...I get uncomfortable.

I've been waking up with intense sinus-blockage, itchy, burning eyes and a fuzzy head for nearly a year now. It has gotten progressively worse during that time. I suspect some type of allergen that is living (but not necessarily alive) in my mattress, which is a futon matress, so its like a big pillow. A haven for stuff like dust mites, and for collecting things that fall off of me and the cats. As an experiment to see if the mattress itself is responsible for my stuffiness, I set up this makeshift bed on the floor...

This "mattress" consists of 3 half-folded blankets and a sleeping bag. Its quite uncomfortable compared to the real bed, but it'll do. Also my head has to be by the door, because the door is opposite the bed in my room, and to ensure a fair experiment, I have to keep my head away from my real mattress. As a result of this and having my head on the floor, I hear EVERYTHING that happens in the house. So I'm awakened constantly by cats running and jumping and clawing and pooping and DRIVING ME CRAZY!
So I slept on the makeshift bed for about a week. I noticed a fairly significant reduction in the head fuzziness, which was the most bothersome symptom, and also in the runny nose and burning eyes, but it wasn't enough (for me) for a conclusive result yet. To compare, the last 2 nights I have slept in the real bed, and have woken up feeling so much worse. Tonight I am switching back to the floor bed and will likely not return to my real bed until I can replace the mattress.
In other news, I started a new photo-series on flickr (this blog's namesake) to work on my creativity and exercise my brain in a way I normally don't. There's only one photo so far but, check it out, tell me what you think