Do you sleep with the window open or closed? A simple enough question. But, I wonder, are the answers we all have quite so simple and straightforward. I ask this because of Francis Garrood's extremely funny story about.....well you can find out C is For Cockchafer.
For my part at home in the Hebrides or in New Zealand I sleep with the windows closed. But why? Well in the Hebrides in the winter it would be a rather foolhardy thing to do for rather obvious reasons of wind and rain but in the summer the reason is less obvious: midges!
So why close the windows in New Zealand?
Before I answer that I should say that I have slept in the open air in a bivy bag in the Australian outback for a couple of weeks with all sorts of scorpions and snakes and so on and not had the slightest qualms. I stayed at a friend's house last year and slept in a studio with the doors wide open all night (but the worst thing I was likely to be attached by was a mozzie).
At home (in NZ), though, when I first came to live in The Cottage I never closed the curtains (pointless as no one can even see The Cottage never mind me in bed) and sometimes if it was hot instead of putting the air-con on I just kept my bedroom ranch slider open. I have no insect screens. There may be few things likely to bite me but I'm still not too keen on the non-bitey things and one day in the middle of the night as I reached for my glass of water I realised that I wasn't the only creature requiring it. The other one was, however, dead. I realised just how close I had come to drinking a dead thingy.
I read that we consume on average 8 spiders a year in our sleep. I assume that's actually nonsense but it's the thought that counts. In fact interestingly allowing more insects in our processed food might be more healthy. Another post?
And then there are animals!
Bear in mind that for me noise is not a factor in either place I live.
So now I keep my windows closed here too.
How about you?
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