Painful Alternative for Sleep

Having spent last night trying to sleep on a chair next to the hospital bed of a friend who had surgery, I reflected back to my days/nights running a shelter when our overflow crowd was offered the option of sleeping in the dining room.

We couldn't let folks sleep on the floor for many reasons. So we offered tables/chairs as an option, with pillows and blankets if we still had them available.

Now, being inside is certainly better than being outside, especially in the worst of IL weather. But after trying to sleep last night on a chair that seemed potentially comfortable, I'd have to issue apologies to the guys who faced plastic dining room chairs night after night.

Seems to me that before non-homeless people judge homeless persons who "self-medicate" you should walk a mile in their ill-fitting shoes or sleep a night as they do on the ground, on dining room chairs, or on the lumpy mattresses that pass for shelter beds--and then decide if you too would find some way to numb the pain.