White Noise, White Light

White Noise

When the low temperature at night is no lower than the 70s, I'm most certainly using an air conditioner & fan combo to keep cool and be able to sleep through morning.  My apartment is on the fourth floor, and collects much of the heat from the bottom three.  This situation is nice during the winters, when I only even open my radiators for the most frigid days, but more problematic during the muggier months.

A helpful side-effect of an AC in a small bedroom coupled with a fan at the head of the bed is all the white noise being generated.  That with the coolness greatly eases sleeping.  In early July last summer, I actually slept through a fire alarm and I completely didn't hear (perhaps with white noise, there can be too much of a good thing).  Only the next morning I found out about the minor basement apartment apartment fire when I walked out for work and saw some traumatized residents sitting on an ambulance's bumper.  If a fireman knocked on my door during the building evacuation, I slept through that, too.

White Light

Although I failed to hear any alarm over the sounds of the fan and air conditioner, I was awoken briefly that morning (4am or so) by the emergency response vehicles' flashing lights.  I recall that they seemed more yellow than red and having the annoyed thought that it was too early for the road construction crews to start working.  Then I just rolled over, put the extra pillow over my eyes, and seconds was sleeping again.

View from bed at 6:03am, July 1st, 2014

In my bedroom, sound is muffled but light is not.  Sunrise was at 5:10am today, and the blinds on my south-facing window are poor enough that the morning's rays woke me up at 5:36am and approximately this time every morning during the summer months, a good half-hour before the alarm I set.  Although I do have heavy curtains which do block-out the sun, unfortunately they also block my window air conditioner unit.  I'd much rather face the light than lack air conditioning.  Although it's possible to Macgyver to solution to my too-long curtains using an elaborate series of clothespins, I have to admit I increasingly enjoy my natural, sun-light alarm, being greeted by the dawn each day.