There was a time when I was able to sleep in until noon. My husband once asked me how in the world I was able to do it. Easy. You just roll over. If I woke up at 8 am on a Saturday somewhere in the distant past, I would roll over until I wanted to get up. I try doing that on vacation these days and it just does’t work. I try sleeping in while NOT on vacation, but usually my husband calls me out on it. Or he turns on the light and announces the time. Better than the use of a cold, wet wash rag to the face.

I cry a little when I think about all the sleeping in I used to do. Just a little because I always have high hopes that while on vacation, I will make up for all that lost sleep in.

Alas, you can’t have it all. And it seems that there are a three things that have completely ruined my from sleeping in. What’s next? Becoming a morning person?

First – My amazing bed. You know that Heavenly Bed that the Westin always rave about?

We somehow managed to purchase one after I gave birth to our son. I’m not sure if it was an exact replica of the Westin bed or if it was the mattress the W uses because we purchased it from a guy who operates out of a storage unit. Totally legit deal despite the odd retail location.  Smart, really.  Low overhead and all.
The thing about those heavenly beds is that I never really believed the hotel. I always thought it was some sort of advertising scheme. I couldn’t tell the difference the few times I slept in one. It didn’t feel heavenly. I didn’t wake up and feel like I could conquer the world. I mostly felt a little disappointed. Like I had been promised a heavenly sleep experience and had instead received an earthly sleep experience. But then again, I wasn’t exactly spending the majority of my time traveling and therefore, sleeping in heavenly beds every night. I was spending the majority of my time sleeping on my sensible and firm tempurpedic.
But now we own a version of a heavenly bed and I sleep on it all the time. I can see what the hotel means. It’s soft, but not too soft. You sink into it without bouncing around. And it has completely ruined me. I can’t camp. You know, because I was such a big camper prior to that mattress. I can’t sleep in the fabulous cabin we rented in Wimberley, Texas because the bed is firmer and not very heavenly. I was not only up at my normal time, I didn’t sleep entirely through the night. I shake my fist at you heavenly bed.

Second – Kids. This is, of course, obvious. Kids have a completely different internal clock. I’m not even talking about the sleeplessness that happens in the first year (sometimes longer) of your child’s life. It’s the every day internal clock. Even if your little one sleeps until 8 or 8:30 (please don’t rub it in if they do), 8:30 is still a far cry from noon. A very far cry. And good luck trying to put them to bed at a later time, they don’t actually wake up later as logic would dictate. Sometimes they even wake up earlier because they are so overtired. But it’s not the kids themselves that have ruined my sleeping in abilities of old, but rather that my body has gotten used to waking up. So while on vacation sans kids, despite my attempts to roll over and missing my heavenly bed, at 7:30 my body said get up. I tried. I honestly tried to sleep more, but it just wasn’t happening. So I got up. Sigh. At least there’s coffee to be had now.

Third – The presence of light. Some people can sleep with the light on – my daughter, and others cannot – me. I used to make this huge mistake when I would get up in the middle of the night. I would often check to see what time it was. I was trying to gauge exactly how much time I would have to sleep if I rolled over. But inevitably something always happened after I stared at the blinding phone light. I was more awake. More awake at 3 or 4 am is just not pleasant. When I finally connected the dots and realized that staring at a light in the wee hours of the morning was ruining my sleep, I stopped checking the time. Does it matter if it’s 3 or 4? No! What matters is that I squeeze in as much sleep as possible before someone wakes up and needs something.
But I can’t control the sun. It rises when it wants to and no matter how hard I try, I can’t shut it out completely. Unless I have black out curtains. Which truth be told, I can’t have black out curtains because I would probably never wake up and would become depressed from the lack of vitamin d. But if a vacation spot doesn’t have blackout curtains then I might as well forget sleeping in. I guess I’ll have to actually enjoy the scenery or something.

What ruins your opportunities to sleep in?