By If you happen to be one of the unfortunate souls that watch my Instagram story, you know I’ve been sick the past few days. Well, in reality I’ve been feeling something coming since before Dopey. I managed to fight off the worst of it until after all my races but it was inevitable that I would get sick.
All said and done, this was pretty much a glorified cold but it was enough to knock me on my ass. I started really feeling it all on Thursday and by Saturday I was a walking zombie. I survived about 4 hours at work Saturday afternoon before I was begging to be cut.
I’m a big proponent of listening to your body and that’s exactly what I’ve done.
I’ve been working hard on diet and exercise the past few weeks but that has all had to go to the backburner over the last few days. On Thursday I tried to tough it out and managed to do a 30 minute Yoga session but that was a struggle. Waking up on Friday I knew the best thing for me was to rest until it was time to go to work. I needed the energy to survive the shift.
By time Saturday afternoon rolled around it because abundantly clear that what I needed was to sleep. Sleep I did. For 19 hours.
Even I was impressed.
It was in that 19 hours that I noticed something interesting about my habits as a sick person.
I prefer to sleep on the couch when I’m sick.
Beginning Thursday night sometime around 2am I left the comfort of my queen size bed and headed to the couch in the living room. This is where I have taken up residence for the last few nights.
I’ve since realized that whenever I am sick I seem to do this, preferring the cramped couch to the spacious bed.
I took to the internet to see if I could find any reason for this and Google was surprisingly lacking. It does seem that a lot of people tend to take to the couch when they are sick. Some gave the reason that they are closer to the kitchen and have control of the TV.
I took to Facebook for some answers and my friends had some pretty interesting insight to the situation.
One theory that made sense came from a former classmate, Priscilla. When she was a kid her mom used to set up a bed on the couch when she was sick. While she was out of her room her mom would open the window to “air out the germs” and change the bed sheets. When she was feeling better she would return to her room.
This was similar to my childhood. I remember when either my older sister and I were sick, my mom would set up the sofa bed and we would take residence there, keeping each other company with Disney movies and ice cream.
So perhaps it’s just habit? Something engrained in me since childhood? The sad part is, there’s no one here to change my sheets for me. While the cats have been amazing cuddle buddies, they aren’t well trained enough to make a bed.
I’ll need to work on that.
The more scientific explanation came from Nina and it’s one I can totally get behind. Her theory goes back to our more primitive days. She suggests that this behavior stems from a biological need not to infect our regular habitat and therefore infect the rest of our pack.
How interesting is that?
The question of why I prefer to sleep on the couch when I’m sick can possible be answered by looking WAY back to the days of the cavemen!
Ok, I may be the only person in the world that finds that interesting but I’ve been held up in my house for the last two days with very little human interaction.
The real MVPs of this past few days have been the cats who have supplied endless cuddles and have put up with my whining at them. I suppose their tolerance will wear off soon as they are almost out of food and if I don’t venture out into the world we may all starve to death. Well, I’ll die first and they’ll just eat my remains.
Circle of life really.
Avoiding Neverland 