What a Difference!

I once read that replacing your pillows on a regular basis can help improve your quality of sleep. Unfortunately, I cannot recall where I read that or the length of time between pillows that the author considered to be ideal. Regardless, for someone who has used the same pillows for a number of years...quite a few years...without issues, I kind of scoffed. Just another marketing trick. However, I have had so much trouble sleeping the last week and a half that I became almost desperate to try it. Taking a coupon with me into Bed Bath & Beyond I looked around for the affordable ones and found one described as having "firm support" that I figured would be a good place to start. The price was not too bad either - $15.

Why firm? Well, a couple years or so ago I was staying at a hotel for a work-related trip and I loved their pillows. I seem to remember the hotel offering both "soft" and "firm" pillows in the room. The pillowcases were "labeled" and the firm ones were my favorite. I tried to buy two of them - there was a brochure in the room saying you could purchase brand new ones - but the guy at the front desk was not very helpful. It was shocking considering I was expressing a desire to pay them $80 for two pillows (yes, you read that correctly. I had never imagined spending that much on pillows until I slept on those. They were heavenly.) They must not have wanted my money or something because I left without expensive but heavenly pillows.

This morning I woke up and I can honestly say that sleeping on the brand new, firm pillow helped. It takes more than one night of decent sleep to feel refreshed, especially after a week and a half of very little decent rest, but it is a step in the right direction. You can bet your bottom dollar I will be replacing pillow #2 just as soon as possible. Two reasons: 1) I have always been a two pillow sleeper - you know, just in case I roll to the other side of the bed in the middle of the night. Losing my pillow wakes me up. Changes in the level of my head wake me up. 2) It kind of drives me crazy that my bed looks lopsided now. One pillow is nice and fluffy and the other is...flat as a pancake. I mean, it is not far from being level with the mattress, ha!

So, yeah, there you have it. A random post about pillows. Can you tell what is (one of the multitude of things) on my mind??

While I am on the topic, I may as well share that while a light sleeper as a kid - all someone had to do was stand in the doorway and I would sit straight up as if I had been wide awake and it may have freaked my mom out a time or two, lol - I never had insomnia. Moving on to college, I cannot remember any particular problems sleeping (unless I was purposefully pulling an extremely rare all-nighter to study for an exam). I would say it started within the last eight years. Maybe it has something to do with living alone or being responsible for yourself. Or maybe I just cannot shut my brain off. Whatever the cause, it is exhausting.