The comfort rain brings
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The weather has been so appalling here lately, with cold winds and rain and temperatures barely hitting the mid-teens, that us Queenslanders are finding it difficult to cope. Hubs in particular has NOT been impressed that we are living through winter again.
Having said this, I DO love it when it rains at night when we're all snuggled up in bed and drifting off to sleep. I always find I go to sleep much quicker when it rains. I think this stems from when I was growing up and I was always so paranoid about burglars. There was no good reason for this, other than me being a big scaredy-cat about... well... pretty much everything! But I knew that a burglar wouldn't be so stupid as to rob a house when it's raining, (how did I know this???) so I always slept soundly on those nights. The heavier the rain, the better.
These days it just brings a nice feeling of comfort. A feeling of home, wherever I am.
I find rain helps sleep because it's white noise. There's debates on why white noise helps you sleep, but it's definitely shown to work.
I've got a humming fan I run when I'm having trouble sleeping. If it's cold I point it so it's not blowing on me, but the noise still helps sleep. However nothing beats the comforting patter of rain.
My theory is it gives your brain something uninvolved and yet complex to process, so that you're not thinking about sleeping which is always counter productive. Our brains are really good at looking for patterns in things (even when they aren't there) so the constant yet chaotic noise gives your brain something to churn away at. Distracted by that, you don't frighten away the sandman when he comes to take you away to dreamland