My Comfort, Your Dismay

I have always struggled to sleep. Throughout the years I've tried various things to sleep, but one thing that has always helped is background noise.

I now have an app that plays various sounds. I can't do any sudden irregular sound. My brain keys into it and becomes hyper focused. So all the sleep tracks with frogs croaking or birds chirping are out. But water noises, that's where it's at.

When I lived in the desert I used to dream of swimming, and listening to recordings of storms helped lull me into sleep. Now, every night I chose between sound tracks of gentle rain, drizzle on a cabin roof, rain on a canvas tent, sounds of oceans and lakes, and distant thunder storms to fall asleep to.

I pretty much only listen to the sound of water to sleep.

My husband though, he can fall asleep instantly. So, I when put on a water sound to slowly relax into sleep with, he's already out.

But, every now and then, he will wake up in the middle of the night. I'll be sleeping, and he'll come to hearing water. And since my husband re-plumbed our entire house, this apparently is not a pleasant way to suddenly wake up.

"You know, your sleep app is basically a catalogue of plumbing emergencies," he told me one morning. "It's terrifying."

And I had never thought about that. I'm so focused on sleeping, I don't care what happens once I get there. But when my battle is done, someone else's begins. The relaxing pitter patter of rain is the sound of another person's gut wrenching anxiety.

Who knew?