I did that thing again. You would have thought I'd have learnt my lesson by now. I was watching "Match of the Day" with a can of beer in my mitt but I never saw the end of the football show because... I fell asleep.
And when I woke up an hour had passed by. I climbed the hairy mountain to The Land of Nod hoping to resume my slumbers but sleep evaded me like a fickle mistress. I lay there with my wife next to me in the deepest trench of sleep's ocean. I heard the bell in the tower of All Saints Church ring one and sixty minutes later I heard it ring two.
Dozing upon one's sofa can be fatal. It takes the edge off one's appetite for sleep when one eventually pulls the quilt over one's mortal flesh. Hearing the clock strike two was enough to bring me back downstairs to this laptop. I made myself a mug of tea and grabbed a couple of McVities' ginger nuts.
It's especially annoying because we are going out for breakfast this morning - celebrating our lovely daughter's thirty third birthday. Later, I will be making a special Sunday dinner with the centrepiece being a pricey leg of lamb that I bought from a farm shop in The Hope Valley. I know exactly where that animal was reared having walked across the very fields where it grew fat.
And then after dinner and birthday cake I will be heading up to "The Hammer and Pincers" for the newly resurrected Sunday quiz. The entire day will be affected simply by having failed to follow my customary sleep pattern. The mantlepiece clock is marching towards three o'clock. Soon I will give the process another try and past experience says that it will work this time.
Sleep will let me in through the curtains where most of us go every twenty four hours - into that other territory that is so close and yet unchartered too. The Kingdom of Sleep - that magical land where we process experiences and dream freely and remember and forget.
I am a poor sleeper. I don't nap at all . Sometimes I can't get to sleep and other times I wake up and can't go back to sleep. I don't have any church bells to listen for!
ReplyDeleteA prescribe a a large slug of rum before bedtime.
DeleteMy mum would always fall asleep in front of the TV. When I told her to just go to bed she would say that she couldn't possibly go to bed as early as ten, she wouldn't be able to sleep. And yet every night, she fell asleep before ten in front of the TV.
ReplyDeleteIt's not even nine pm here and I'm heading off to bed. It's dark which I like. I find it so hard trying to fall asleep in June and July when the sun sets so late, after 10pm.
Hope you had a good sleep after all. Happy Birthday to your daughter.
Sweet dreams Nurse Lily! Don't le the bedbugs bite!
DeleteIndeed, a small nap, an extra cup of coffee too late or a change in dinner routine can throw off sleep. If I start worrying about something right before I go to bed, it's going to be a long (or short?) night. I need to do my fretting in the morning! It sounds like your day will be packed; hope you'll be awake for it all. :)
ReplyDeleteThe roasted lamb was delicious Margaret. Best joint of meat I have ever cooked.
DeleteIf you have one night like that, the next night brings a good sound sleep, as long as you haven't napped again.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like Confucius.
DeleteHow funny. Here I am...after an hour and a half in bed, I finally got up and wrote a blog post. I'm now headed back to bed. It's not quite midnight here, so my day will (hopefully) not be so sadly affected as yours.
ReplyDeleteThis typed as the clocks begin to chime 12 times from all around the house.
Hey that's early Debby!
DeleteI hope that you got some sleep before what sounds like a lovely day in prospect. I had a poor night due to the soreness of my left arm, after the flu vaccine yesterday!
ReplyDeleteOh you had your booster! You must be a rocket ship Frances.
DeleteIt is closing in on 1am as I read this. Hoping Hypnos will be stopping by soon. Happy birthday to your lovely girl.
ReplyDeleteWe are both creatures of the night Linda. Our Frances had a lovely birthday. It was nice that it fell on a Sunday.
DeleteI had the same problem last night. When I eventually got up at 4 a.m. to fetch a glass of water I stood for several minutes gazing out at the incredibly bright moon giving everything an eerie glow.
ReplyDeleteI hope you were wearing your nightie.
DeleteI guess MOTD is boring now that Hull are no longer in it.
ReplyDeleteDull without Hull but once, once - we were there. I did not dream it.
DeleteIt's sod's law. I always find when I have a busy or important day ahead, I have the worst night's sleep possible. You crack on and cope but the day after that is when you feel tired.
ReplyDeleteI never slept well before interviews when desperate for that rest.
DeleteI often spend half the night listening to audio books (with sleep timer set). Quite often I realise the next day that I probably slept more than I thought, as I may have to rewind the book several chapters to get back to somewhere I remember...
ReplyDeleteI have never listened to an audio book as I am not blind.
DeleteI'll pretend I was unable to read that.
DeleteI am a night owl and always the last to bed. No matter how late it is I still have to read. The trick is knowing when to put the book down . Usually it's when I realise I've read the same piece two or three times over. Today is the first day of daylight saving and it always takes a few days to adjust.It will be Monday morning before my head hits the pillow.
ReplyDeleteWhat will Phoebe have for breakfast? What an amazing year Frances has had since her last birthday. Best wishes from the deep south for many more. Adele
Nice to hear from you again Granny Adele and nice to know that you are also a night owl. Give Charlotte Grace a raspberry on her cheek from me.
DeleteI have a beer alarm clock and often get an half pint shower over my lap when watching the electric fish tank they call television!
ReplyDeleteI must confess that that has also happened to me a few times.
DeleteAre there any lucid dreamers among your wakeful readers?
ReplyDeleteHamel(d)
Only you O'Haggerty - The Oracle of the Clyde.
DeleteI hate that feeling of being unable to sleep. At least you put your waking time to good use by blogging! Hope you weren't too bleary-eyed today.
ReplyDeleteI think I managed four hours in the end. It was okay.
DeleteWe nap every day but never later than 4 o'clock other wise like you we find it difficult to sleep at night. We usually nap for about an hour, enough to keep us going for the evening.
ReplyDeleteHope you manage to make it through your busy day.
Briony
x
I am going to nominate you and Tom for "Strictly Come Napping".
DeleteI hope you get through your sleep-deprived day and catch up on sleep tonight, YP. It's almost impossible for me to function now on less than seven hours of sleep. Many times when I was younger I'd go all week on five or six hours and catch up on the weekend. No more. My routine now is to read until I get very sleepy. If I don't read, my mind starts working and then I'm not just awake, I'm upset as well.
ReplyDeleteLike you I used to survive pretty effectively on far less sleep. Now I like my eight hours.
DeleteSleep is just about my favorite thing to do. I admit it.
ReplyDeleteMost of us spend a third of our lives doing it.
DeleteWe are sleep walking into another Tory victory at the General Election, because Keir Starmer would send an insomniac to sleep.
ReplyDeleteKeir is 50 shades of sludge grey, a wet squib on a rainy night in Nowhere, and has as much charisma as Stan Laurel meets Minnie Mouse. He'll never lead the country.
Another Conservative government will see Scotland leave the Union, and England will become the saddest country in Europe.
I shall be laying my weary head to rest in New Zealand. Sweet dreams in Auckland !
Haggerty
Sir Keir, the patron saint of decency and intelligence, will never lead the country because of Jeanette Krankie and the tartan naysayers. They buggered up the arithmetic for ordinary working people.
DeleteStarmer does embody decency and intelligence, but he will never be Jim Callaghan or Denis Healey : I am not even sure he wanted the job.
DeleteStarmer's hesitant and worried look will never reassure English working-class voters. They like smoothies like Nigel Farage, a concise + witty communicator.
At the General Election people cast their vote for the party leader : I meet people who say *I'm sticking with Boris.* That bumbling nincompoop is popular.
As for our tartan naysayers, they have seized the historic moment.
I was at a Glasgow school reunion. All my old mates are pro-Independence.
*It can't be any worse than it is now,* they said. They have a point.
At least my old class (1963-69) can see that the Tories have given us the worst of all possible worlds. The ladies are still social democrats like me.
I would hate to be young and working in the post-Brexit Gig Economy.
We have seen the Last Good Days, Neil, but I hope I'm wrong.
Haggerty
"I'm sticking with Boris" sounds like "I'm sticking with Senokot... or sulphuric acid".
DeleteIf Labour had the wit to hire you as a gag writer we might just just demolish this shower of dishonest dodgy Tory nitwits who wrecked our country.
DeleteOur best film-makers could show the nation how far we have fallen, in a series of graphic images of our lost towns and cities. Young people with no future.
*Hopeless No-Future Britain run into the ground by smug smirking spivs, Boris Bodger & his team of Chumps.
Haggerty
My formula is to only nod off in a reclining chair where I can't get comfortable enough to nod off for more than an hour at a time. If I were to nod off any longer than that, I would suffer from your problem.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. An uncomfortable seat would help.
Delete