You'd never guess...

...that I'm a fairly cuddly person, would you? I mean, from hanging around me irl anyway. I'm pretty direct on here about physical touch being my primary love language, but in person I can be a bit standoff-ish. The list of people I'm comfortable physically interacting with is relatively small...for example, I don't want to hug everyone, but those people I do I'd love to hug all the time. 😊 I'm a (stupidly) private person, so when it comes to less platonic situations (ie. PDA), I tend to be more restrained, preferring privacy for much more than a quick kiss, holding hands or sitting together sans room for the Holy Spirit. 😁 You'll usually find me occupying a single occupant space, like a chair, love seat, on the floor or just plain standing. This is for one of three reasons - that geographic location is easier on my back, I don't want anyone in my bubble (I'm selective about who's welcome in my personal space), or I don't want to inadvertently invade someone else's bubble. 

I've joked treating someone as your pillow is one of the highest compliments you can bestow on another human and while it was said in jest, to me it's very true. It takes trust and a level of comfort to lean into, snuggle up or lay your head on another person. It's a vulnerable expression of well-being, that you're relaxed enough around them to share your space, sort to speak, and it's a means to build a connection in a very literal way. 

Speaking of pillows - downsizing from a queen to a twin bed means there was a decided decrease in surface space, forcing me to limit my pillow game. I hadn't been sleeping well since I switched things up, partially due to getting used to a new mattress and a squeaky & slightly wobbly bedframe (I need to find a way to reinforce it to make it more stable). I tend to move around a fair bit during the night, rolling over from one side to the other. This caused me to wake up between 5-8 times a night (that I remember), though thankfully I'm able to fall back asleep very quickly. Since I'm already fairly sleep deprived due to late nights and early mornings, losing any more during the night is frustrating to say the least. And when I am able to sleep in (most Saturdays), I then have to contend with an unhappy lower back and hips. I'm a side and stomach sleeper, and lack of support or movement for that many hours causes stiffness and mild discomfort once I get up. 

Because of this, I started looking for ways to stay asleep through the night, while also not ticking off my back. Among other things, I tried a weighted blanket* and then ran across a PopSugar article about the Yana "full-body support" pillow (not a pregnancy pillow *cough*). This $199 pillow is a giant U shape, which provides the sleeper support on both sides of their body and helps promote proper alignment of their hips and neck. Since I would never spend $200 on a pillow, I did some research and found a similar pillow on Amazon for $49 and decided to give it a try. While it somewhat worked, it also posed some issues: 

• It displaced the one body pillow I already used.
• The neck portion was thick enough that my neck felt a bit askew.
• While it came with a very nice U shaped pillow cover, being an unusual shape prevented me from changing the case as often as I'd like. Right now, I change pillowcases at least twice a week. 

Even though the not-a-pregnancy-pillow did keep me from tossing and turning as much, after sleeping with it a couple nights, I decided it was too cumbersome and returned it. But since it had helped with my initial problem - waking up multiple times a night - I decided to run with the concept in a more practical manner. I subsequently purchases a second (normal) body pillow (and pillowcase), making my bed more sleep friendly, as well as ridiculous looking. When I climb in, I'm sandwiched between two body pillows, not leaving an iota of extra space. It's rather crowded, yet cozy...I fit into that indented space in the middle of the bed (see right). 😆 Not pictured are my lovely bookshelves, which are on the opposite wall (behind the picture taker - me!). 

So far it's working out pretty well. I've only been waking up 2-3 times a night (a couple nights only once!) and it offers enough support to keep my back and hips aligned. It seems to have some of the benefits of a weighted blanket too, providing a surrounded feeling of comfort. I've also started doing some low key yoga stretches most evenings and that seems to be helping with some of the back issues as well.

If you have trouble sleeping because of restlessness, anxiety or preferred sleep position, I would recommend giving body pillow(s) a try. 

~ Katie Q. 🐧

* I bought one that was too heavy, which was my bad. The reason it didn't work was it weighted me down too much, which meant the amount of effort I had to exert in order to roll over woke me up to a greater extent than without it. I couldn't just roll over, I had to *heft blanket* roll over.