Sleep Technology

My nights are an oddity. As far back in memory as I can go, my sleep habits haven’t been what others consider normal. When I was younger it was much more difficult. I had a record player by my bunk-bed. An old heavy thing. But then again, I’m old enough to not just remember 8 track tapes, but to have used them in my youth. I believe I was 5-7 yrs old and I would try to play a record, usually some Disney production, to keep myself company awake at night. I have memories of my mother yelling from her room, “it’s time to go to bed”.

Technology may advance, but as I got older my sleep issues never changed. My advancement in technology was a small transistor radio. It was small blue mono with a single hearing aid style ear insert, and I loved it. I developed a love of audio-theater, being drawn by CBS Radio Mystery Theater and voice styles of the classic radio news broadcasters. My sleep was close to impossible, without the soft voice that fades to white noise, as I finally drifted away.

Times do change and the transistor radio from the years before my teens, becomes a stereo radio, Sony Walkman. Needless for me, this stereophonic sound, having developed a taste for AM radio talk shows. Even young I understood the struggle people had with money and investing, and these subjects where my passion, I listened for them every night as I moved up and down the dial. I always hoped to find one just starting its broadcast, knowing it might be possible then to drift away

The developments in communications and broadcasting have moved like lightning. I’ve enjoy those leaps in technology as much as others, but still my personal advances in getting a better nights sleep, haven’t been so spectacular. Tapes, Cd’s, Internet, Mp3 players, Satellite Radio MP4 players, Wi-Fi, and now the Cloud for our use. A thing of wonder when properly considered.

My use of available technologies has moved ahead with the times, and my tastes for media has changed too over the year. I use the Internet to feed my passion of news forecasting and opinion on Economics, Investments, Banking, and Government policies, around the world. While at night I now drift and fade to Literary Classics in audio book form.

I may not get 7-8 hours of sleep a night, in fact I average between 3-4 hours, but my experience of my tossing and turning while others rest, has become a richer and fuller insomnia experience with technologies advancement. For counting sheep, warm milk, chamomile tea, Benadryl, (diphenhydramine) prescription sleeping pills, sounds of nature tapes white noise makers, and brandy at bedtime I have no thanks. But for those who’ve worked to enrich my experience of  insomnia and sleepless night with such bedtime (for me) technological wonders, I thank you all.