A few days ago I saw an article addressing how complicated it can be to really experience a good night of sleep. The article is now lost or I would supply a link. The author expressed his view points mainly through hand drawn comics. All in all it was a sweet, thoughtful article that made me laugh.
One comic in particular really got me thinking though. It
depicted the well established practice of flipping to the cool side of the pillow in order to regain sleep quickly after night time interruptions. Now, I'm not here to argue for or against that practice, that's entirely not the point here. The point is that the author's
depiction was of a person rolling from one side to the other to reach cooling bliss. In other words, using a vertical divide of the pillow. It was something I'd never given much thought to before.
But, later that evening when I was lying in bed I couldn't help thinking over the cold pillow situation. You see, I've always used a horizontal divide. I flip the pillow completely over in my quest to fall back asleep. As I laid in bed, I started thinking things like, "Would it make a difference to roll instead of flip? Is one method better than the other? What about pillow case materials? Fillings? Dimensions?" I realized that there were a multitude of variables involved in only this one sleep-finding method. It became so complicated that I'm still feeling boggled over how we ever manage to fall asleep at all. Or for that matter, how do those few lucky souls who fall asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows resist and ignore every potential sleep depriving problem in the world. And what if everyone slept as well as they did? Would we solve world hunger? Should the government start looking into better sleeping methods? Needless to say I did not sleep well that night.
