sleep, sweet sleep

[nibot]

I've started sleeping in the living room. I think it's just some kind of natural tendency I have — maybe it's like travelling but in the confines of my own home. At Oscar Wilde in my second semester I started a habit of camping out down in the living room. We had a collection of corner-couches turned inward into a little box, a fortification of pillows and blankets, for this very purpose (general lounging, that is), and there was a good collection of other couches too. Sleeping on odd piles of pillows while people came and went all night long -- it was good practice for sleeping in odd places. Every night there were usually a few people camping out in the living room for one reason or another, but probably mostly for the novelty and camradery. The following summer, in Switzerland, due to some mixup I ended up not having a reserved room. Alex and I comandeered a TV room for sleeping, on some couches that were there. Back in Wilde, I ended up sleeping on the balcony for a full half year, ensconsced in a nest of fluffermuffers (=down comforters). In all the rain that came down on Berkeley then, it was still warm and cozy sleeping out there; at first it was a matter of necessity (or impulse? i don't remember) but after a night outdoors there, the interior atmosphere felt stifling by comparison. Sleeping on a balcony is a luxury I don't think Rochester will afford, although that Montreal hostel did tempt me with its outdoor bunks, grafted onto the side of the building.

Here in Rochester I sleep on an air mattress that Ryan happened to have. It's not the sort of camping air mattress with which I am familiar, but a reasonable (inflated) facsimile of a queen size mattress. At first it was great, but gradually a problem has developed. I wake up in the early morning, curled up into a fetal position under the blanket, shivering. I'd gradually thaw myself out in the shower, a process doomed to failure by virtue of the limited hot water supply. Yes, you might say that is symptomatic of some kind of problem. It's not even cold yet. A few nights ago I tried sleeping downstairs on the futon, and was treated to the incredible sensation of waking up warm and cozy at 9 in the morning. So it's the air mattress that's at fault, eh? I'm told that it's heat conduction through the floor that's the problem, that makes the air mattress freakishly cold. I suppose I'll work on fixing that, but in the meantime it's the livingroom for me. I like it better, anyway, waking up to daylight coming in through the windows and people rustling about in the morning.

Comments

[heike.livejournal.com]

Put one of those emergency space blankets on top of the air mattress (the kind you can get in camping stores). Then put some blankets on top of it so it doesn't rustle too much. It's the heat conduction through the floor, and the sides of the air mattress, and the space blanket is the standard trick campers employ.

I must agree that sleeping in livingrooms is nice when you get woken up by people moving about is really nice. I remember doing that one semester. It just requires a comfortable enough couch.