Thursday, February 24, 2011

Sleep Mask Plight

On Tuesday I posed the following question on Twitter:
 To which I received a multitude of replies.  Here are a few of them:
Apparently the general consensus was that it was fairly "diva-like."  And I must agree.  Upon meeting up with the Angry Runner in Vegas after her flight got in late, our intro went something along these lines, "Hi, I'm Jeri.  I wear this sleep mask to bed.  I realize that's pretty high-maintenance of me, but hope we can still be besties."  Also, I think the words puppies + kitties + unicorns + sparkles + yayzies + rainbows were infused in the previous statement.  But as I said, it was super duper late, so my memory might not be 100%.

I have always been a bit of a high maintenance sleeper.  You know those kids who can sleep for hours in the backseat on long family road trips?  Yeah that was my brother.  Perhaps I didn't get any shut eye because my "portion" of the back seat was the floor.  No joke.  Not sure how my parents let him get away with that, but thank God we were never in any accidents!

When I sleep it needs to be 100% dark and 100% quiet.  In grade school I had to have my bedroom walls painted yellow.  Yellow walls + a hint of sunshine = sweet jesus I'm sleeping on the surface of the sun.  Could it BE any brighter in here?!?!  (said in a Joey Tribiani voice for greater affect).  By junior high I had implemented a solution consisting of a heavy blanket tacked to the walls over the window so i can sleep til the afternoon (in the summer of course).  When my mother discovered what I had done, she demanded I remove my dungeon inducing blankets and "sleep like a normal person."  Bahahah, that's cute if you think I'm normal madre.  ;)

It was around this time that I started sleeping with a bandana over my eyes.  My name is Jeri, and I'm a resourceful genius.  When I headed off to college I quickly learned that the dorms are LOUD.  After a couple years of not sleeping (or so it felt) I learned that a loud box fan helped to drown out most obnoxious college kid noise.  Yayzies!

After college I stuck with the loud box fan solution and started developing super de duper dry eyes after a night of sleep.  I determined that I must keep my eyes sort of open when I sleep, and since I had a big box fan whirring the air around, it was doing all sorts of damage to my eye balls.  Enter the modern day sleep mask.  I heart it.  It's high maintenance and I love it.

Here are a few sleep masks that I've seen over the past couple of years that I've thought about upgrading for:

(Click images for sources to purchase)

Upon crawling in to bed Tuesday night I realized what had prompted my aforementioned twitpoll:  My sleep mask was no longer in my possession.  Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!  Old school bandana, pony up!  I've got a job for you!

13 comments:

audgepodge said...

I'm sorry I missed this tweet bc on occasion I use a sleep mask and I don't think it's a big deal at all!

I get a ton of sunshine in my bedroom in the early morning and my blinds don't block it at all. So if I know I want to sleep in (or went to bed late), I'll wear it. Or on red-eye flights.

I really like the one I have which I got from Bed Bath and Beyond. The eye areas are puffed out a bit so you don't have fabric pressing directly on your eyes.

JRose said...

The panda is AWESOME! I would totally approve of that.

Anonymous said...

I just got one for Christmas! So far I only used it on planes but it was awesome for that.

Greg said...

In Grad School, I lived in an apartment with a massive walk-in closet. As a dude, my wardrobe consisted of 10 pairs of socks and underwear (each), a pair of jeans, 8 (Raiders & Pearl Jam) tee shirts, and about 27 hats, a pair of shoes and shorts . . . Nothing warranting a massive walk-in closet. So, I put my mattress and box springs in the closet and slept in there -- never slept better in my life!

Every time I went to sleep, it was like slipping into a coma! Eventually, I was sleeping something like 14 hours a night . . . just wonderful. I Rip Van Winkle'd away all of 1999 and 2000. Eventually, I had to move due to lack of vitamin D.

P.S. no one pulled off a sleep mask better than Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's . . . I think that you should embrace your inner Audrey Hepburn thing and run with it!

Jen Feeny said...

Awwww I'm sorry I missed that tweet because I would've responded that anytime I travel somewhere I sleep with one! I have major sleep issues in general... I travel with a small fan to block out noises and there can't be any sore of light in the room at all, not even an alarm clock glow, or else I will be up ALL night.

BTW - I want that Panda one.

Anonymous said...

I slept with a sleep mask when we were in Australia--the walls were white and the sun starts coming up at like 4:30 am! Too bright! If only I'd had the Hello Kitty one...
awesome 800s yesterday!!

The Hungry Runner Girl said...

HAHAHAHA!!! Girl, you are the cutest thing in the world. I am seriously going to have to try a sleep mask...I think it will help me sleep better. After seeing all of those cute one's I really need one!!! YES PLEASE let's coordinate doing those big marathons together....I am 100% sure we are going to make this happen!!!

Anonymous said...

Ha - that's fairly accurate. But then again, my memory may be a bit confused too. :)Lucky for you I'm a high maintenance sleeper too. (Unlucky for us that we had a cursed hotel room.)

And fun story: I GOT ONE OF THESE FOR CHRISTMAS. I should send it to you because I'm not gonna use it...because I'd feel claustrophobic with one on.

Susan said...

Haha thanks for giving me options for purchasing a sleep mask...I need to pick out a cute one. :)

I also can't sleep unless it's 100% cute...I may have uttered the words, "but you're BREATHING too loud!!" before. Wow I'm obnoxious.

I promise our apartment will be siiiiiilent and dark as can be.

Bree said...

I have a kick ass sleep mask I bought on Amazon a few years back but the panda is awesome. I need it to sleep if I want to sleep after the sun has come up, sooo pretty much every weekend and a lot of the summer. I also need white noise aka Holmes stand fan I bought sophomore year of college. Still rockin it! And if I travel I need earplugs. I am a high maintenance sleeper. Whatevs. I own it.

Anonymous said...

If you purchase the panda one, THEN I won't judge you. Because that's AWESOME.


;) I am not a mask-user and probably never will be. Mainly b/c I have zeroooo problems falling asleep, it usually takes about .5 seconds once I hit the pillow.

Anonymous said...

haha - I don't think I know anyone that wears a sleep mask. But it's not a bad idea! I'm pretty high maintenance when it comes to sleeping in that I hate having the TV on - it must be quiet and I must have my noisemaker on in the "rain" mode :)

Glenn Jones said...

I love the Panda Bear mask! I'd even use that one if I had it. Of course, I wouldn't be caught dead asleep in it.....