Monday, June 2, 2008

I never realized how good the lowly boxspring really is.

Boxsprings are the ignored and unloved half of a bed. Everyone talks about how great their mattress is, how soft their sheets are, how cuddly their pillows. Let me tell you something (oh God, that made me sound like my grandmother...!) – your boxspring is the FOUNDATION OF YOUR SLEEP, and if you don't have one, you will yearn for the days that you did. Like me.

Since arriving in Britain 29 days ago, I have not slept on a normal bed. By normal, I mean having these critical and necessary components:
- bedframe
- boxspring
- mattress
- mattress cover (sometimes plush!)
- fitted sheet
- flat sheet
- blanket
- duvet OR comforter
- 2 firm pillows in pillowcases

Instead, Brits have these ridiculous beds that are platforms with a shitty mattress on top. The mattress is covered in a fitted sheet, and then there is a duvet. This duvet is all you get ... sometimes there is an extra afghan-type blanket, but not much more. And the pillows... the pillows are sacks of feathers. If you fold them three times, they might be supportive for a few hours, but you wake up and your head is barely lifted from the mattress.

I'm cool with the duvet... it makes making one's bed in the morning easy-peasy. However. My shoulders and back are really crying out for some support. I have a permanent pain under my right neck/shoulder blade assembly, and I constantly wake up over the course of the night. My biggest joy will be this weekend, when I go to the John Lewis department store and try out the pillows in the bedding department - I heard they have beds set up so customers can try out the different firmnesses of pillows and mattresses. I should probably take someone with me, because at the rate I'm going, I'll probably pass out when I find the right pillow for me.

Deep breath: 16 days until I move into my own apartment and have my own pillows and duvet and (hopefully!) a boxspring. It won't be a moment too soon, though; it's so bad, the best sleep I've had in three weeks was Saturday night on a PULL-OUT COUCH.

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