The reason I've ditched my earphones at night


Monday, August 26, 2013
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA

Accident convinces me to ditch my iPad
By Kelvin Wade
From page A7 | August 22, 2013 | 4 Comments

I’ve been an insomniac for years. I used to embrace my insomnia by putting on a pot of coffee at night and doing some of my best writing while the stars were out.

I wrote about having a sleep study a couple of months ago and one of the things the analyst told me is I have to stay off my iPad in bed. That hasn’t happened. But recently, my girlfriend Cathi stumbled upon a cure for my nightly iPad habit.

So there I was in the middle of the night in bed with earphones in listening to an awesome version of Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die” while pummeling various victims in “Words with Friends” on my iPad when I heard a boom. I turned on a lamp and saw my Beagle, Theo, panting at the bedroom door.

I thought he’d jumped against the door to get my attention. Lately, he’s had to go out a lot at night (a dog with the bladder of a mouse). I pulled out my earphones and that’s when I heard my girlfriend Cathi scream my name. That’s something one is never prepared to hear in the dead of night.

My iPad Mini (which I affectionately call “my baby”) went flying end over end onto the bed as I tossed back the covers and leapt from the bed, my heart pounding. Moving down the hallway, Theo wasn’t moving fast enough for me, blocking my path. Cathi was calling me from the bathroom.

I opened the door and she was on the floor, saying she’d fallen. She thought her foot was broken and she’d hit her head against the bathroom door, leaving a nice round crack in the door near the doorjamb. It was her head impacting the door that I’d heard and felt in bed.

She refused an ambulance, so I checked her out. She sat up and I helped her up. After getting her to bed with ice packs, I stayed up talking with her trying to convince her to go get checked out.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2010, 2.3 million people were treated for fall injuries with 662,000 people hospitalized. In fact, 1 in 3 people over 65 will fall this year. And of course, there’s no more hazardous room in a house than the bathroom. Falls account for 80 percent of bathroom injuries.

I convinced her to see a doctor. After X-rays of her foot and neck, it was confirmed that Cathi broke her foot. They booted her foot and put her on crutches (after she stubbornly refused a cast) and I’ve been taking care of her at least half as well as she does for me all the time.

She could’ve lain on the bathroom floor all night. Often I’ve fallen asleep with my earphones on. If Cathi hadn’t hit her head on the door of the bathroom, I wouldn’t have heard her. I didn’t hear her cries until I removed the earphones. Not only could I not hear her calling for help, but also I wouldn’t be able to hear an intruder.

So I won’t be wearing earphones at night anymore.

We’re looking into adding some grab bars into the bathroom and we’re going to get into the habit of carrying our cellphones with us. The line, “I’ve fallen . . . and I can’t get up!” from the 1989 LifeCall commercial has become a pop culture punch line, but it’s no joke to an aging population of baby boomers.

Now I have a more important reason to get rid of the electronics at night than just getting more sleep. Peace.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: Some thought by the title of the column that I've given up my iPad. Perish the thought. I just no longer listen to music at night with it because it cuts me off from the rest of the house. I can't hear if Cathi needs help. I can't hear if someone is breaking in. And I love my Beagle but he's not the watchdog he once was. When he's good and sleeping, he snores and you have to almost light a firecracker next to him to wake him up. But it's a scary thought that you can be in one room listening to music on earphones while a loved one is having a heart attack or needs some assistance in the next room and you can't hear them. Plus, I'm supposed to leave my electronics off at night. My sleep doctor says that will help me sleep. My "leader" at Weight Watchers says I need to forego the electronics in order to get a good night's sleep. I believe them.

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