On Sleeping

Sleeping is one of my five favorite things to do, along with eating, playing ultimate, playing cards, and farting. It is odd that sleeping is in the top five, because I'm not very good at it. I have various levels of skill at the other four.

I've gone through periods of my life where I've slept nearly 12 hours a day (in college), and periods where I've slept less than four hours a day (also in college). Now I usually try to sleep between the hours of midnight and seven in the morning, sometimes a little more, usually a little less.

I used to have a hard time falling asleep when I was in high school and college, but since exiting college, I've been able to fall asleep in a standard amount of time. I do wake up during the night many times, though, probably an average of four or five times a night. It is rare that I sleep all the way through a single night unless I've been drinking.

When sleeping, I like to have a lot of pillows. Currently, there are five on my bed. I like it as cold as possible when I sleep so I can roll up into a comforter and slowly get warm and fall asleep.

As far as positioning is concered, I usually sleep on my side because that is what I'm used to. I can't breathe well if I sleep on my stomach or back. My ribs are a little misshapen, though, and I wonder if its from too many years of side-sleeping.

I rarely have dreams. They most frequently occur during Saturday and Sunday nights of ultimate tournaments. I would say that at least two-thirds of my dreams are bad dreams. I've found that if I fall asleep on my back that I have a bad dream. After waking up from a bad dream, I am almost always sleeping on my back.

Once in Whitewater during Hucktoberfest I woke up in a hotel bed screaming bloody murder for about thirty seconds before I actually woke up. We're talking a crazy scary dream here. When I finally woke up, my arms and legs were pointed up into the air and Dave Karsten was putting his arms around me to wake me up just yelling "It's okay! It's just a dream!" We all had a good laugh about that one.

Speaking of ultimate tournaments, I've shared a bed with Shawn Walding many times. One time, I woke up with my hand on his face. Strangely, he did not wake up. Another time, he was all the way over on his side of the bed, and in the night I made my way over and woke up spooning with him. My brother Ryan has experienced the same thing multiple times in family hotel rooms. It got to the point where both of my brothers would sleep on the floor and I would get the bed to myself. I guess I move around a lot. Sometimes I have bad dreams and move around, namely, where I had a dream that my brother Ryan was throwing spiders on me. I woke up and felt something like spiders on me and just started wailing on my brother Ryan in a half-sleep. We all had a good laugh about that one.

Well, I'm going to try to get better at sleeping. I may not stay still, I've been told I snore, and I have bad dreams, but I find a way. Maybe I should start drinking more...