Nat’s desperately seeking slumber.

My beloved and I have both been struggling to get a minimum viable amount of sleep. Our brains betray us. Our backs hurt. Our dog Lucy is hyper vigilant and wants those 4 a.m. snow removal folks to know SHE SEES THEM.

We’ve limited caffeine to the morning. We are abstaining from alcohol. We stick to our wind down routine.

In bed, I pop my bite guard in my mouth and snap my CPAP on. Michel dons his eye mask with earbuds to listen to a bedtime meditation.

We have smart lights that go to warmer hues at night.

We have separate duvets, his is heavy and mine gossamer thin. I still sweat.

And our mattress needs replacing. She’s lumpy. Turns out foam mattresses don’t last longer than 5 years and she’s around 7?

So off we went shopping to find a queen size mattress. Our house is nearly 100 years old and the narrow staircase couldn’t accommodate our queen platform so we have a last minute rickety frame that came in a slim box.

We went in with a plan but somewhere along the line Michel started eyeing split king beds with mechanical frames.

I spoke in French to him cautioning that it would be easily triple the price of just getting a queen mattress.

We had done our research and knew we needed a hybrid mattress with coils and foam so that it would last.

We shared with the sales person that we had an older house.

He showed us some regular mattresses and I knew my budget was gone when we tried a half split king bed. It’s split at the top to allow each person to adjust the upper angle and the bottom moves as one.

I’m promised that the mattress is cooling. I forgot to mention the thrice nightly lather of sweat thanks to hot flashes.

The salesperson promised the mattress arrives in a box no bigger than a twin. The mechanical frame folds up, again into a twin sized package.

We switched to French for honest budget conversations then back to English with the salesperson.

I hope a non-lumpy, bigger bed with better temperature regulation will help me get more than my current average of 6 hours a night.

I go to bed between 9:30 and 10 pm. I get up between 6 and 7 am. I am awake several hours each night.

I will give it a month and let you know how the new bed works out!