I've slept on many surfaces during my life, and I'm beginning to come up with theories about how where you sleep symbolizes where you are in your life ( I know, me having theories is a pretty dangerous thing). A quick list of the places I've slept on willingly:
1.) On my childhood bed in my own bedroom (most common)
2.) In hotel rooms (all around the world)
3.) in my car (was very numerous when I was in law school/ living a nomad life)
4.) in airports (between flights, didn't want to spend time/money to go to a hotel)
5.) in hostels (not a comfortable mattress)
6.) in a cubicle (a late night internet cafe in Aoyama my first night in Tokyo, by myself, nowhere to go....long story.
7.) bunk bed with college roommates (most noisy but also the most communal/ social)
8.) on people's couches (best part of waking up is not knowing exactly where you are)
9.) in the office at work on a makeshift bed between 2 rolling chairs situated next to each other. Not my best moment, but I didn't want to make an hour drive home and then back the next day with dawn coming just around the corner, so resorted to just sleeping at the office. Not my finest moment, although many of these on this list fall probably into the same category.
10.) my aunt and uncle's home in Shanghai, China.....this was usually in the middle of summer, and I was just absolutely eaten alive my mosquitos despite the mosquito nets spread around the bed.
I listened to a Freakonomics radio podcast (really informative podcast full of interesting tidbits and facts, advertised rightly for SMART listeners) recently about the price of mattresses and they are actually surprisingly high.....mattresses can sell up to hundreds of dollars, even a thousand! based on the name brand or the quality of the mattress. I can attest that a comfortable mattress is really comfortable, from having stayed in really fancy hotels, but once I learn the price of the hotel room and probably what the mattress sold for (top dollar), I don't feel as comfortable. A big part of it is how my body feels in the morning; I haven't really not been able to sleep due to the mattress being too uncomfortable or lumpy, but there is such a thing as "better sleep" that I get a feel of if my body was comfortable. I really don't understand, by the way, how Japanese people sleep on futons that are basically on the floor; for a time I slept on a mattress right on the ground, and it wasn't great but I was a kid and I didn't know any better, but sleeping on the ground just feels uncomfortable; so many joints and muscles that are in contact with a hard surface, I could see my back cramping up and not being able to get up as quickly, definitely not recommended the night before a big athletic event or even a big test where you want every part of your body rested (including the brain).
Mattress quality, apparently depends on the tightness of the fabric, something about how the mattress is made, how many threads are in the lining, the ability to custom fit the mattress to one's back, etc. It's kind of like diamonds or computers for me: All sort of gibberish that's rarely outweighed by the single factor of how well I feel when sleeping on it. The sign of a good mattress, incidentally, is kind of like having a nice car: being able to sleep on a REALLY nice mattress might feel nice and it's nice to have, but it's kind of not necessary; the nicest Ferraris or sports cars or easy on the eyes and go fast, but it doesn't really help you get there any faster (since there are traffic laws, and well, for sleeping, you only get so many hours of the day to sleep). It's a bit of a status symbol, a luxury that has the slightest bit of added utility, but when it comes down to it, my best sleep is on my own bed, in my own room, on the same mattress (like mom's home cooking, I'm just used to it!) that I've slept on since I was 12 years old. I sleep on there after a long and tiring day and a good meal, and I am out and having a great dream! That is definitely what I want! (except to share the bed with my lovely girlfriend!) Yay!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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