Wow, I can’t believe I’m four nights into my week-long sleeping in a hammock experiment!

Perfectly hung! That lump is my sheet, all tucked away neatly. 🙂

I am an extraordinarily poor sleeper and have been keeping track of my sleep for years. An average night for me is 5 out of 10 (1 being the worst, 10 being the best). If I score a 6 or 7, it’s worth a celebration, but a 3-4 is more common and I get way too many 2s. Well…

First night in the hammock was a solid 9/10.

Second night was a 10/10. I was on fire the next day!

Third night was a 8.5/10, just because I’d slept so much the night before that I woke up waaaay too early.

Fourth night (last night) was a 9/10.

These numbers are amazing.

I pretty much hate the going to bed in the hammock part. I can’t easily get comfortable to read but I don’t want to read in a chair first because a part of my winding down process is getting all comfy in bed and then reading until I get sleepy. If I have to do the hammock jig-a-jig at the point where I’m getting sleepy, then that can set back my falling asleep time as the getting comfy process wakes me up.

Falling asleep in the hammock also isn’t easy. I try to get comfortable on my back, but then my body doesn’t know that it’s time to sleep for the whole night. So I have to find a position on my side that is comfortable.

But then, when I find that sweet spot, that’s it. I lose consciousness and I float off into the best part of sleeping in a hammock.

The best part of sleeping in a hammock? Waking up in the absolute most perfect position to be floating freely and comfortably, free of any aches and pains, and with seven to nine hours of truly restorative sleep behind me. Mornings in the hammock are the best.

I’ve been getting up earlier than I have been for months despite going to bed at the same time, have an incredible amount of get-up-and-go in the mornings, haven’t needed a nap, am way more productive at work, and have started to eat better. That’s how important a good night of sleep is to one’s health!

One additional benefit of sleeping in the hammock that is definitely part of how soundly I’m sleeping is that not using a pillow, not moving around so much, and not overheating means that I don’t lose my sleep mask during the night. So I’m not woken up by the sun. But the hammock gets one hundred percent of the credit for keeping me asleep to the point where I would be woken up by the sun if I didn’t have my sleep mask on.

So I’m definitely finishing off the week. Do I believe at this point that I could sleep in a hammock forever? I really don’t know, but I think that once I figure out the bedtime routine, it’ll be much easier and I’ll be more open to continuing the experiment long-term.

(Another can’t believe it moment: I’m at the five-month anniversary of adopting Bonita!).

via IFTTT

via IFTTT

via IFTTT

When I was about to move in last fall and was super tight on money due to the truck repairs, I thought about getting a hammock instead of a bed to sleep in, but I had really mixed feelings about that. I’m such a poor sleeper that I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to sleep properly and I knew I would miss nighttime reading in bed and luxurious morning lie-ins. On the other hand, I also knew locals had been sleeping in hammocks for millennia, so, surely, I was missing out on something. Then, I had the epiphany that, hey, I could move one of the guest room beds upstairs to my room and the hammock thoughts were relegated to the back of my mind.

Until this month, the first that the heat has really bothered me. Even while attempting to run the AC at night, I would wake up drenched in sweat shortly after it turned off. Everything was just sticky and uncomfortable. The idea of the hammock came back to me, what with all the air flow such a thing would allow.

After three naps in the hammock (yes, I took two yesterday), I knew that I could super easily fall asleep in a hammock in a way that I’ve never been able to in a bed. So I moved the hammock to my bedroom last night and added a sheet as I knew I would be chilly at least in the first part of the night until the room warmed up again.

The first surprise when I finally managed to arrange myself in the hammock was that I could very comfortably read and reach a surface on which to safely drop my iPad for the night. I eventually was ready to try to sleep. Research I’d done had tons of testimonials of folks sleeping so well in a hammock that they would do so well past their wakeup time. So even though the idea was laughable, I set an alarm for 8:00. I then rearranged the sheet, shuffled into my favourite position (curled up on the right side), gave myself a little push to rock and…

Next thing I knew, I was feeling surprisingly awake. I looked at the time and it was 5:00. I had slept straight through from 10:30 to 5:00. Wow!!! I had no trouble getting out of the hammock to use the bathroom. The sheet had bunched around me while I slept, so I wrapped myself in it toga style to make it easier to wrangle and resettled myself into the hammock, doubtful that I’d go back to sleep. Well…

Next thing I knew, the alarm was ringing. WOAH. That was a pretty much a 9-hour night of real quality sleep. I’d go so far as to say it was the best night’s sleep of my entire life. I need to do a few tweaks, adjusting the tension on the hammock and figuring out a way to keep the sheet from bunching up as sleeping on the bare strings is a bit of uncomfortable, but other than that, I’d say I’m a convert.

Check out this article, The Hammock Angle, for lots of tips on how to sleep in a hammock. The advice I got there was invaluable. One thing that I’m quite shocked about is how easy it is to get in and out of a properly hung hammock.

Feeling quite perky this morning, I went to the market for tacos (of the local delicacies relleno negro and cochinita) and fresh pineapple juice. I then found a pretty dress in a style I love made by the lady selling them at a bargain price ($160!) and ordered a bunch more to pick up next week. I have to get to work now, but a big work day seems less daunting with such a good night of sleep behind me. Not sure that means I’ll skip the siesta, though. 😉