Is this a medical condition.

wbjones wrote: I've had that problem most of my life ... some how I've made it this far without crashing ....

I'll never forget the time I woke up on an on-ramp in the middle of a severe lift-throttle oversteer event, when I was about 19.

Ashyukun wrote: If you have a smartphone, they also make apps that use the accelerometers to monitor sleep cycles and wake you up between them. I'd be using one were it not for the fact that the dog's moving around would likely set it off (which is also why I haven't slept as well since moving in with the GF...). I'm actually doing an at-home sleep study next week since the GF noticed that I seemed to stop breathing at one point... will be interesting to see what comes of it (assuming the dog doesn't try and eat the monitoring gear... )

My dogs will never be allowed to sleep in my bed with me. If my future wife wants to let the dog sleep in the same bed, that is fine--but I'll be in the room next door in a king bed. All to myself. They'll have to make due with a twin. Maybe a full. But probably a twin, just to reinforce how ridiculous it is, especially when I've seen Ralph fall asleep on the stairs, on a pile of gravel, a pile of dirty clothes, etc.

mtn wrote: My dogs will never be allowed to sleep in my bed with me. If my future wife wants to let the dog sleep in the same bed, that is fine--but I'll be in the room next door in a king bed. All to myself. They'll have to make due with a twin. Maybe a full. But probably a twin, just to reinforce how ridiculous it is, especially when I've seen Ralph fall asleep on the stairs, on a pile of gravel, a pile of dirty clothes, etc.

Oh, believe me- I'm not particularly thrilled about the situation. I tried my damndest when I first moved in to get her to make the dog sleep on the floor in a dog bed we got for him, but he's grown up sleeping in the bed with her and honestly SHE'S probably more attached to the situation than he is. Were this a small dog I'd likely not have too many issues- my cats have always slept at the bottom of my bed, but the heaviest of them is 12 lbs. The dog is 80 lbs, takes up a berking lot of space, and has never been too happy with my now sleeping in HIS side of the bed and him being relegated (in theory) to the bottom of the bed under the GF's feet (since she's much shorter than I am).

The FIRST thing we will be doing when we move into a new house is going to be to buy a king sized bed to sleep on. The bedroom where we are now just can't comfortably hold a bed that big, but that should help a good bit in how cramped things are, and hopefully I can find one (perhaps memory foam) that will absorb his movements enough that it won't wake me up.

Ashyukun wrote: The FIRST thing we will be doing when we move into a new house is going to be to buy a king sized bed to sleep on. The bedroom where we are now just can't comfortably hold a bed that big, but that should help a good bit in how cramped things are...

The thing about dogs, though, is that no matter how much room they have, they still sleep right up against you. It's a pack thing, I think. I would suggest, when you move into the new house with the new bed, establish new habits with the dog (and the girlfriend): no dog on the new bed.

We've just had a mattress on the floor for about forever now, and now with three dogs ranging from 45-80 lbs., that's getting old. They're all fine in their places on the floor until we're thoroughly asleep, then they creep onto the bed without waking us, and we won't notice them until they're fast asleep and flopping all over us. When we finally grow up and get a real bed, that behavior will cease.

Hard fast rule in my bedroom: NO critters or kids in the bed with me. I'll sleep on the damn couch first.

Sleep depends on you sticking to a fairly rigid rhythm, when you drift off you will go in and out of deep sleep several times a night but you never really wake up. That's important.

If there's a dog kid whatever in there with you then their movements will screw up the rhythm because you keep 'almost' waking up, meaning you don't get into the deep sleep cycles you need. So this means you've been laying in the bed all night for 7-8 hours but not really sleeping. Believe me, I learned this the hard way when my daughter was around 2 years old.

You can do this once or twice and be OK but then you begin to build a 'sleep deficit' and that's when the daytime problems start. Put your foot down, no critters in the bed.

If you have a severe case of sleep apnea your SO will likely let you know w/ an elbow to your ribs and say 'you just scared the E36 M3 outta me' when you quit breathing and gasped for air. (happened to me w/ two GFs)

My doc was apprehensive about sending me to a sleep clinic because sleep apnea was just being recognized. At an overnight sleep study I woke up 72 times in an hour... no wonder I was a walking zombie and I fell asleep twice behind the wheel.

They put me on a BIPAP machine and I sleep much, much better. I was almost off the sleep machine when I lost over 60 lbs., so weight is a factor too. Since I turned 50 I still need a good 8 hrs. of sleep/ night. Don't neglect your sleep.

Also, you may not have apnea but other types of sleep disorders. If you have any doubts consult your doctor and do a sleep study.

I have a hard time getting to sleep without my cats. Since I spend so much time in hotels, I wish you could check out a cat at the front desk.

I'd go to a hotel like that...

I used to have a hard time staying awake behind the wheel. Dozed off once and took out a row of bobs barricades. That solved it.

Curmudgeon wrote: Hard fast rule in my bedroom: NO critters or kids in the bed with me. I'll sleep on the damn couch first. Sleep depends on you sticking to a fairly rigid rhythm, when you drift off you will go in and out of deep sleep several times a night but you never really wake up. That's important. If there's a dog kid whatever in there with you then their movements will screw up the rhythm because you keep 'almost' waking up, meaning you don't get into the deep sleep cycles you need. So this means you've been laying in the bed all night for 7-8 hours but not really sleeping. Believe me, I learned this the hard way when my daughter was around 2 years old. You can do this once or twice and be OK but then you begin to build a 'sleep deficit' and that's when the daytime problems start. Put your foot down, no critters in the bed.

Believe me, I know all about sleep cycles and their importance... but it's far easier said than done to convince the GF that the dog needs to not be on the bed. Frankly I have no idea if it came down to making an ultimatum that he needed to sleep elsewhere or I would which she'd choose- but I also know that my choosing to sleep elsewhere would NOT go over well either.

I just did a home sleep study last night that I had HOPED would also be measuring sleep cycles so I'd have some hard data regarding sleep cycles that I could point to as it being an issue, but unfortunately it seems that the equipment only really recorded information to check for snoring & apnea and not whether you were awake or asleep or anything relating to sleep cycles- that would require doing a study there in the office where the dog wouldn't be present. I should really work out a way to use one of the tracking apps on my phone again to see what I can find out that way...

Lesley wrote: I have a hard time getting to sleep without my cats. Since I spend so much time in hotels, I wish you could check out a cat at the front desk.

I don't know if they still do it, but the St. James hotel in Red Wing, MN used to have a resident cat that you could bring to your room.

Ashyukun wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: Hard fast rule in my bedroom: NO critters or kids in the bed with me. I'll sleep on the damn couch first. Sleep depends on you sticking to a fairly rigid rhythm, when you drift off you will go in and out of deep sleep several times a night but you never really wake up. That's important. If there's a dog kid whatever in there with you then their movements will screw up the rhythm because you keep 'almost' waking up, meaning you don't get into the deep sleep cycles you need. So this means you've been laying in the bed all night for 7-8 hours but not really sleeping. Believe me, I learned this the hard way when my daughter was around 2 years old. You can do this once or twice and be OK but then you begin to build a 'sleep deficit' and that's when the daytime problems start. Put your foot down, no critters in the bed.

Believe me, I know all about sleep cycles and their importance... but it's far easier said than done to convince the GF that the dog needs to not be on the bed. Frankly I have no idea if it came down to making an ultimatum that he needed to sleep elsewhere or I would which she'd choose- but I also know that my choosing to sleep elsewhere would NOT go over well either. I just did a home sleep study last night that I had HOPED would also be measuring sleep cycles so I'd have some hard data regarding sleep cycles that I could point to as it being an issue, but unfortunately it seems that the equipment only really recorded information to check for snoring & apnea and not whether you were awake or asleep or anything relating to sleep cycles- that would require doing a study there in the office where the dog wouldn't be present. I should really work out a way to use one of the tracking apps on my phone again to see what I can find out that way...

How is it even an argument, when it is one of the top 3 things that you have control over that will affect your long term health?

Can you fit another twin bed in your room? Seriously, a king sized bed is less than twice as wide as a twin bed. That means that two people would have more room on two twin XL beds than they do on a king bed. You mentioned earlier that you don't currently have a king. Did you realize that the two of you, without the dog, have less space than you did on a twin?

EDIT: Picture won't link, so here is the link to it. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/USMattressSizes.svg

Lesley wrote: I have a hard time getting to sleep without my cats. Since I spend so much time in hotels, I wish you could check out a cat at the front desk.

I bet Japan has something like that.