The Bed

… I don’t like my bed, it’s not comfortable, I have not been able to fully rest for 25 years. I know that sounds far fetched, but it is the truth, or at least it is the way I see it and feel it.

“What is wrong with the bed?” You ask. Well, it gives me aches and pains, physical pains that are related and other pains that do not seem related. I have neck pain, shoulder pain, back pain, oh back pain! That is bad. I get indigestion and gout. I also attribute my toothache to the bed. “How is that related you ask?” Well, due to my discomfort in bed, I always get out of bed and comfort eat at the wrong time of the night, you know what? I will eat sweets, biscuits, chocolate etc and I just will be too tired to brush my teeth.

The bed gives me bad dreams, nightmares and daymares if you like. I wake up screaming in the middle of the night. I don’t think the bed is good for me. It might work for someone else. My friends and family (with only a few exceptions) think that I should keep the bed and manage it. They reckon that if I have had it for 25 years, it can’t be that bad. Moreover, nobody’s bed is perfect. They tell me. They tell me that ‘as you make your bed you lie on it’. They think I should go on the bed laying course and that it is possible that I don’t know how to put the bed together, they think my ailments are psychosomatic or self-inflicted and there is nothing wrong with the bed. “Why in God’s name would you get rid of a bed you’ve had for 25 years?” They ask. The bed does look reasonably good, I must admit, however, I just can’t rest on this bed I try to explain. “You’ve endured it for so long” they add “and you might as well see it through”. I don’t think so, I am telling them, my body needs rest, my muscles and bones are not the same anymore, I am not as young as I use to be, I can no longer tolerate what I use to tolerate, the body is different, the mind needs to settle. Some have even suggested changing the mattress, but it is more than the mattress, the whole bed does not work. “How come you ended up with such a bed?” I was asked. “I never tried it before buying” “You never what?” “Yes, I never did, it looked good and I didn’t know you are meant to try a bed before buying, I felt all beds guaranteed a good night’s sleep now and into the foreseeable future.

Fortuitously, I found myself in a one shop bed shop. Don’t ask how, but here I am in the bed shop. I got talking with the shopkeeper and he has offered me the supposedly perfect bed. He said he could tell by my posture what I had suffered in my current bed and what I need to correct all the pains I have been through and to have rested sleep for the rest of my life. I must admit the shopkeeper is giving a good talk, I couldn’t flaw him on the spin. I am however wary of spin, talk is cheap as they say. I asked if I could try out the bed in the store, and he willingly agreed, I tried the bed, and it felt good! I went one further and asked if I could take the bed home to try it and surprisingly he agreed I could try it out for 17 days (a weird number of days I must admit) and return it if I don’t like it. I am a few days into my 17 days trial and all is going well, I am rested and stabilised. I still have my old bed by the way. I have been wondering “Is 17 days sufficient to determine if a bed is right or not?” “Will some latent issues develop later?”

I guess it is my call, I have to step out in faith and make my decision. The fact remains that as I lay my bed I will lie on it.