Chirky

I know exactly what you mean by the ear thump. Mine sounds like a pulsing whir and it gets so loud sometimes it wakes me up. In my case, it's because I have fluid in my ears where my eustachian tubes don't drain properly. Taking something for sinus pressure, like a Sudafed, helps.

Okay - the whole oatmeal thing made me laugh out loud! I don't have the thumping problem, but maybe because I've been sleeping on my side for so long - I've learned to tune it out? I don't know.

Glad the diagram helped - my husband saw it and said "You're sending a picture of me sleeping to someone you met on the Internet?" He clearly doesn't understand this whole blogging thing. Or the fact that you can hardly identify him from the picture. :)

Sorry, I'm late to the discussion and I didn't read the comments from the previous post. Here's my two cents:
-put your hand(s) near your face. I once read a study that said you would fall asleep faster with your hands near your face.
-I'm a side sleeper - so, the arm I'm laying on curves up with my hand under my chin, or under my face.

Yup, I hear it.
But mine's a soothing hum.
It lulls me to sleep. I like it :)

When I was a kid, I didn't KNOW it was my heartbeat. I used to have recurring dreams about ants marching over me. It was quite a relief when I finally figured out what it was and the dreams stopped.

I don't recall that I've ever heard my heartbeat. But what does happen to me that really annoys me is sometimes I hear this click coming from somewhere in my nose or nasal cavity that drives me insane. It's like it's right after I inhale, just a half second before I exhale, and it makes this click sound. I'll try to snuff or snort to clear my nose, but to no avail. All I can do is turn onto my back and then it stops. Sometimes while on my back, when the room is very silent and still, I can feel the bed shaking and it's shaking in time with my heartbeat. Now that just about drives me insane too! *sigh*

(1) The Thumping: Yeah, I've heard that occasionally but I've found that as long as my ear isn't smashed too hard into the pillow, I usually don't hear it.

(2) How I Sleep: Two solid pillows (not those weak fluffy ones, moderately hard ones) under my head horizontally positioned, another pillow vertical and in between my arms in a sort of hug. Usually I'm curved a little bit so my head is a little bit on the vertical pillow, which keeps my ear from being smashed into any of the surfaces so I don't hear the thumping.

It's hard to explain! But the cuddle pillow gives my bottom arm some place to be and having two solid pillows under my head seems to keep my bottom arm from falling asleep. Don't know if there's any medschool research on that but I just know that when my head is lower, I seem to get sleepy limbs. But I also have been cursed with quarterback shoulders (alas) so maybe that has something to do with it.

Also, here's a picture that sort of illustrates how I sleep, but without all that bottom leg business and usually my top and bottom hands are around the pillow and clasped together.