The Old Man is Snoring

How many of you ladies out there have to contend with a snoring husband? Or perhaps you're the one who is making all of the snorting, rattling, nasally sounds? Well for over 20 years I have had to contend with getting a good night's sleep or battle the cacophony of discordant sounds emanating from my husband's nasal passageway and apparently from the flappy, loose skin in the back of his throat. Egad! For some reason our marriage vows did not include "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, and for a peaceful or restless night's sleep." If only!

Through the years I have tolerated and he has tried many gimmicks. He's tried the nasal strips (to medium success), sprays (great effect for me, but made his throat very dry), to earplugs for me (a must if you're traveling) and different pillows. I hate to admit it, but I've often had to sleep on the couch to get a good night's rest if I had a major meeting the next morning. And embarrassingly enough, there has been the occasion or two where I've been the one to wake both of us up from a very loud snort. That has been surprising as I'm not a full-time snorer, but more of an occasional snorer when I'm just completely wiped out from days of no sleep due to my bedroom partner.

But miraculously, as he's gotten older, the snoring seems to have subsided a bit. I'm not sure why, but the coincidental change that occurred was we got a new bed about two years ago. After remodeling, we decided to upgrade. After years with a queen size bed, we decided our room could now fit a king size bed. We also love to read at night, so we splurged and got the Tempur-Pedic bed that has controls to move the mattress at an angle, just like a hospital bed.

I know - we're showing our age because what 20 or 30-year old couple would think of purchasing that sort of bed for their love nest? But after testing all sorts of beds, Sealy, Serta, Simmons, Select Comfort (hey, why do these all begin with the letter "S"?), we immediately fell for the Tempur-Pedic. After sinking into the mattress at our local Sleep Train, it was like sleeping on a cloud. It was that good. I could not believe how my body just hugged the mattress and my stress just melted away. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that we also got the vibrating motion with our Tempur-Pedic! Now that's a feature some twenty-somethings might like in their boudoir.

In any case, I have to say I am getting some of the best sleep I've ever had in my life these days. Either I'm losing my hearing or perhaps it also has to do with the fact that I no longer have small children in the house. I'm finally making up for all of those hours of sleep you lose when you have a child under five years of age living with you.

Get a good night's sleep you all! What horrible bedtime stories do you have? Send them to blog.tina@yahoo.com.