Throughout my life, I’ve had all kinds of anxiety-related issues and tics.

Please don’t laugh: I once went for years always wearing an undershirt under whatever it was I was wearing, and I’d tuck the undershirt in my underwear. That’s stupid, I know. But it made me feel safe. I was basically a kid, so that’s my excuse.

But, and it’s a huge ‘but’, I never had any issues falling asleep. Never, and this is a bliss. Sleep is so important.

So whether I got nothing going on or the a life-changing job interview the next day, the only thing I know for sure is whatever else may happen, I will go to sleep. And sleep soundly.

This is why to me, the most important feature of a house or a hotel room or an Airbnb or whatever isn’t the bed, it’s the shower.

Whenever I’m about to book a hotel room or an Airbnb, the first thing I do is I check the shower.

I don’t like bathtubs, and I especially don’t like bathtubs with a shower stall as an afterthought. I hate open showers with a passion.

The ones where you basically turn the whole bathroom into a swimming pool because there’s no walls or windows, just a thin, useless shower curtain.

Closed showers are good. Walk-in showers are best. But it’s always the shower, not the bed.

If you give me an option between sleeping on a couch with an excellent shower, or a terrible shower with a comfy bed, I’m always going to go with the shower option.

Why am I sharing this here? I don’t know. Why not, I guess.

And it always brings me back to what I once read in a book.

“If you’re tired or feeling bad. Go to sleep, if you can’t sleep, take a shower, if you can’t take a shower, brush your teeth, if you can’t brush your teeth, wash your face.”