"Let me sleep. It's my favorite thing...to sleep."

A favorite line from the movie "Mystery Train." May not make so much sense if you can't see it in context--a cute, sleeping, naked girl saying it in grumpily in Japanese as her boyfriend tries to wake her up. But I love the moment because it says it all. I love sleeping. It's my favorite thing. (Well, my almost favorite thing. But the other thing also can involve bed, too, so let's call it even.)

So, now some answers for the (apparently) very tired Tory, all about one of my favorite pastimes. (But I'm changing his "u"s to "you"s, because I've got a pet peeve about that.

1. On which side of the bed do you sleep?

It depends on where the bed is situated. I'm not tied to one side. I prefer not to sleep right next to a wall, so whichever side of the bed isn't, I'm usually there. Right now I'm sleeping on the right-hand side of the bed, sometimes in the middle-ish. But often, in the quest for perfect mattress alignment, after a period of time I'll be known to switch to the other side, just to even things out. I'd probably be using the whole bed more wide-rangingly instead of having one side, except for my damn cat is an enormous bed hog and I don't want to crush her in my sleep. I swear she takes up as much room as any human who's been in the bed.

2. How much can you stand clothes on your body when you sleep?

Well, I don't actually have any starch in the house, so I can't stand very much clothing on my body at all. It all just kinda flops over whenever I try--it's never stiff enough. (See below for more serious answer.)

3. What's your fav sleeping attire?

I don't favor sleeping attire at all, other than a sheet, blanket, or duvet. Sleeping feels best clothing-free, I think. But if it's exceptionally cold, I'll usually throw on a t-shirt. And, because whenever I say that someone always asks this: Yes, I do mean just a t-shirt. On a rare occasion I've worn a man's pajama top, or the top and bottom. But I have to be really cold, or I have to think I'm lookin' really cute in it.

I have other things I've worn in bed, but not to sleep in.


4. Have you been told you snore? Sleepwalk? Or talk in your sleep?

I've been told I snore and that person didn't live to tell me again. Ha. Actually I've been told, "You don't snore, you breathe heavy." Whatever that means. Other people have said they haven't heard me make any noise when I'm sleeping at all. So I guess it depends.

I've never been told I sleepwalk, though once I did have a waking dream, which was very creepy. No one has ever told me I've talked in my sleep.


5. Do you sleep with the lights on or off?

Off. I like things as dark as possible when I sleep. I HATE it when I accidentally fall asleep with the lights on and wake up a few hours later with bright lights in my eyes.


6. How many hours do you sleep on average?...And how many hours CAN you sleep?

I try to aim for 7-8ish hours of sleep. I rarely get it, though, because I'm a total night owl and hate going to bed early. If I had my way, all work would begin at about 2 pm. I usually clock somewhere between 6-7 hours.

Since mid-childhood, I've always been able to sleep a frighteningly long amount of time, and would every day if I could. Ten hours would be a cinch for me, and left to my own devices, I'd sleep that much every day. That's when I feel best, if I have at least 10. I could probably sleep 12 or 13 on a good day--though I rarely indulge myself in that anymore. Used to, though.

When I say that amount of time I mean in one, uncut length of time. I'm not really big on naps unless I'm really, seriously exhausted.

And I hate when I can't just sleep until I wake up naturally. When I was a teenager, my family would fight about who would be the one to have to wake me up if they needed to for some reason, because I'd always be in such a raging fury at whomever the unlucky culprit was who dared to disturb me. Now I just get angry at my alarm.


7. Can you share a bed? Or not comfortable? What size bed do you have?

I don't like sharing a bed unless I really, really like a person. If I've been getting close to someone but don't feel 100% intimate with them yet, I'd rather they went home (or I did) than slept over, because I get hyper sensitive to every sound and movement and feel all out of place. Even their breathing will bother me and keep me weirded out and awake.

However, if I'm really into someone, I have none of these problems when they're sleeping next to me, even from early on. It's weird how that is. But it's actually a good gauge for me of what I really feel about someone if I'm not quite sure, or am trying to talk myself into feeling something different. In any case, there have been a very few select people who I've been totally comfortable sleeping with in bed.

I also don't like cuddling when I'm trying to fall asleep. I like it fine before I'm ready for sleep, but when it's time to drop off, I don't need or want you to be draped all over me. I like some breathing room. I think most guys appreciate this. Saves them the pins-and-needles she-fell-asleep-on-my-arm thing.

8. Nightly rituals before getting under the sheets..what are they?

Um...well...I don't think of them as ritualistic, but here's some basic things I usually do:
1) Feed the cat her dinner.
2) Wash face, brush teeth.
3) Set alarm (which is currently my satellite radio attached to go of on my stereo).
4) Either:

a) go to bed with a book and read 'til I'm ready to drop
b) go to bed with the laptop and catch up on blogs until I'm ready to drop
c) put on the radio to a talk show or music I like on sleep mode, so it will shut off automatically in about 20 minutes
d) put on a cd I like on sleep mode
e) go straight to step five

5) Turn out the lights.
6) Pet the cat who always instantly crawls up on top of me after step 5, as she knows she has a captive audience and demands her five minutes of affection nightly.
7) Get the cat off the top of me. At this point she'll leave the room to go eat dinner.
8) Sigh. Enjoy the silence. Snuggle up into the covers.
9) Sleep.

There are other things I tend often to do or think about somewhere in between steps 5-9, but at the moment I don't feel like sharing them.

Thanks for the question, Tory-ador.

All of this sleep talk has made me tired. Think I'm gonna curl up for a while and rest. I'll answer the remaining ones tomorrow. Thanks for the questions, all. This is fun, and keeps my brain percolating along...