often struggled with sleep, I always considered the hype connected to your sleeping surface to be one of preference rather than necessity, and when people suggest particular bedding types or propose a particular way of sleeping I often shrugged it off as unimportant.
But I was mistaken, and after years of sleeping on sponge/spring/down mattresses I had developed a mattress complex! Foam mattresses were seen as a gimmick by more or less everyone when they came out. Expensive, rare, and not widely used, and that made me even more sceptical. But like everything else in retail and marketing it takes a while to lift off. Now everyone’s got one, including me!
Without it I think I would still have an issue sleeping. Now, even if I don’t get a full night’s rest for whatever reason, it doesn’t cripple me as much as it used to. If you fall short of your sleep by a few hours on a normal mattress it seems to really affect you. Your back, neck, even blood flow is jeopardised and can really affect your day, and subsequently the next night’s sleep.
I have always struggled with sleeping through the day too, generally. I’m one of those people who, once awake, is awake for good. It takes a long time for me to reach a state of rest and for my mind to fully shut down, and it doesn’t take much to disturb me at all! With the added bonus of comfort my body and mind can reach a state of rest much quicker, as there is much more balanced comfort all over my body, allowing my mind to wonder over recent events without being disturbed by discomfort knocking at the door!
True rest isn’t achieved until you are in REM sleep, and that’s something that takes a while to reach. Once you are there it is more difficult to be ripped from than just ‘dozing’, and that is the true difference between the quality of sleep I’ve had on other types of bedding compared to that of a foam mattress. Reaching that depth of sleep much quicker results in not being able to be disturbed quite so easily, allowing my active mind to remain undisturbed until it is fully rested and I can arise in my own time if knapping during the day, and it means having a full night’s rest after getting to sleep much quicker than before.