1647 Sleep Tight.

Wordless comics are hard to do if your artistic skill isn’t up to the task. This isn’t the cinematic vision I had, but I think it gets the point across.

I slept so poorly last night. For some reason I just kept waking up then not being able to get comfortable again for a long time. I really need to get to some more patreon sketches, but If I try at this point they’re just going to be garbage. It’s hard to convince myself to sleep when I would rather work. At the same time I sleep so much better if I don’t have tasks waiting to be done. That’s always been a problem for me. Back when I was in retail I didn’t really sleep well unless I had two days off in a row. I could sleep without worry for the first night and recharge enough to go back to work on better ternms. Of course sometimes it was weeks before I’d have two days off in a row.
I’ve never been good at sleeping in general, and it’s only gotten worse with age. Being alone, in the dark, with nothing but the voice in my head is terrible. That voice does not have our best interests at heart. It always wants to talk about things that disturb me. My coping mechanism has always been shows with calm talking. Before the advent of the ipod it was cassettes of recorded stuff, TV once I had my own area to have a tv to myself, talk radio, and so on. It didn’t work nearly as well as having an ipod full of podcasts, and now Netflix, or youtube, or whatever really. As long as I have a little electricity at my disposal I can drown out that horrible voice and sneak my way to sleep.
It’s kind of strange because when I was young that internal monologue was constant and didn’t bother me. I used to mull over deep philosophical problems all the time and the answers I came to didn’t scare me, but now I can’t even entertain some trains of thought. Actually I guess it was okay when I was young because I had a sense that I was somehow special and the rules of the universe didn’t apply to me the way they seem to for everyone else. There was a certain level of magical thinking prevalent in my family that I had no reason to question and in that ignorance I was safe and happy. I guess I answered my own questions here…

I’ve been trying to switch providers for my cpap machine and I won’t go in to detail, but the people I’m with now are total idiots. I kind of feel like I should report them to somebody but I don'[t know who that would be. I’ll be happy once I’ve seen the back of them. They’re so shady that I’m probably going to have to bring someone to witness the transfer of stuff for me in case I have to take them to court or something. I’m certainly going to document the entire affair on my phone. I don’t trust them any further than I could comfortably spit a rat.

58 Comments

Such a gentleman.

But, you know, sleeping in your bra constricts the lymph glands and triples your chances of getting cancer. Shouldn’t you at least unhook the band? :->

That’s actually not true~ there’s been no links found between wearing a bra to bed and developing breast cancer. It may make your breasts a little sore, but it should have no negative (or, really, positive) effects beyond that. :) (For more info: https://www.maurerfoundation.org/can-wearing-a-bra-cause-breast-cancer/ )

There are lots of studies which show a bra-cancer link. This is from BrasAndBreastCancer.org.

SOME STUDIES THAT SUPPORT THE BRA/CANCER LINK:
1991 Harvard study (CC Hsieh, D Trichopoulos (1991). Breast size, handedness and breast cancer risk. European Journal of Cancer and Clinical Oncology 27(2):131-135.). This study found that, “Premenopausal women who do not wear bras had half the risk of breast cancer compared with bra users…”

1991-93 U.S. Bra and Breast Cancer Study by Singer and Grismaijer, published in Dressed To Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras (Avery/Penguin Putnam, 1995; ISCD Press, 2005). Found that bra-free women have about the same incidence of breast cancer as men. 24/7 bra wearing increases incidence over 100 times that of a bra-free woman.

Singer and Grismaijer did a follow-up study in Fiji, published in Get It Off! (ISCD Press, 2000). Found 24 case histories of breast cancer in a culture where half the women are bra-free. The women getting breast cancer were all wearing bras. Given women with the same genetics and diet and living in the same village, the ones getting breast disease were the ones wearing bras for work.

A 2009 Chinese study (Zhang AQ, Xia JH, Wang Q, Li WP, Xu J, Chen ZY, Yang JM (2009). [Risk factors of breast cancer in women in Guangdong and the countermeasures]. In Chinese. Nan Fang Yi Ke Da Xue Xue Bao. 2009 Jul;29(7):1451-3.) found that NOT sleeping in a bra was protective against breast cancer, lowering the risk 60%.

2011 a study was published, in Spanish, confirming that bras are causing breast disease and cancer. It found that underwired and push-up bras are the most harmful, but any bra that leaves red marks or indentations may cause disease.

2015 Comparative study of breast cancer risk factors at Kenyatta National Hospital and the Nairobi Hospital J. Afr. Cancer (2015) 7:41-46. This study found a significant bra-cancer link in pre-and post-menopausal women.

2016 Wearing a Tight Bra for Many Hours a Day is Associated with Increased Risk of Breast Cancer Adv Oncol Res Treat 1: 105. This is the first epidemiological study to look at bra tightness and time worn, and found a significant bra-cancer link.

And yet there are no mentions of those studies in peer-reviewed, credible sources (and no, the language barrier doesn’t account for that – people can and do cite credible studies from other languages frequently), and the ACA itself has admitted that there are no links found between them yet. In fact, the Singer and Grismaijer ones are outright improperly done, without taking into consideration the other risks and causes of breast cancer.

Good doctor, what pray say are your credentials? Because ignoring the validity of these studies, those are not properly cited.

Also I like how your super credible site has their ssl certificate miss configured and is using the certificate for their hosting provider (go daddy! They didn’t just buy the domain, and certificate, but are hosting… on go daddy!) which isn’t how safe sites function.

according to research on rats, researching on rats gives them cancer.

that was meant to be lighthearted, but got dark awful quickly, huh?

“Scientists have recently discovered that EVERYTHING gives white mice cancer!” – George Carlin

Source. I demand a source. A credible scientific source. If you can just link me to a pubmed article or two, that’s fine, I have access to several hospital and academic libraries and can find the actual thing, 9.8/10 times. But I need a source, or I will (and shall, and AM) calling shenanigans.

Let’s be honest. It will be far better for him when Nina wakes up to find nothing on her person amiss than to wake and find any clothing undone regardless of honorable intentions.

Wait — this is Nina we’re talking about here, not Carol or Alex. Is she even wearing a bra?

I know, right? Actually, I was just looking for an lecherous excuse to get his hands under her shirt without technically violating his core principles. In all of these comments, only a couple people picked up on that.

And for the record, I was referring to cancer of the underarm lymph nodes. You know, the kind that by the time it’s discovered has already spread to much of the body? And as qka noted: a single night isn’t going to make any difference.

Oy! It’s a matter of consent. Whether the two of them have chemistry or not doesn’t matter. Nina’s asleep and can’t give Ed consent. Anyone walking in on Ed unhooking her bra while she sleeps could call it sexual assault and the courts won’t give a flying fuck about studies involving wearing a bra to bed.

She can’t give consent to the act, therefore he shouldn’t do it. Plain and simple.
About the only acceptable reason for him to remove her bra while she’s asleep is if her bra is on fire via a chemical fire.

Oh, god. My heart. Gah! His strength is not proportional to his size.

Ugh, CPAP issues. I just got a new provider for my mask issues. Respironics makes a great one that just fits over the nose but isn’t a pillow or a mask called the Dreamwear. Really innovative fit and allows for side sleeping. Just snugs up against the bottom of the nose. https://youtu.be/KamBM2duMBM

As for reporting incompetence, reporting them to your insurance provider usually works. If my information was not helpful, or unwanted, sorry.

Ed is definitely stronger than I thought he was. Granted we’ve seen him throwing down on a tombstone, but even with that, moving someone who’s at least a foot taller without waking them is impressive.

A dwarf who lifts an Amazon, with incredible grace, and without breaking a sweat!?

Edward, you are more than prepared to handle her when the time comes. Godspeed, you lucky devil!

Actually lifting and balance are more about leverage than anything else. I’ve worked with shorter guys a lot in my years and have witnessed them lift heavier loads more easily than i can. As they explained it, it’s because they have a lower center of gravity thus need to exert less to balance the load (taller people have to exert more because the loads higher than the natural balance of weight between lifter and item).

Helped a guy stronger than me move an International Harvester deep freeze out of a basement. He’s tall (and I’m not). I had to lift it from the floor for him to set something under it, and he could lift it from there. His leverage just didn’t work that low, even though he could lift it from there and hold it indefinitely where I couldn’t.

That bean bag chair may not be the most comfortable choice but it is the most honorable considering the circumstances.

I wonder how much experience Ed has doing this sort of thing. In the numerous times my partners had fallen asleep I usually literally end up staying awake for hours. Usually it is because I’m am (or at least a part of me at any rate) is trapped under them and there would be no way of moving without waking them up, so I literally stay as still as I possibly can, in one case, for over 3 hours. My arm didn’t just fall asleep in that instance, it was dead for almost 20 minutes after. I literally could not move it when she woke up, it more less dangled by my side uncomfortably for some time when we got up. Other times I can’t find any where comfortable (or clean) to sleep on, and I end up just creepily hanging around staring and deriving joy from their peaceful state until they wake up naturally and better sleeping arrangements can be made. I most certainly could not lift them up without waking them up, or at least I don’t think I could, I never tried.

I’m really sorry that you have to go through that, Jackie. I do hope that this matter gets resolved and that shady business taken to task.

I think you nailed the presentation. Even if I knew nothing about the comic, these few panels say a great deal about Ed’s character.

They do. I’m not clear whether he is sleeping in the same room or a different room though. Maybe that’s deliberate suspense for the readers!

Actually, if I have the layout down right, she is in his bedroom. He is crashing on the beanbags, which are the living room furniture, as did that yellow one try to eat Jo when she dropped by to pick up Ed’s camera for ghost hunting?

Can you tell I just read the whole comic?.

Beanbags are easily moved, though, so he could’ve moved it into the room so she wouldn’t wake up alone in a strange place.

Anyone who can’t figure out “How da liddle guy kin lift so much” needs to meet a Welsh Corgi.

Agreed, most people believe short equals weak, and I think most of the time short people have the advantage because their body size gets more benefit for each gram of muscle than a tall lanky person.

I’ve seen short, stocky people lift and handle more than people who are more muscular and taller, simply amazing

It’s like power to weight ratio. If you have two cars with a thousand horsepower, the lighter car gets more benefit from that horsepower proportionally.

It has a lot to do with the leverage of muscles working with less of a lever arm of bone (arm) sticking out past the pivot point. Midgets can deadlift better than most.

Agreed… They can surprise you if you let them.. smart buggers too. That scene brings back memories. I dated a girl for a while who was much bigger size than me (height and weight). She basically could have played Milly Thompson while I would be more of like Edward Elric. I could still pick her up and bear hug her tho… Lol

Jackie,

Consider sketching anyway, even if it’s going to be crap. If you’re going to lose hours of sleep anyway, may as well loose them with pencil or stylus in hand doing the work you want to be doing.

By the way, I don’t have any running inner monologue. That doesn’t mean I can’t get anxious, it just stays on a non-verbal level. An ex had it though. (I haven’t made a survey, but it came up.)

I’ve never understood the whole running inner monologue thing, i mean, it just lets the good guy get away

from

um.
never mind

I know the voices in my head aren’t real, but they have some really great ideas…..
I’ve got a little soothing sounds thing that plays wave and jungle sounds with a timer. Sounds corny, but I’ve run it a lot more times than I’ve heard it shut off(about 20 minutes). In the summer, I have a fan in the window right over my head. Really wondered how I’d ever sleep with the fan going. Pretty soon, it was,”Man, how will I ever sleep without the fan going?”

It’s just amazing the way subjects devolve on here! From bras and the wearing or not wearing of (I’m on the side of not, still look pretty good at a well advanced age after 40 years of not and good muscle development.) In answer to not sleeping, we used a recording of Pachelbel’s Canon on a loop, the most soothing version we could find. I still fall asleep when I hear it and we haven’t done it for years. There are other tricks, but they don’t always work for everybody. Like you, I have trouble falling asleep if there are things that need to be done or I have to be up at a certain time. There are times when I have to resort to a form of self-hypnosis.

Ed, displaying the Manly Art of being a Gentleman.

It may not be the cinematic version from your imagination, but it still hits me in the “Feels”. Well done, sir. Well done.

Oh, that is so adorable. I really wanted her to wake up halfway through him carrying her. I wanna see her blush!

I read a great deal of webcomics, it helps pass the time when I’m in a motel while working out of town. Every webcomic I read is pretty good, they have to be to keep my interest, or else I’ll run to something else.

Between Failures is easily in my top 5 favorite webcomics of all time. You have blended a simple art style, amazing characters and a completely relatable story into a masterpiece. I sincerely hope that BF continues long into the future. You truly have a gift for this. Thanks for making this series as awesome as you have.

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