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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand how people sleep with the window shut?

127 replies

DottyFlowers · 25/07/2012 22:59

Friend has just text to say her and dp have ha a massive row as he wants the window open and she doesn't as she's scared bugs or spiders will get into her mouth
.

I always sleep with mine open, even in winter and I took her DPs side and now I'm in the dog house too Hmm

If you sleep with your windows closed, how do you manage to sleep with no air con and no fan either?!

OP posts:
Freddiebump · 26/07/2012 18:01

I NEVER have the window open because I go into anaphylactic shock if I get stung by a wasp and I'm petrified of them coming in while I'm asleep! But I do have a fan on in the summer. I'm lucky as our bedrooms are downstairs so tend to stay relatively cool anyway, but, tbh, I couldn't really leave them open if I wanted as they are old original windows (1800's) and the openers are about 3ft square which wouldn't be very safe left open on the ground floor!

AhsataN · 26/07/2012 18:02

i used to live on a busy main road that had large lorries and trucks racing up and down day and night. i tried to sleep with the window open once and nearly fell out of bed from the shock when one roared past the window. i hated it also it would smell like a petrol garage with all the fumes coming in so window would get closed just before bed.

Sabriel · 26/07/2012 20:44

We had the window open last night - don't usually. Got woken up at 2am by the new tenants over the back and their booming bass Angry

GrimmaTheNome · 26/07/2012 20:50

I ventilate the room before bedtime if it's warm. I'm happy sleeping with a window open if it's really quiet outside but since having DD I'm over-sensitive to noise. Even with the windows closed, the dawn chorus earlier in the year could quite often wake me.

DH can't sleep with the window closed when its warm - simple solution is use two bedrooms so we both can sleep.

Olympicnmix · 26/07/2012 21:06

When married I used to have my bedroom window all year round, as I like being toasty warm under the duvet but fresh air in the room, even in the depths of winter. ExH had no issue wondering round starkers to investigate any suspicious sound. Now it's just me and the dcs I've discovered I'm a wimp, one of the kids toy bins fell off its runner in the middle of the night in the downstairs playroom and I was too scared to go and check it out! There is a sloping decorative roof just below dcs' window that even I could scale with a bunk up so I have the windows open in the day and early evening with fans circulating the air.

LurcioLovesFrankie · 26/07/2012 21:39

Two words: fucking seagulls.

Seriously, you haven't experienced a dawn chorus till you've lived somewhere with shitloads of seagulls, they are the devil's bird. (Though last night I slept with the window open and the fan going till about 4.00 am then got up to shut it - not that it makes that much difference, the fuckers are going through their annual phase of tap dancing on the sodding flat roof above my bedroom at 5.30 every morning).

Hanleyhigh · 26/07/2012 21:49

Always open, find it stuffy if closed.

PogoBob · 26/07/2012 22:39

we've got our bedroom window closed as it overlooks the stables and the horses we've got in at the moment are noisey buggers. Have got a fan going though.

AbyCat · 26/07/2012 23:00

YABU. We always sleep with the windows closed. Mind you, we live on a main road in London, right next to a busy railway line, and under the Heathrow flightpath. And the fecking kitten keeps escaping if we leave it open too much anyway.
I can't wait to move somewhere where we can have them open in a heatwave though. Fans just aren't doing it at the moment.

skyebluesapphire · 26/07/2012 23:22

I live in a bungalow so have to keep the windows closed. They can be left slightly open and locked but it's hardly worth it. No air gets in but all the noise does, including the noisy dogs across the way that bark all night...

It really annoys me as I grew up in the country and slept with curtains open and window open every night.

MissCoffeeNWine · 26/07/2012 23:30

Does noone live within earshot of a road?

The road is about 30ft from my bedroom window. It's not a busy road but that makes it worse - occasional noise wakes me more than constant background.

I couldn't sleep with the noise of cars going past 30 feet away from my head!

I thought most people lived nearish a road.

Denise34 · 26/07/2012 23:32

Moths only come in when you have the light on with the windows open.

mumeeee · 26/07/2012 23:38

I can't sleep with the window open. We live in a city and it's much too noisy. The windows are open during the day but we shut them when we go to bed.

perplexedpirate · 26/07/2012 23:41

Windows open here until it's brass monkeys.

HansieMom · 27/07/2012 00:26

Why don't you have screens on all the windows? If we did not have screened doors and windows, we could be visited by raccoons, possums, skunks, birds, bats and assorted insects and spiders. Oh, and stray cats, wandering dogs.........

Krumbum · 27/07/2012 01:07

I manage it because in winter it would be FREEZING! and why would I choose to make myself so cold I can't sleep and very uncomfortable?

CouthyMow · 27/07/2012 01:09

Window open. Even in the depths of winter. Even when I lived in the top end of Scotland, and even more so now that I am in the SE.

Hayfever? Do what I do - take your hayfever meds just before bed. Allergic to wasps? Insect netting.

I would MELT without my window open. I am sleeping with just a sheet over me, and the fan on, and the window open right now, and it's still not airy enough for me.

CouthyMow · 27/07/2012 01:12

Yes, I have a very busy road less than 5 ft from the front of my house. You get used to the traffic noise after a while, and after 8 years living down this street, I barely even register the ambulances as they go past. (main route from A12 to hospital). Now when I sleep at other people's houses, the LACK of traffic noise keeps me awake! When I moved here I thought I'd never get used to it...

kaumana · 27/07/2012 01:19

Forgot about the bloody dawn chorus by the seagulls.

SoggySummer · 27/07/2012 01:33

I like to be warm but like some fresh air. Even in winet the window is ajar but I am tucked uo snug and warm.

I always sleep with the windows open. Weirdly I have lived on several active air bases with planes coming and going and night time engine testing. None of these bother me much but its the sodding seagulls here that do it for me. 4am I have to get up and close the window - they are so noisy.

Krumbum · 27/07/2012 01:34

Do you have the heating on in winter? It is crazy to have heating and them let it all out the window.

redwhiteandblueeyedsusan · 27/07/2012 01:46

window closed due to noisy neighbours, being on the route home from town, screechingtyres when someone does not notice the junction in the dark (no sign/faded lines/shaddowed by overhanging trees) insects being attracted to the light we have on because children arre terrified of the dark. also putting the childen to bed in thin clothes ion the heat of evening and not wanting to be getting up in the middle of the night when it is freezing at four in the morning.

redwhiteandblueeyedsusan · 27/07/2012 01:47

oh and the police helicopter/sirens.

arghhhmiddleage · 27/07/2012 01:48

Window open before going to bed, to cool room. Window shut when in bed, to block out traffic noise and bloody birds in the morning. I don't want to be awake at 6 Grin

Anyone insisting on an open window in my bedroom would get propelled towards an open door.

perfumedlife · 27/07/2012 01:57

Window open, cool room and warm bed, lovely Smile I like to see the stars as I drift off to sleep then wake up to birdsong. DH has to have it closed and blinds down so we often start off in one bed and wake up in separate beds.