I have been thinking about this recently because of a recent power outage. I don't remember what age I started this, but I HAVE have always had to sleep with a fan on. ALL YEAR ROUND. And not a ceiling fan, a regular fan. I think it may have started when I was a kid because instead of paying high air conditioning bills, if it wasn't too hot, my parents would just put fans in our rooms, and it just became a staple. I also always wanted someone to "lay down with me" until I feel asleep, I never liked being alone and trying to fall asleep, but I think the fan helped because I didn't have to try to fall asleep in dead silence, and I was less scared and fell asleep easier.
But, there were several problems with this growing up. 1. I never knew why, until I started thinking about this fan thing, but whenever I tried to sleepover at ANYONES house, everyone fell asleep except me and I had to call my mom to go home.
2. If we stay at a hotel or anywhere, I can't sleep without a really loud air conditioner running all night, which makes it REALLY cold.
3. If the power goes out, like it did last week, all night long, the chances of me falling asleep with no noise is pretty much nill..
So, my question to you guys is, when I have kids, do you think I should give them fans? I refuse to put TV's in my kids rooms until they are at least teens, and even then I have heard and know from experience it is hard to get a good nights sleep when there is a tv on in the room. But there are certain instances where I have had hard times trying to sleep when there isn't a fan, like all my ruined sleepovers. But, I know it really helped me when I was little being able to go to sleep without being scared. But now if I don't have one, I WILL NOT fall asleep.
My hubby has this same issue. His parents were big on fans too. It's an easy trap to fall into, the white noise thing. We live on a high traffic street, so I have a white noise machine in Madeline's room. I have been starting to wonder if I am creating a sort of sleep dependence on it for her. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say...
I think it may be one of those case by case issues.
I've played music for my son on a cd player since he was born, but I've lately been weaning him off of it (he's 3 now) and he's doing ok. I think if you were to use it consistently for your child's entire childhood...then yeah, it would probably become an issue.
