Updated 9/1/2011
Welcome new readers to my corner of cyberspace. I am Jack and I am happy to see you here. The post below contains a link to a contest that has already ended. Periodically there are other contests and giveaways here but that is not my focus. You can learn more about me here or by clicking around the site. If you like what you see I encourage you to fan me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter and or subscribe to my feed. That’s enough self promotion. I hope you stick around and look forward to hanging out with you here.
Somewhere around midnight or a little thereafter I send a tweet out that says “Good Evening Twitter Vampires.” Most of the time I receive a handful of responses from people across the globe. I am old enough to remember when it cost serious money to make long distance telephone calls, let alone talk to someone overseas. Yet most nights I finish up my evening with a short chat with people in Australia, England and Israel. Not to mention the few on the East Coast who are just waking up and those on the West who like me are burning the candle at both ends.
Last week someone asked me why I keep the hours that I do. They wanted to know if I was up because of work or if I suffer from insomnia. The answer is that there have been a number of times where work responsibilities have required me to adjust my hours. Most of the time that is because I have an early morning conference call to attend. Did I mention that those are usually 8 AM EST, or 5 AM my time. Good times I tell you.
But I wouldn’t suggest that I am up at odd hours because of insomnia either. I tend not to need as much sleep as other people or maybe I have just trained myself to stay awake. It is hard to say. What I do know for certain is that I am a natural night owl. I like those late hours. There is something magical after midnight. During my college days I was one of the first people to hear about bad breakups. Not because I was a trained therapist but my friends knew that it was generally safe to call me at 3 am.
Those days are long ago and now that I have become Superdad I have children who think that if the sun is up it is time for all to be awake. Consequently I have tried to adjust my hours somewhat. Even though I don’t need a lot of sleep I can’t live on 4 hours for months at a time anymore. Add a big heaping dose of stress and my sleep has been a bit more strained than normal. I have had nightmares about waking up in cleveland or being forced to move into an igloo in Buffalo.
Fortunately neither has happened and if I have anything to say about it neither will. Still, I have found my sleep to be less satisfactory than usual and had been wondering what I could do about it.
The Universe Taps Me On The Shoulder
I am beginning to wonder if perhaps there is reason for me to take the idea of signs more seriously. Not stop signs, but those little moments when the universe taps you on the shoulder. The reason being that I was contacted by the fine folks at Sleep Number and asked if I wanted to help them out. The deal was that I would get to create my own custom sleep number pillow to review and that as a bonus I could give one away to one of my lucky readers.
I said yes and selected the Memory Foam outer comfort with the memory foam contour inner support and the in balance protector. (Dear FTC, the previous paragraph is what we call disclosure.
My pillow came last week and I am have been very pleased with it. The obvious question is have I slept better than I did with my old pillow. The answer is yes. I have been trying to figure out if the pillow is the reason or if it has been more of a placebo effect. I am not sure how to answer that question. I truly like the pillow and find it to be quite comfortable so I think that it has to be part of it. If nothing else I am confident in recommending that you enter the giveaway and try to win one for yourself. I don’t think that you can go wrong with it.
Here is what you need to do. Click on this link and enter all of the information. Please be certain to fill in the referring blog info too. It is that easy, so much so that I’ll even give you the link one more time.
P.S. As I was writing this post I received word that a big deal that I had been working on has come through. Is the universe sending me signs, tapping me on the shoulder or just giving me a well-deserved break? I don’t know. But I do know that I am looking forward to enjoying a little shut eye on my new pillow.
@EricaAllison Well I need to ask the universe to speak more clearly. It can talk to me in English, Spanish, Hebrew or Yiddish and I am good. But this authentic frontier gibberish doesn’t work for me.
Got several messages recently and hell if I know what to make of them. I could easily argue them in two different directions.
@TheJackB You should. I think the universe does talk to us and I talk back. 😉 When things are really bad or horrible, I’m definitely trying to figure out what the universe is trying to tell me.
@EricaAllison Hey Erica, you should enter the contest it is free. Normally I haven’t any trouble sleeping either. I can sleep almost anywhere at any time. Though I am told that it is bad to let me fall asleep before others because my snoring shakes the house. I like to think of it as one of those things that people find endearing about me. 😉
I really do wonder about the universe talking to us. I go back and forth on that one. Might have to blog about it again.
Oh wow. A contest, sort of. Jack, I am thrilled your big deal came through. I know that feeling of waiting for it and then you get the “tap on the shoulder” – congrats. I hope it’s the first of many for you.
It makes me sad when people have trouble sleeping. My husband is one of them. I am one of those rare birds that falls asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow (although I do want a new one!) and sleep straight through until it’s time hit it again. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been unable to sleep and it’s been this past year! Tough one, for sure. Even when my little ones didn’t sleep, I had to get the nudge from my husband to get up – I sleep really hard, too. Miss all the storms.
I do think the universe tells us things and it’s up to us to be ready to really hear them.. I hope the pillow continues to work it’s magic.
@marianne.worley A contoured gel pillow? Man, a pillow like that would be great for a pillow fight. you would dominate the competition.
Actually your “schedule” sounds similar to mine. I usually feel that crash around the same time or so. Sometimes it hits me again around 8. But by 10 I am starting to feel energized and if I am not careful it is easy for me to stay up far too late.
I often see and respond to those Twitter Vampire tweets. Why am I up so late? I am very productive in the morning, but then I crash around 3 or 4pm. Sometimes, I take a nap. My productivity returns around 7 or 8pm, so I continue to work until I’m satisfied with my accomplishments. No insomnia here either.
For the past 5 days, I’ve been offline working on other things. So, I’ve been going to bed a bit earlier than usual. I use a contoured gel pillow that weighs about 100 pounds, but I would like to have a sleep number pillow! I entered the contest too.
@Faryna Thanks. It is much appreciated. I am off to go use that pillow now. 🙂
I registered an entry and cited your blog post. Hopefully, they’ll consider sending you a mattress next time.
I’m partial to foam beds and pillows, myself. But it does make even the very best hotels less enjoyable.
@Cracking Confidence Coach Kids change everything- but in a good way. Mine are finally old enough that I don’t worry about them having a few minutes to themselves before I wake up.
I like the idea of writing everything down. It makes a lot of sense and in truth is tied into why I blog anyway. I find the writing to be cathartic and a great way to clarify what I am thinking/feeling.
I guess a comfy pillow could certainly help with insomnia, although I’m not too sure it would allow you the liberty from the addiction to our night-time activities! I was once a night person, then kids changed all that – now, I’m lucky to be awake past 11pm and up at 6am with the kids and to do a little work if they aren’t around!
I was once told that if you can’t sleep then you should write down everything that is on your mind and leave it there, ready for collection in the morning. It works too! Plus, by morning, you don’t want to pick those things up again and you get some freedom from it!
Unfortunately no. But it is comfortable.
Does the pillow shut your mind off?