In search of sleep...

When I sleep I like my room dark. And I mean dark - no hall light coming under the door, no nightlight, no full moon through the window - not even the light from the alarm clock. So when we bought our first house I was so excited to be out of an apartment where the parking lot lights always shone in - only to discover that my weird neighbor had one of those motion detecting SPOTLIGHTS on the corner of their house - making it shine right in our window every time it went on. And that includes when they let their little dog out five times a night to use the bathroom - and it also includes the 8 million stray cats in their backyard, the raccoons, opossums, and who knows what else. And then once the boys were potty trained we had to leave the bathroom light on in case they needed to go. And if we didn't that would be the night some little boy would be screaming in the hall - lost without the light.

So, a few weeks I bought myself a sleep mask. I'd always seen these in movies and thought, "I want one of those," but I didn't ever come across one until I was at the local discount beauty supply and found this cheapie:
It's actually really great. I can still hear Mike getting up in the morning but the fact that he always forgets to close the door before he turns the bathroom light on no longer bothers me. And when I take a nap -I'm out. Last night Mike and I even tested it and he put it on while I turned the light off and on to see if he could tell - he didn't even know I'd turned it on when I'd been flashing it off and on. The only problem is that you have no gradual transition to morning. You go from dead asleep to bright bright sun in your room when the kids come in at 7 am. It's worth it though. I'd say it's just getting me one step closer to the dream of pre-children like sleep.