Uncomfortable festive sleeping arrangements

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I thought I would make a support thread for those of us suffering from uncomfortable sleeping arrangements during the festive period. I’ll begin.

Staying at my sisters for two nights and as the youngest (34…) I’ve been designated the inflatable air mattress. I finally got to sleep about midnight. I was awoken around 2am to discover the bed had deflated by around 50%. Luckily it’s a plug in model (fancy!) so I reinflated myself. Unfortunately the same happened again at 4am and 6am.

I’m also 10 weeks pregnant so can’t even drink copious amounts of coffee to keep myself awake today.

The cherry on the cake is DP is having Christmas with his family and is currently fast asleep in a plump king sized bed. Oh how I wish I’d accepted the invitation!

As the single one I’ve done it all - sofa, blowup, cushions on the floor etc. I feel for you all.

I would have never let anyone pregnant not have a bed

The worst night I ever had was sleeping on the floor with no cushions or anything - I can't now remember why there were no cushions, it was a friend's house and I think they'd recently moved in. Having said that I was about 25 so didn't have all the routine aches and pains that I now have in middle age, so it was uncomfortable at the time but didn't follow me round in the day.

When I was a kid & we had adult guests, the done thing was for us to give them our rooms & we’d sleep on sofas or floors.

Now the done thing seems to be for kids to keep their rooms & adult guests (especially if single @Sisterpita!) to sleep on sofas etc.

When did it change?

I wouldn't turf my kids out of their beds for Christmas eve. They need to wake up with their stockings!

I did sometimes other times of year but now if people want to stay it is literally the sofa.

I am pondering what will happen when my kids grow up. Smaller and smaller houses - maybe we will stay in a Premier Inn nearby.

@EmpressaurusOfCats I don't think some folk ever thought it appropriate to turf kids out of their beds tbh, plus all those extra sheeg changes. Most adults can manage a couple of nights on a sofa/pull out/air bed if need be.

I was offered the inflatable mattress in the living room so I booked into a hotel instead. 😂

When I was a kid & we had adult guests, the done thing was for us to give them our rooms & we’d sleep on sofas or floors

We often had to top and tail to free up a bed.

When we visited my grandparents, my uncle had to sleep in the bath. He’s 6’6”.

Came on here to say this too!

@SausageCasseroles surely the stockings are hung by the chimney (with care, or otherwise).

Reminds me of my bil showing us our accommodation a few years ago (clacky sofa bed for us to share) with the words 'welcome to Guantanamo' 🤣🤣

I just don't go if I can't have a bed. One year I (52 year old with menopausal sleeping issues) was offered a very short sofa, while my nephews of 10 and 12 were to have a bedroom each, rather than one of them go on an airbed and share a room. As PP said, not sure when this changed around that children were prioritised. My brother framed it as 'they are people too, why do you get first choice of a bed'. It wasn't even his or their house.

Dear god.. can you afford to book yourself in somewhere??

Does she know you’re pregnant?! If she does that’s appalling

Oh, sympathies to you all!

One of the advantages of being a Very Old Bag who doesn’t sleep well anyway, is that I can say I absolutely can’t share anything less than a proper king size bed with dh, so if that’s not possible (or two proper-bed singles) it’ll be the good old Premier Inn. Or if that (or equivalent) isn’t available, , we are so sorry that we’ll be unable to go. 🙂

Could afford the £££ but not the hurt feelings it would cause.

I used to have to sleep on the sofa when visiting my parents. I refused after 2 of their 3 dogs woke me up..(dog #1 woke me up at 4am because he was snoring and dog #2 jumped on the sofa, climbed on me and stared at me until I woke up and shifted her off)

I now sleep in what was my old room. So cramped though! But at least I have a proper bed

We just book a Premier Inn or airbnb instead of staying with people.

DH uses a CPAP machine, so no-one is offended when we say we prefer to stay elsewhere.

Do hosts really get offended if you don't want to sleep in their house? I wouldn't stay at my in-laws' because they don't have a comfortable, private place to sleep, so we go to a Premier Inn a few minutes' drive away. I thought I was doing them a favour by not being there overnight.

No-one I know would be TBH. You can frame it as not imposing.

To defend the OPs sister slightly, at 10 weeks there is no bump to worry about and it sounds like it’s quite a ‘nice’ airbed- the full height ones are very comfortable when they don’t deflate!

Hopefully if you mention your bad night’s sleep OP then someone will offer to swap with you for tonight!

You are.
You'd have to lack a total inability to place yourself in someone else's shoes not to realise that staying in someone else's house who is not a really close relative (you are not, no matter how fond you might be of them) is a pain in the ass.

Can't break wind freely, worries about being noisy, too hot etc.
I sometimes stay overnight with my mother and I can be myself with her but it's still awkward with heating etc.

Christmas is about discomfort for some people, though. 🙄

Your in-laws are probably glad.

For decades I slept on a broken pull out bed at my in laws. They refused to replace it as it had been ‘expensive’. Literally the most uncomfortable thing and you had to wait for them to go to bed as we slept in the living room. I actually am annoyed at myself for putting up with it. If we had stayed in a hotel there would have been no end of drama.
My BIL has tried to get us to stay at theirs but he offers the floor, just the wooden floor,
with no bedding. He thinks this is fine whilst he toddles off to his king sized bed.

Currently staying at SIL’s and have had the best sleep at hers ever. We and took THE best airbed with us. It is the height of a normal bed and has a backup pump which kicks in if the air pressure drops. I have had it a good five years for guests but never used it ourselves.

Previous years have dreaded staying over at her’s as her spare bed has a memory foam mattress which left us with bad backs.