The Case for Sleeping With Stuffed Animals as an Adult | Wirecutter

I have always envied people who can slip right into sleep. Bedtime is rarely so calm for me: Just when I wish I could drift off, I find myself up against looping, anxious thoughts. Counting sheep is no match for my mind s nightly churn but cuddling one is.

I rediscovered the habit of sleeping with stuffed animals in the terrifying early days of the pandemic, when I grabbed a polar bear from my childhood bedroom to ward off the onslaught of bad news and fear. I had never been particularly attached to him as a kid he may actually have been my brother s but he was the perfect size to hold in my anxious adult arms.

Although I can t be sure how common this is, I m probably not alone: In a 2017 survey of US adults commissioned by Build-A-Bear (so, yes, possibly biased), 40% of respondents who own, or once owned, a stuffed animal said they still slept with one. But before writing this article, I couldn t name a single other grown-up who shared this part of my bedtime routine. Maybe that s because I was too reticent to divulge it: Talking with friends and coworkers about mattress toppers or humidifiers is easier than discussing the childlike whimsy of a stuffed polar bear.

Once I asked them, however, I was flooded by enthusiastic responses and tender insights into people s stuffed seals, amoebas, pickles, and hedgehogs (even robots). For my part, since rediscovering that polar bear, I ve settled into rotating a cast of salvaged childhood favorites and a lightly weighted, heatable Warmies cow I bought for myself

via www.nytimes.com

Oooookay.