NOISE INDUCED SLEEP

I’ve been trying to remember when I first started sleeping with the aid of some sort of constant humming sound; I believe it started when we lived in our first little house after we moved back to Nashville in the mid-sixties. We had purchased a humidifier and set it in the hall just outside our bedroom and since that time I have been dependent on some sort of a noise machine to get a good night’s sleep.

When we moved to the “big house” where we lived for 23 years we took the humidifier with us, but somewhere along the way I acquired what was billed as a “clean air machine” to help me sleep. That trusty little number lasted until we moved into this house but broke one day when I fell on it in an effort to answer a phone call (a salesperson, wouldn’t you know it!). Not only did it stop working, I also had a huge bruise on my leg.

But by then, I had a back up – a bonafide sleep machine that I bought at Brookstone. This little device even runs on batteries, a ploy I have used several times when the electricity has gone off, or when the plugs didn’t match (in Europe, for instance). Since 9/11 I have been asked about it several times going through security at airports.

This little "addiction" of mine has been passed on down to the next two generations. All of my children as well as several of the grandchildren use the same type of machines or fans to sleep by.

I brought all this up because I left mine in Brenda’s car yesterday after a weekend at a lake with the family. I nearly panicked last night when I realized it, but then I remembered the two little fans that I keep on hand especially for Ashley and her family when they visit.

The day (or night) was saved!!