Before this year, I had never purchased a brand new bed for myself. At the age of 39 and having been diagnosed with a B12 deficiency requiring monthly injections for the rest of my life and fibromyalgia, the quality of my sleep should be of paramount importance. In fact, fibromyalgia pain often causes sleep disturbances, and poor sleep exacerbates fibromyalgia.
I remember being 5 years old and having trouble sleeping.
There have been occasional nights where sleep has been restful, usually after a night out of drinking. In college I remember sleeping well on days playing field hockey for 2 and a half hours. I might run for a half hour these days and lift weights in the gym, but that does little for sleep quality.
Recently, my upper back started cracking abnormally. A chiropractor had pointed out two points in the cervix, the second or third bone below the skull and another at the base of the cervix, where there were subluxations, or misaligned vertebrae. And one was probably responsible for the other. I guessed the lower one caused the upper one.
I used to go to the chiropractor whenever my neck would be stiff so that he could align my spine and make the crick in my neck go away. But when the cracking started to get more frequent, I stopped going. Now all I have to do is pull my shoulders back to make my upper back sound like cracking knuckles.
Then I discovered that if I placed a skinny stuffed animal, a fish, under my C7, near the bottom of the cervix, the stiffness in my neck would go away – instantly. Amazing.
It's been about 2 years now that I've slept with this fish under my C7. And when the fish loses its place, I feel pain in my neck and trapezius. Put the fish back, the pain goes away.
I can't keep sleeping with a stuffed animal under my back.
Finally, I decided to buy myself a brand new bed. Not just any bed. It had to be perfect. I'm like the princess who slept on 17 mattresses over a pea and felt the pea. (Was it 17?)
I also don't want to put any more plastic products in landfills. Besides, Tempurpedic mattresses are too warm after a while. Everything else in that price range is made with foam in addition to wood and metal.
Then I lied down on a horsehair bed. Oh my goodness. It was a
Savoir bed. It's expensive. Hand made. All natural materials. Yet it's completely compostable. In reality, the compostable nature of these beds don't really matter anyway, since they are supposed to last a lifetime. Okay, so after I'm dead, it's good the bed is compostable. The bed I considered at Savoir was about $11,000. Holy s***.
Then one day, being walked to my motorcycle after a date, we passed by another mattress stores.
Hästens. Holy cow. Another horsehair bed company. We go in. We lie down on mattresses. My body tingled.
At this point in time, my body was exhausted. My sleep was getting worse and worse, probably because the mattress I was sleeping on was too old and needed to go. (Unfortunately, another foam-top bed for Mother Earth.) My back was in more pain and I could feel the fibromyalgia symptoms – which I had learned to overcome – were starting to creep back into my joints. Daily exercise wasn't enough. I needed a new bed. But I didn't want one made with foam.
Hästens makes a model that is more affordable that I like, and they offer financing. It's a full size, which is a tiny bit smaller than what I had before, but I don't care. It's just me anyway.
I bit the bullet, signed the financing papers, and picked a fabric.
(Funny thing about the Hästens store in New York is that it's right next door to Savoir.)
Earlier today, May 27, 2011, the bed arrived with white glove service. Two guys came in, unpacked the boxes, set up the bed, and took the old one away. Now, I'm going to sleep on it. I can't wait.
Good night. :)
 |
| It just fits. |
