He Sleeps Where?

He sleeps where?

The perplexity on people’s faces when I tell them my husband sleeps in a hammock is priceless. I know what you are thinking, WHY? Well, this is two-fold.

A few years ago he was diagnosed with a severe TBI (traumatic brain injury) from multiple concussions sustained while in combat. One of his main symptoms other than short-term memory loss, vestibular damage and constant headaches was sleep apnea. I kid you not, I would stay awake until his alarm would go off for work because he would stop breathing. This led to an over-tired, over-extended me and him. I don’t know about you but I do not function well without sleep. Period. You can ask anyone. I’m one of those that needs 8+ hours of sleep per night.

For months all of this compounded with being a light sleeper and I became extremely bitter and exhausted. While he had to get up and go to work, I had to figure out a way to function as a wife and mother with barely any sleep and I couldn’t. Our marriage was crumbling fast between lack of sleep, mental load, memory loss, and the stress of an immune compromised child. FAST! We reached a low point and had to figure out a way to make it work. After countless hours of research, he stumbled upon the idea of hammock sleeping relieving the pressure in the head. You can read the studies here and here. We figured we had absolutely nothing to lose and ordered him a hammock and stand. After about a week, his snoring and sleep apea ceased and his headaches became less intense. It was almost too good to be true! Thus, began hammock sleeping and the salvation of our marriage. (You can check out the hammock & stand he has here and here) The best part is, he can pack it up and take it anytime we travel.

 

We took it a few steps further and separated rooms when we moved posts and Drill SGT orders came down the line. The insane hours are not conducive to anyone’s sleep but my “night owl” tendencies and his early morning alarms began to unravel our joy. Neither of us were getting adequate sleep again and our attitudes and bodies were suffering. We all know, countless studies have shown how vital sleep is to our health. We made the decision to separate rooms and it has been one of the BEST decisions for our marriage. Now, now, before anyone starts waving the red flag, what works for us may not work for others! The current situation is not our long-term plan and we hope to one day occupy the same sleeping space again but for now this works. Bring on    retirement…5 years and counting!

I know what your next thought is…how do you ummm spend “quality” time together. It’s simple really, we plan time and well two rooms, double the space ha! We’ve become intentional in carving out time to spend with eachother more than we ever did in our previous years of marriage. My late night tv, writing sessions don’t keep him awake and his 3 a.m. alarms don’t wake me up right as I’m falling asleep. My health and outlook on life has improved drastically – it’s amazing what sleep can do right?!? My husband, well he loves his hammock and his TBI symptoms are still drastically reduced.

Do any of you have “out of the norm” sleeping arrangements?

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