The Big SleepOut

As you all know, I did the Big SleepOut on Friday 4th December.

It was a really interesting experience and I want to share what I learnt, with you.

I had a cardboard box, just long enough for me to lie down in and a plastic sheet to cover the box in case of rain. That was my bed for the night, of course I brought a sleeping bag with me but most rough sleepers don't even have that. I was to stay outside for twelve hours- 6 pm to 6 am.

Once the lights went out at midnight, I tried to stay awake because I didn't think I'd be able to sleep properly and thought I was just going to wake up with a sore back. That plan didn't work, see without entertainment it's quite hard to keep your eyes open, so I fell asleep. Well it was a half-sleep, half-awake kind of thing. I was on edge the whole night and the sound of the wind made me think someone was outside my box, so I kept opening it to check. Every time that I did that I had let the cold back in, so I had to try and get warmish again, before I could fall back to sleep. My entire night went like this, every hour that passed resulted in me being awake.

After what seemed like days it was finally six in the morning, it was a struggle waking up and when I opened the box I couldn't believe how cold it was. It was ten times colder than it had been six hours before. Half asleep I rolled my sleeping bag up, although breakfast was being served, all I could think about was getting back home.

...And once I was, I went straight to bed and didn't wake up until four in the afternoon, I was shattered.

Sleeping rough is hard. Harder than I thought actually, the wind was unbearable, to an extent that just the sound of the wind was scaring me. And the cold... It was as though the cold had gotten into my bones and once I was home I could still feel it in my bones for the rest of the weekend.  When I eventually woke up, I actually broke down and was crying a lot, because I had only slept rough for one night, I couldn't imagine what it's like to spend my whole life without a roof over my head, like others do. It made me feel really lucky.