Is sleeping in seperate beds the death of a relationship? Is it something you're only supposed to do in your 50s?

I love my boyfriend more than anything. He snores so loud that i think i'm at a monster truck rally. Since moving into our new apartment, we have slept together once (i'm not talking sex life here, i mean sleeping in the same bed). The rest of the time we've been in different rooms.

The problem is that i miss him, and i end up hugging his pillow but it's not quite the same. On the other hand, i sleep much better without him snoring directly in my ear. I've tried having the a/c on (which is loud and should drown out other noises but it doesn't), i've tried sleeping pills (which i don't want to get hooked on) and i've tried ear plugs (wonderfully comfy but they don't do a damn thing).

Admittedly, we haven't tried any snoring solutions like sprays and stuff.

Can we continue to be happy and loving if we sleep in different rooms? Should i just suck it up and live with the snoring and hope that after a few days' worth of utter exhaustion (and frustration) that i can sleep through it and get used to it?

Do any of you have any anti-snoring remedies?

And do any of you sleep in a seperate bed? Tell me your experiences.

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2000

Answers

Jeremy and I have separate beds for precisely this reason ... only I'm the snorer. I don't think our solution was the best one - - I wish he would have tried earplugs or something. Lots of women do that. But I'm the snorer, so I don't get to decide.

I liked having my own room when we first did this. You spend your whole childhood, it seems, sharing a room with someone -- a sibling, a college roommate, whatever -- and so once you're a grownup, it seems like you ought to have your own space, right? I don't care so much anymore. I'd rather share a room.

As for sex and all that, you want the brutal truth? You lose a lot. You don't get to cuddle unless you practically plan it in advance. You miss out on a lot of the spontaneous sex you probably take for granted -- the early morning, just before bedtime, middle of the night hey-there's-a-naked-person-in-my-bed sex. I hate that a lot. You go to bed alone and you wake up alone, and I hope you have a dog or a cat or something, or you're going to be pretty fucking lonely.

But no, I don't know a cure for snoring. I've taken every sinus medication under the sun. I've tried the breathe-right strips, and not only are they hideously unsexy, they don't really work very well.

So I don't really blame him. I'm horribly self conscious about my snoring and the fact that he can't sleep with me hurts my feelings, but I do understand, and frankly it's worse having him wake me up ten times a night to tell me to shut up. It's been more than four years since we've shared a room on a regular basis, and I don't see that changing. But I really hate sleeping by myself, and if there were another way I'd take it in a second.

So I second Sherry's call: anyone got any cures for snoring? Help a sister out.

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2000

re: snoring -- a workup at a sleep clinic might be in order. really bad, loud, snoring can be a sign of sleep apnea. (my poor sweetie -- now that the gall bladder op is out of the way, I'm going to gently remind him about that sleep apnea problem.)

but his snoring doesn't keep me awake or anything.

Anita of Anita's BOD and Anita's LOL

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2000

I've heard stories about women who can't sleep well when the husband isn't around because she's used to his snore. Do you think the snoring is something you could 'get used to.' Like concentrating on the repetition of breaths or something?

The NBC affiliate here in Houston did a "test" on those nasal sprays... like their own Consumer Reports. The results? The snoring sprays, et al, did nothing.

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2000

My husband was a horrible snorer. We didn't have separate beds, but thankfully, I can sleep through a Metallica concert. Sleep apnea was a diagnosis bandied about and then he had nasal surgery (to alleviate bad sinuses). The snoring has decreased immensely!!! If your boyfriend has allergies or sinus problems, get him to an ENT (ear-nose-throat) doctor and maybe he can help.

There's also some weird laser surgery that's supposed to take off the top layers of your epiglottis (?) or something and from what I hear, it does help. i think I saw it on 20/20 several mont

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2000

This spray eliminates 97% of the noise associated with snoring!

I've also heard many people have good results vith vitamin-Z.

[This post may contain sarcasm.]

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2000

If you have genuine sleep apnea, you have a medical problem that really justifies talking to a doctor immediately - you actually stop breathing in short bursts. If you not only snore, but also wake up feeling like you've hardly slept at all, this may be you.

But a lot of us just snore. And the nose strips only help if the reason you snore is because when you lie back, your nasal passages partially collapse - they help hold them open. I haven't tried them, but I do tend to breathe through my mouth when I sleep, and this may be the reason why.

I haven't investigated it closely because snoring is the least of my worries. I don't sleep in a separate bed because of snoring. I do it because of insomnia. I can never tell which of the two beds (in separate rooms) will be the one which most helps me to sleep that night. Often neither one will (my insomnia is because my brain won't shut down for the night, not really because of the bed), and I stay in the bedroom that doesn't have Debby so that my fidgeting and so forth won't keep her awake. (That she goes to bed between ten and eleven every night and I go to bed between one and two a.m. is also a factor.)

She doesn't like this very much. She misses me when I'm not in there. Personally, I have never taken well to sharing a bed (I am 6'4" and like having a whole bed to myself) and I don't understand completely, but I try to accommodate her whenever I can. (It doesn't affect our sex life, because that's on a different schedule altogether.)

It takes me anywhere from two to three hours, lying in bed, to settle down and go to sleep most nights. One reason I've been playing Diablo II so much is that it exhausts my brain and I fall right asleep. I've been like this since elementary school. I've got some herbal tea I bought recently which is supposed to contain sleep-inducing drugs, but I haven't tried it yet - I think I distrust it. Molly Zero keeps telling me to try some other chemical I can't remember - serotonin? - but Consumer Reports took an effectiveness survey and determined that it didn't seem to do much.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2000

You know, I totally distrust Consumer Reports these days. They did a study about dog food a few years ago and determined that the WalMart brand was the best. But they were using standards that were completely of their own devising and discounted many of the things that pet owners want (less poop, shiny coats, slow growth for large breed puppies, that sort of thing), and their results were ultimately determined mostly by price. Plus they claimed that one of the major brands -- Iams or Science Diet, can't remember -- had some high concentration of terrible chemicals that could cause kidney failure or some such thing, and the magazine wound up having to retract all of that when it was established that they were just plain wrong.

Of course that's neither here nor there; I just don't trust Consumer Reports the way I used to. I read all of their articles carefully to see if they are actually saying something does not work, or just that it doesn't work well enough for the price, or whatever. I think their reports are often misleading, basically.

If the product in question was melatonin, it's a hormone. As Jen Wade has pointed out, the dangers of melatonin are not well known. However, it most certainly does work, at least for me. As regular readers of this journal are aware, I've suffered from insomnia for most of my life. Melatonin is the first thing (other than strenuous exercise) that works for me without nasty side effects.

Of course, it does nothing for my snoring.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2000

You know, I've been married for two years and sometimes I wish I had my own bedroom. It's not that Andy gets in the way of letting me make our bedroom space mine--he doesn't care about the type of comforter we use, the color scheme, the decor in general--but I can't shake the feeling that...well...there's a BOY living in my bedroom. A boy with hairy legs who wants half of the bed and to have the fan on every night, even when it's 50 degrees out and the windows are open. He doesn't like how candles smell, so I don't burn any in the bedroom, he's taking up part of the closet...so I used to think wistfully about having my own bedroom. But after reading Beth's post way up top...it doesn't sound so good anymore.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2000

The product in question was, in fact, melatonin. Glad to hear you've had success with it, Beth. I know it works for me.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

I'm typing this with bags under my eyes, because The Husband snores like crazy -- I think it's sleep apnea; I actually taped him one night so he can play it for his doctor -- but I'm not willing to kick him into the spare room. He and his ex had separate rooms because of his snoring, and I think that loss of intimacy was a contributing factor to their break-up. I'm not willing to give up the closeness of having him in bed with me...even though I pay for it. He always snores, loudly and deeply -- we were actually asked to leave a campsite at a state park because people in neighbouring sites couldn't sleep! -- but it only seems to wake me in bursts (i.e., for weeks I'll be fine and sleep through, then I go through a frustrating and frustrated sleepless phase where I bash him with pillows several times a night).

One of his sisters is a doctor, and she said the surgery to correct snoring is actually not insignificant, and the scarring from it can actually cause snoring after a time.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

Melatonin, that's it. Duh. (I can recite practically the whole script of Victor/Victoria from memory, but I can't remember the name of this chemical. The mind is a dark forest.)

The backstory here is that Molly Zero is constantly nagging me to try this wonderdrug and is annoyed that I won't do it :) Okay, but y'know, I took a lot of food and drug chemistry - it was one of my few interests in college. And one of the lessons that has stuck with me is that hormones=danger. So maybe Consumer Reports' survey of melatonin users is off by some percentage. Even so, it'd have to have a VERY effective success rate and be WELL tested for lack of side effects (neither of which is apparently true) before I'd consider putting it in my body. I even hate taking ibuprofen for headaches, for pete's sake!

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

I'm so glad I'm not the only woman in the world who SNORES! Of course, mine is a quiet, gentle, feminine snore, I'm sure! Whereas my boyfriend's snore sounds like an 18 wheeler applying those loud breaks. He snores loudly both in and out! Sometimes he sounds like he's blowing his nose without a tissue and I feel like waking him up and handing him a Kleenex. I have described this kind of snoring to him as "potentially projectile snoring," for what that's worth. I just try to be sure his nose is aimed well away from me.

But as long as it's not that kind of snoring, I can usually manage to fall asleep (of course, he always falls asleep first!). I also need much less sleep than he does (5-6 hrs. for me, 8-9 for him) so I often snuggle up with him until he starts to snore, then get up and do whatever I need to do for another few hours, then I'm tired enough to fall asleep, snoring or not.

I have had other snoring boyfriends, and had a snoring husband for 7 years, and while I have always been a light sleeper, and very particular about falling to sleep, I have always somehow gotten used to the snoring. I would hate to think of losing out on the closeness of sleeping in the same bed.

My current boyfriend tells me that his former girlfriend used to elbow him in the side to wake him up and yell, "You're SNORING!" Neither of them got much good sleep that way. I am of the opinion that a person can get used to just about anything, given time and patience.

In fact, that husband I referred to also had a hideous time waking up, and always had to get up before me. I often went to bed only two or three hours before his clock would go off. He would hit the snooze for an hour, destroying an hour of my sleep, then get up, turn on lights, dig around for clothes, and insult of all insults, he would throw things onto the bed and I'd end up half-buried under that day's wardrobe selection. The grand finale was when he would sit on the bed and jostle me all around while putting on his shoes and socks.

Once we eliminated the totally obnoxious aspects of this behavior (he began to creep around in the dark and quiet, no more hitting the snooze, and he eventually stopped throwing things on the bed), I found that I was sleeping right through his alarm clock, and eventually, I slept right through his whole morning routine. I never imagined that would be possible, but I suspect we humans are more adaptable than we know!

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

Hello. My name is Meridith and I am a woman who snores. My husband and I share the same double bed and I usually fall asleep first. Not always, but most of the time. My husband is used to it. He has told me it's a comforting sound, letting him know I'm there (I expect he may be lying so I don't kick him out of bed) heh.

He talks in his sleep. The first few times it was so clear I thought he was actually talking to me. It can be loud at times, depending on what he's dreaming about. I have gotten used to it and never wake up anymore unless I'm already drifting to the surface.

I think it's something that you can get used to. I think it's worth a try anyway. There are also evironmental noise machines, fans, fountains, music, talk radio (we fall asleep to Coast-to-Coast every night). I would say if the snoring is REALLY bad -- talk to someone. Find out the risks and options and then decide if it's worth it.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

I'm told that I snore - I've never, of course, been in a position to listen to myself, but I'm told it's a gentle rumble, kind of like a purr. This sounds terribly cute, so I think the guy was going for points. I suspect I actually sound like a chainsaw.

Paul used to snore (well, presumably he still does, but we aren't together anymore so it doesn't keep me up nights) and I got used to it. I can sleep through a fair amount of noise, though - I used to nap at a radio station next to the speakers when I was at university - so I may not be typical.

Joanne

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

My husband is a snorer. We solved the problem by buying a kingsize bed and a clock radio that has "soothing" sounds that you can play. I listen to the waterfall (it sounds like white noise, not water) for an hour when I get into bed. It drowns him out if he is snoring or breathing loud.

I hated having to sleep in the guest bedroom alone.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

Hmm, so far it sounds like it should technically be something that i can get used to if i just force myself to stay calm and not run away screaming.

I like the idea of an alarm clock that plays soothing sounds. Is that something which is relatively easy to find in most stores? Is it expensive? I'm willing to fork out the cash if it means that we can sleep in the same room again.

Apparently i snore too, and therefore such a clock would benfit us both.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

I snore most of the time and he does some of the time. We both sleep with earplugs.

I've had other relationships where we slept separately. We just didn't like sleeping together and couldn't get comfortable. I don't think it made a difference, but for me being able to sleep comfortably is really important and I'd really resent someone who kept me from getting good sleep, even if it were more romantic to sleep with him.

My current partner and I don't cuddle, have morning "surprise" sex, etc. even though we sleep together. So I'd say that you can't really tell.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

Sleep deprivation from four hours of being woken up from a puff in the face just as I'm almost asleep (it really isn't the *noise* that bothers me, exactly) really isn't conducive to welcoming being woken up to an early morning grope session.

I sometimes think separate rooms would assist my feelings toward him rather than harm them. In the last week, I've had the full snoring drill, the puffing (we've switched sides of the bed, and still he faces me when he's asleep), the accompanying flip flopping (because is seems like he's having a hard time breathing all through this - and yes, he's finally made an appointment to see a doctor about it), and an elbow slam into my face.

After all that, I'd likely bite his hand off if woke me up *again* to cuddle before the alarm goes off.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

My ex always wanted his own bed.

Not because I snore (I do, that's jut not why), but because I'd hit him in my sleep. Whenever I'd turn over I'd whack him with a pillow or an arm or a leg.

You could say I'm a wild sleeper.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

oh, boy did you open up the flood gtates! my husband is the snorer and I am a very light sleeper. I have been dealing with this problem for the past five years. here is what I've learned...in no particular order.

We have discovered a few things about his snoring. It is worse when he smokes. He has since quit, but when he is out with the guys and lights up a cigarette, he knows he will be sleeping on the couch! drinking has the same effect. weight is also a factor. when we first started dating, we were both pretty fit. as we fell in love, we gained weight (as a lot of couples do!). his snoring problem is directly affected by this.

he went to a sleep clinic once. the verdict: he has a very serious snoring disorder. well, duh! that was no help. but his doctor did suggest maybe allergies were the culprit. our bedroom seems to accumulate a lot of dust. more so than the rest of the house. he started taking Flonase every night and that helped. he did this in tandem with nose strips. and sleeping on his left side. for some reason the left side is better. allergies and sleeping with the cat didn't help either, but we couldn't kick the cat out of the bed.

for awhile I went to bed first. most nights I'd be ok if I was asleep before he started snoring (he falls asleep right away). the only thing that sucks is in the middle of the night when he rolls over to spoon me and winds up snoring in my ear!

now I wear earplugs and things work out much better! they are the foam kind, not the wax kind. I have had such good luck with these that he doesn't do the flonase or nose strips anymore. I still make him fall asleep on his left side. I just ask to spoon him. it's more romantic than asking him to get in the standard non-snore position!

so there you have it. smoking, gaining weight, allergies, sleeping position and earplugs. I hope everything works out for you. I was so exhausted. to the point of dispair! right after we got married we hardly slept together. sad for newlyweds. oh, that also reminds me, stress! when he is stressed out, it is worse.

oh, and as an alternative to sleeping pills, I've used "sleepytime" tea by celestial seasons and sometimes benadryl (not together). I talked to my doctor about tylenol pm, and she said that the drug in tylenol pm to help you fall asleep is benadryl. check the label for active ingredients! sometimes I take a half a benadryl. I don't like taking the tylenol if I don't need it. my doctor also suggested the children's form of liquid benadryl. that way it is easy to take a half or quarter dose. whatever you need. although she didn't recommend it for long term, she was ok with me doing it to get over the rough spots.

sorry for the novel. hope something in there helps!

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

"I've heard stories about women who can't sleep well when the husband isn't around because she's used to his snore. Do you think the snoring is something you could 'get used to.' Like concentrating on the repetition of breaths or something? "

My parents were going through this (before Mom went deaf, cause unknown as of yet). Dad had snored forever, wall rattling, earth shaking snores. He had a sleep study done, discovered he had apnea (duh, I told him that years ago) was put on a machine and no longer snores.

Mom couldn't sleep for the first couple of weeks because it was too quiet in their room.

-- Anonymous, August 09, 2000

Sorry on the snoring- thank god I don't have to deal with that (tho' my best friend has been specifically disinvited from my staying over at my house till I move somewhere with 18" internal brick walls or an east wing . . .).

My question goes more to separate beds- we joke about it all the time- but I want them! I initially had a good reason- when we first moved in together, I'd get a nighttime beat down- she had some serious motor control issues in her sleep. That's calmed down, but I still *love* it when I'm traveling- a big assed king all to myself. Don't have to touch no one.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for cold nights made warm, and warm nights made warmer, but not *every* night. But if I bring it up, she (I guess understandably) takes it as a referendum on the status of our relationship. I'd think nearly 5 years would make that clear, but . . .

So, how to sneak that king sized mattress in the spare room?

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2000

Sabs snores like a Harley.

This was a big problem early in our relationship because I am a very light sleeper who doesn't really snore. I breathe rather heavily but I don't snore per se.

Sabs on the other hand, sleeps the sleep of the dead. So even if I _did_ snore it wouldn't wake him up.

We've never slept in separate beds though. We've always shared, and slowly over time I've been able to incorporate his snoring into my "it's time to sleep" signals.

Occasionally his snoring still keeps me up or wakes me from a sound sleep, but mostly a quick squeeze to his butt and he subconsciously stops snoring just long enough for me to fall asleep.

How's that for close relationships eh?

*grin*

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2000

My husband and I sleep in separate rooms, and I like it that way. We both snore, so whoever doesn't fall asleep first keeps the other one awake.

Sleeping in separate rooms used to bother me, but I really like having my space, now, although he won't let me redecorate the master bedroom (where I sleep) in a more girly style, since it's technically "our" bedroom, not mine. He keeps his clothes in the master closet, and we lay in bed and snuggle for half an hour or 45 minutes at night before bed, and then he toddles off to his bed and I roll over and go to sleep.

It works for us.

-- Anonymous, August 12, 2000

Oh man... am i in for some serious evening attacks or what? I'm a single male (i may be out of my element considering your all couples) but i snore like the dickens. My sister gave me her california KING size bed,which might help. It just fit into my tiny apartment bed room (literally wall to wall bed). But i have to tell you guys how embaressing it is for me to tell someone that i have to sleep on the couch tonight. That's right...willingly. I can't let someone else suffer for my human faults. I almost want to explain to the next women that stays over, "well i don't know how to tell you this but...(as her eyes widen only to hear me shutter)I...I snore. After we have sex i will slip into the other room and sleep on the couch." I just can't imagen myself explaining this to a woman i have just taken home or vise versa. Oh well, let the evening wars begin!" Oh god please don't tell me that i have to have seperate beds when i get married, please i don't want to end up like the castanza's on sinfeld. I need to cuddle. Sacrafices right?...right?

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2000

I hope snoring is not the end of a relationship. I love my partner but we have not been able to sleep in the same bed for months becasue his snoring sounds like a dump truck driving through a cement plant. I am a light sleeper and can hear even the slightest sound like a fan turning in the next room. Sleeping in the same room would allow us to get 2 bedroom place and not a 3 bedroom place which is expensive and hard to find in Austin, Texas. Strips don't work and surgery is obviously too expensive. I get mixed reviews on sprays and pills working so its hard to decide which way to go. Any thoughts?

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2001

I'm on the other side of the equation, Juan. I snore, and I liked getting sent to the other bedroom because I could sleep however I wanted. I've been summoned back to the master bedroom (the "Big House") by ukase, however, and now when I snore I am prodded until I roll onto my side. My wife claims that this reduces the noise. If your partner isn't a pugilist, maybe my wife's technique will work for you.

From what little I remember, I think she grabs my closer elbow to her and pulls up until I am raised a little bit, then extends my upper arm behind me, pushing horizontally until the leverage and pain combine to push me onto my side. I think this is right, as it explains why I have so many "Moby Dick" dreams.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2001

I am the snorer in my house. I must tell you, I would rather sleep alone than sleep badly because I'm being told to shush, or I'm being rolled over, or I'm just self-conscious about whether I've been snoring.

Plus, this way no one steals my covers.

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2001

This is a problem for me- the boy snores LOUD and I have occasional insomnia and those nights are awful. I get maybe 2 hours of sleep, tops. And the boy falls asleep at the drop of a hat. I end up feeling resentment and my restlessness sometimes wakes him up, which annoys him of course. And it's not his fault, so I feel bad about feeling bad. And if I sneak out to the couch, he gets hurt. Plus I just really do hate sleeping without him. I could never give that up. Maybe I have adjusted to his snoring, since this hasn't happened in awhile. I hope that's the case, if not I'm going to try investing in some earplugs and benadryl.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001

I snore some. My husband snores like chainsaws. But yes, I have gotten used to it. So, some people can. My number one surefire method of going to sleep, if it is particularly bad or (worse yet) irregular is to count. Just count and count and count. Not sheep, not breaths, just counting.... I have once gotten past 800, a couple times past 600, but usually I've dropped off by 300 or so. I would suggest that you give it a couple weeks, maybe three if sleeping together is really important to you, and then if it is still driving you nutty, switch to separate rooms. If y'all don't at least *try out* the separate rooms, you will resent him for snoring and he will resent you for waking him up in attempts to stop him from snoring, and it will cause JUST as much dissension as the separate rooms will. At least based on my experience of couples with non-adjustable snoring problems.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001

I snore. I Hate it. I find it mortifying. To top it off, I'm a person who can fall asleep within 10 seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

Most of my longer term sleep partners have been able to get used to the snoring and we could sleep in the same bed. My current sleeping partner is an insomniac and has trouble sleeping even if I'm not there. She's gotten up and moved to the couch more often than not. I know it's irrational, but it hurts my feelings when she doesn't sleep with me. Sleeping with someone is one of my favorite things. It's very intimate, more intimate than even sex, sometimes.

She actually just recently sent me this article about an alternative to surgery for habitual snorers. It involves injecting something into your upper palate, which stiffens it, getting rid of the snoring.

http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/1728.80087

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2001

Before I met my husband, I would often spend half the night on the couch, and the other half in bed. Don't ask me why, but moving helped me sleep more soundly all night long.

He is snorer -- big time. When it bothers me (it doesn't always), I just sleep on the couch for part of the night. Since this is an old habit, it doesn't bother either of us.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2001

He snores and snores and snores. But I'm usually asleep way before he ever even thinks about the probability of the likelihood of the possibility of him maybe considering that, perhaps, he should go to bed. So the snoring tends not to bother me. Which is excellent, because I am a very snuggly kind of person, and often have a problem sleeping alone.

The big, big problem is that as soon as the alarm goes off in the morning, I am up like a shot. He can sleep through that awful, horrible, nails down a blackboard sound for an hour. For hours! He won't get up in the morning, and it kills me. It makes me cry. I punch him and pummel him and kick him, and he hits the snooze button, but it goes off again, and I'm up again, and he's snoring right through it. I don't know how he does it. It's horrible, and just miserable to live through.

Thank god I've been having to wake up earlier than him, lately. But I'll go shower, come back, and the alarm will have been going off for twenty minutes, and he never noticed a thing, and I get irrationally angry.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

Earplugs.

I don't like to sleep in a different room than my SO, so out of desperation I bought earplugs. I've tried a bunch of different kinds; they all work basically the same: great. I turn the alarm volume up all the way because he would sleep through bomb sirens anyway, and that way I can hear the alarm but not him.

Earplugs have saved my sleep, really.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001

You snorers may want to try making a sleep shirt. If you wear pj's to bed, try sewing some soft pompons (you can buy them in a sewing store, look for the pom pom trim in the notions section) onto the back of your pj top. They cause enough discomfort to cause a back sleeper to turn onto his or her side, but not enough to wake the person up. A college roommate's boyfriend told me he once stuffed two thumbs covered in peanut butter up his roommate's nose. I don't think it made any permanent changes but I think they were on rough terms for awhile.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001