Two unusual things happened today. The first is that when I woke up I realized I had had a good night’s sleep, and the second is that I suddenly got a lot more followers on Twitter. I don’t think those two things are related.

The Twitter Followers

The reason I got new followers surprised me. Someone had asked people who support the resistance to the Trump administration and who live outside the U.S. to indicate where they live. All I did was reply-Tweet with my location. That was enough for me to get more likes and follows in one day than I have ever had. My follower numbers went from about 60 to over 100!

That may not seem like much to those of you who have a gazillion followers, but for a brief moment there I felt kind of special. Until today my only followers were family, friends, acquaintances, and a few journalists and politicos who follow everyone who follows them.

This led me to ask my younger son if there was some protocol to all this that I should know about. I wondered if I was obligated to follow everyone who follows me; he assured me that is not necessary.

I also wondered about tweets that include emojis in between the words because I wasn’t sure if they were a kind of visual language that I had failed to learn. It turns out that they are usually just expressions of interest or affiliation in relation to the message or the sender. The message I was wondering about included emojis of flowers, animals, and hearts, so clearly the symbols had more to do with the tweeter than me!

As an aside, my son asked me not to do this. Apparently, it is really annoying to people who use text-to-speech because they hear the word associated with the emoji, and it makes the sentence gibberish. Word to the wise.

The Good Night’s Sleep

The reason I had a good night’s sleep is, however, much more interesting than the Tweet follower tsunami. It has to do with a very heavy blanket.

Before I left California last week I made an impulse buy. I read one of those magazine articles that is really an advertisement but is disguised to look like consumer research. Even knowing, this, I fell for it and clicked the link to the Amazon page selling a weighted blanket because it promised to solve insomnia. It arrived shortly before I left so I didn’t even unpack it. I just brought it with me.

Three nights ago, I put it on my bed to try it out. The first night, I have to admit, was not a huge success. I found the added weight too different from my usual duvet, and every time I tried to turn over or pull the covers up I felt so much resistance that I woke up. Nevertheless, I persisted. It seems that what I experienced as a problem was actually the best thing about it. I couldn’t toss and turn so much.

The second night I slept better than the first, and the third night was the best night’s sleep I have had in a long time. I didn’t try fighting the blanket, and that in itself was enough to keep me sleeping more soundly. Surprisingly, when I briefly woke as usual at 3:00 AM, I found I was sleeping on my back; that is something I never do. When I woke again in the morning I was once again on my back even though I started out on my side.

It is probably too soon to recommend the weighted blanket to all of you who have insomnia, but so far it is looking very promising. I will try to remember to give you an update after a few weeks and with any luck, my memory will be better by then because I will have been sleeping soundly. And, by then I may have increased my Twitter follower numbers to rival the Twitterer-in-chief. You never know.