Do you sleep alone or with a partner? Remember—this includes pets, and pillows!

I sleep with three other beings: my husband and my two cats. Yes, four of us share a king-sized bed with three pillows.

Please, somebody make a bed bigger than a king!

Sleeping alone lets a person move and position the body at will. There’s always room to toss, turn or stay still.

Sleeping with bedtime partners usually means you’re sharing space. Believe me, space is premium with kitties: the space right next to you, the space between humans; under the covers, on top of you—I experience it all. My human partner pretty much keeps to his own space—he is a very light sleeper. Even the sound of the cats purring can bother him. He’s prone to insomnia, too. He’s the one who uses the extra pillow—when our boy-cat isn’t already using it.

With his own sleep issues, it’s no wonder that is it my husband who alerted me to my sleep apnea. Totally freaked him out that I stop breathing during sleep.

I’m just lucky the sound of the CPAP machine doesn’t keep him awake. The kitties—they’re O.K. with it, too.

How do these circumstances affect the quality of my sleep? I need to be forceful sometimes with the cats. Their little bodies can constrict my space so much that I have trouble moving freely.

At first, I didn’t want to disturb them, so I’d contort in all these crazy ways to avoid it. Now, I make the kitties move out of the way of my restful sleep.

That’s working out pretty well, actually.

Janet Muniz

Photo Credit: soundfromwayout