Barbara,

'Sorry that you have someone inconsiderate in your life like that.
I can usually go back to sleep -- but not always and sleep is soooooo precious and important -- so I understand how put out you might feel.

We sleep with no phone in the bed room and the bedroom door complete closed. I also have a "white" noise maker on in the bedroom.
We never hear any phone when we are sleeping.


When I lived in a different apt with a different set up I used to turn off the ringer on the phone every night. It was ok for me to make phone calls, but no one could get me after a certain time or unless I was a awake and had remembered to turn the ringer back on.

Ever since I can remember, I have had electronic voice mail at home -- I can't hear the other person's voice. So the phone rings four times and goes to voice mail -- like a cell phone. I love it. (So even if the ringer was turned off, I still got the phone message of course.)

I learned these things from my tdoc who taught me a lot about Cognitive behavior Therapy.
He thought that I should make sure that my environment supported me and that I should not
make ANY accommodations to the environment or even to other people.

(I wonder if he has mellowed and changed a little since I knew him.) Anyway, he was good because when I first met him I was in my 20s and putting up with lots of garbage from other people -- and suffering tremendously because of it.

M.