pillows « ((little fat notebook))

Posts Tagged ‘pillows’

Getting optimal sleep

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: cats, experiences, habits, missy, panda, pictures, pillows, sleeping, travel

02 September 2013

After staying at so many hotels on the UK trip, I’ve learned quite a bit about what I like when it comes to my sleeping arrangement. I’ve also been noticing I need more sleep while traveling – at home I’d settled into a routine of about 6 hours, but when on the go I could sleep on for 8-10 hours if I didn’t have to get up. It makes sense since I spent so much of my day on my feet, walking for hours on end.

So what’s the best thing to come back to after a long, tiring day? Well, a cozy and warm bed. The weather is nothing like the California heat my body has gotten accustomed to and even the winter is Virginia was pretty mild so my body tends to be cold (especially with some of that crazy wind in Edinburgh!). Thankfully, the coldest place had the warmest blanket – a down comforter that kept me nice and toasty. I definitely want to get one of those for my own bed sometime! However, when I’m that snug, it’s sooo hard to get out of bed so perhaps that isn’t the best idea…

sleeping with cat resting in crook of arm and head resting on chest

I love snuggling with Missy.

Back in college I got an amazing body pillow and between that, the down comforter I was using as a mattress topper, and my cozy blanket, I couldn’t drag myself out of bed for a week. Now that’s the sort of sleep I like best. I enjoy being in a super cush environment surrounded by soft blankets and pillows. That might be why I love having my cat sleep with me – she’s so soft and warm! Plus, she purrs and that is very soothing – great for lulling me to sleep. 🙂

In high school and college I could sleep like there was no tomorrow. I’d easily stay in bed until the early afternoon and then saunter out around 1 or 2. Now that I’ve been getting enough sleep at night, with no more all-nighters to pull, I’ve discovered that 6 hours of sleep is the magic number. I wonder if it’s also partly due to changes from aging? I mean, older people do seem to sleep less, it seems. Still, that might not be accurate since Panda manages to sleep a good 10-12 hours on the weekend if he gets the chance. It’s funny how different our bodies are. I can operate perfectly fine on almost half the sleep that he needs!

What I’ve learned and relearned over the years is that if you wear yourself out during the day, you crash hard and fast at night. I sort of miss those days when I was too busy to stop and treasured my precious little sleep. I don’t enjoy my sleep nearly as much now and if I do get really deep sleep I tend to dream, which doesn’t give me as restful sleep. Ah, the intricacies of trying to find the optimal zone of getting enough restful sleep… it’s all so complex!

Are you the same and don’t need much sleep or could you win a sleeping contest?

365great Day 166: pillows

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, home, house, pictures, pillows, products

27 August 2013

Learn more about 365great here.

I’ve got a bit of a love affair with pillows. I love them in all shapes, sizes, fabrics, and uses! I mentioned body pillows before, which are awesome for their huggability, but really any type is good in my book. I have super fun moshi ones like the star and round one here, not very practical but too cute to pass up ones like the Tootise Roll one, and functional ones like a sweet kitty pillow with built-in speaker for listening to music. I like smooth ones and fuzzy ones and coarse ones and stretchy ones. I use them for my head or to hug or keep my lap warm or to pad my butt. They’re such a versatile product! You can find them on beds and couches (and in my case, strewn all over the house). I love when my bed is just covered in them so I can grab whatever suits me at any moment. They’re like little clouds of awesome that you can use to be more comfortable or just to decorate a space. For such a simple product, that’s great!

365great Day 32: body pillows

laelene Posted in 365great，Tags: 365great, body pillow, college, costco, experiences, favorites, hollander home fashions, kohl's, pillows, products

15 April 2013

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Have you ever tried one of these? THEY ARE AMAZING. I first got a blue one at Costco back in my 2nd year of college and I kid you not, I did not get out of bed for a week. It was sooo soft, sooo comfortable, sooo warm and wonderful… my roommate probably thought I’d lost it when she came back from class to find me still snoozing away. I used this to keep me warm at night many a time when the blanket just didn’t suffice. It’s also great on road trips in the back of the car, wrapped around your waist when you’re working in bed/on the couch, or even laying on top of when the ground’s too hard. My blue body pillow is very well-loved!

For years I tried to find it again, but Costco only carried ones with weird designs that didn’t feel as good. I then finally found some listed at Kohl’s! I quickly got the beige one pictured and was more gentle with this one. One thing about the lovely fuzzy material that it’s made with is that it gets rougher the more you use it (you know like that stuffed animal that you lug around with you everywhere… the one that’s got the weird clumpy fur now). So with this one I wanted to preserve the lush, soft feeling for as long as possible. For whatever reason, they’re not that easy to find! In fact, I can’t even find a single listing online for these Hollander Home Fashions ones. Perhaps I should stock up… they’re really that great.