Incident Record: Blanket Foot Escape

SUMMARY

The right foot is outside the blanket. This is not an accident. This has not been an accident for eleven months.

TIMELINE

March, approximate. The blanket foot escape was first performed in response to an unusually warm night. One foot was moved outside the blanket as a temperature management measure. The core body remained covered. Thermal equilibrium was achieved. Sleep followed.

April through present. The blanket foot escape has been repeated nightly regardless of ambient temperature, seasonal variation, or blanket weight. It is now performed as the final step in the sleep preparation sequence, after changing into sleep clothes and after the phone has been placed down (see related incident: Face Down Phone Promise).

The foot is not cold. This is the entire point. The foot must not be cold. The foot must also not be warm.

Under the governing rule, any action framed as the last one before sleep may renew itself once.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

The blanket foot escape acquired its authority through a single successful deployment. That night was warm. The foot outside the blanket reduced body temperature. Sleep occurred.

The brain recorded this as a causal relationship.

It was not necessary to verify whether sleep would also have occurred with both feet inside the blanket. The experiment was not repeated. The conclusion was preserved.

CURRENT STATUS

The blanket foot escape is now part of the bedtime sequence. Skipping it on nights when the room is cold creates a brief period of thermal discomfort followed by a longer period of wondering whether the night will be worse than it would have been if the foot had been placed outside.

On two occasions in November, both feet were placed inside the blanket. Both occasions resulted in longer sleep onset, though the sample size is insufficient for conclusions and the subject was also using their phone at the time.

The foot is currently outside the blanket. The rest of the body is asleep.