Sleep Well London

You know when you watch films from the 1940s or earlier, and the rather well-to-do couple go to sleep, and retire to separate beds, sometimes not even in the same room?

When did that stop being the done thing?

It would seem that, as society has progressed and the general level of wealth of the masses has increased, we have adopted as many stereotypical ‘wealthy’ habits as possible – but not this one. And I’m slowly starting to wonder why.

Please don’t misunderstand: I love curling up in bed with my boyfriend, and if spooning was a sport I’d completely be on the London team. But when it comes to the actual purpose of the bed – by which I mean sleeping, by the way – I have a sneaking suspicion that we’d both benefit from a bit of space.

I get thoroughly grumpy without at least eight hours’ sleep per night. Well, that rarely happens. The standard procedure is for me to fidget around a bit trying to get comfortable, lie there for 30 seconds and then realise that it’s not in the least bit comfortable and shift positions again, while my boyfriend tuts and sighs at my movements.

Then we both start to fall asleep, and he does that spasmodic twitch thing that we’ve all experienced, and rocks the whole bed. We start from square one, and shortly after we fall asleep again, my boyfriend starts clicking his teeth – I’ve never figured out how or why. Somewhere in all of this I will kick off the cover and pull it back about ten times, due to never being the right temperature. You get the idea: we disturb each other.

Sound familiar?

I’d be surprised if anyone was reading this thinking: ‘What is she talking about?’

So why do we jeopardise our quality of sleep just to be unconscious (or not, as the case may be) next to our loved ones? I’m thinking about a return to old-school ideals, separate beds and a sharp increase in the national amount of zzzzs. I’m sure London will be a nicer place that way. Just think how much more pleasant the morning commute could be without the tension of thousands of unrested people floating around?

Anyway, all flippancy aside, if you really do suffer from various sleep conditions, The London Clinic runs various sleep studies to try to get to the bottom of and cure sleep issues; as does the more specifically named London Sleep Centre, which tackles everything from insomnia to sleep walking to chronic fatigue. 

Personally, I still freak out at the idea of that eight-day non-sleep experiment by the radio broadcaster, Peter Tripp, in 1959. He started hallucinating after a few days, seeing spiders crawling all over the radio booth, if my memories from A-level psychology serve, and his wife said he was never the same afterwards. That could be me, if things continue. And I don’t like spiders, real or otherwise.

Image courtesy of Stock.Xchng