I shared link on m post.
My mom slept with it for the first time last night. She said she didn’t wake up with a bad shoulder pain at night.
Yes, I saw that later. My mistake.
Good to hear the good review your mom gave it.
I read a book I really really loved called “Do I Know You” by Sadie Dingfelter, who is a super face blind journalist. She relates incidents where she mistook other people for her husband and her mother – she’s that faceblind. What I found fascinating about the book is that it goes into the different ways we think. Some people are the opposite of Sadie and have a super duper rich “mind’s eye” and can summon up an image in their brain that looks just like the real thing. Sadie has zero ability to do this. Some people have an inner voice/narrator and some people don’t. Some people have thoughts churning along and a little narrator voice that is saying, “gotta turn left here. when I get home I’ll start on supper. I’m making a big salad tonight. Did I remember the cherry tomatoes? Yes, I did”, etc etc. And some people just see a picture of their salad if they are thinking about that with no narration. I can zone out if I try. It’s not always easy and sometimes the narrator pops up, but often I can just do some visualization and turn off that narration.
3 Likes
I’m pretty face blind and don’t have much of a visual memory but have never mistaken my someone else for my spouse. That would be alarming to me.
It’s a great book. Super readable and hilarious and guaranteed to make you feel better about your memory! https://www.sadied.com
Just a suggestion….if you have difficulties falling asleep, try using a hot water bottle or microwavable heating pad at your feet in bed. Warm feet has been shown to reduce the amount of time it takes to fall asleep an average of 9 minutes, if I remember correctly.
4 Likes
I remember reading that, but it referenced people who wear socks to bed vs. those who don’t. The past couple of nights it’s been chilly in the house, so I’ve had a heating pad on low heat on my abdomen under the covers, and that has helped to relax me a little.
I was up at 2:30 am this morning. Still up at 4:30. I think the problem is that I only need 5 hours of sleep. And have been falling asleep by 10. So I wake up very early. This makes for a long day!
I do agree with warm feet being helpful. I always pile extra pillows on my feet!
Reading some of these posts, I am grateful for living alone! 
1 Like
My trick lately to stop my mind from racing, is to pick a letters and just let words beginning with that letter come to mind. Usually I end up “thinking” the words to myself in time with my breathing. Sometimes I’ll go through the second letter vowels in order.
So, “F”: fabulous. Fever. Finished. Football. Funky. Flamethrower. Friendly. Falter. And on and on. Works almost every time for me.
2 Likes
I like a rice bag. If you don’t have one they are super easy to make. Put some dry uncooked rice in an old sock —great use for those odd socks that don’t match up to anything any more. Use a boot sock or knee sock, not a no show. Tie it off. Zap it in the microwave for 1 minute or more if it’s not warm enough. Put it down by your feet in the bed and it is super toasty and warm.
4 Likes
Many of the mind calming tricks mentioned (like words with a particular letter) are really meditation techniques. I highly recommend trying to meditate - lots of stuff on the internet to try out. They say that even meditating at other times of the day helps you to sleep better.
My husband finds it helpful to sleep with socks on in the winter. I can’t fall asleep if I am cold.
2 Likes
My daughter and I have been “fighting” about wearing socks to bed since she was small. I cannot sleep if I’m hot (love a cold dark room) and I’m always kicking the covers off my feet to cool them off. She feels very vindicated by the recent research. In her defense she spent much of her childhood sleeping in a room with inadequate heat in New England winters (baseboards didn’t work) so she really likes to be warm and cozy at night.
Me, too. I’ve tried wearing socks to bed to protect the sheets from the heavy
foot cream I sometimes use in the winter. I just can’t keep them on. My feet need to be free and cool. I sleep with just a top sheet regardless of season. I like an ice cold bedroom. DH likes it warm. Thus, we’re back to the discussion of separate bedrooms…
2 Likes
I need to be warm and cozy to sleep. I do not get the sleeping in a cold room. That is not for me. If I get cold it is very hard for me to warm up. I have always been this way, so it’s not really an aging thing. People say, “you can always put on more layers if you’re cold” but that just doesn’t work well for my body. I am always wearing multiple layers in the house, not to mention outside. If my feet get cold often they will just stay cold unless I apply heat to them in the form of a hot shower or a warm rice bag. I also kinda hate socks. I wear them in the winter, but I can’t imagine sleeping in them. I do love my LL Bean real wool shearling slippers.
Interesting to read about socks. I wear socks 24/7. I can’t stand cold feet. My grandma spent years telling me I wouldn’t get a husband if I wore socks to bed.
I can’t get to sleep or stay asleep. So now I’m wondering how much worse it would be if I didn’t wear socks!
3 Likes
I just don’t like anything tight on my body. Don’t like leggings either.
1 Like
Always wear soft loose socks to bed.
Then I’d just be singing the song. “Fifty nifty United states from 13 original colonies….” and I’d get to the M’s and get all mixed up and have to start again!
1 Like
I started HT recently. Just the lowest level patch twice a week. I noticed that I no longer struggle with getting back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night. Maybe it’s the HT, maybe not?
3 Likes