insomnia part 2.

Based on everyone’s advice, I was really strategic about my bedtime last night. Comfy clothes, no TV, fluffy yet not too enthralling book (The Nanny Diaries) at the ready, a mindset to rest and not fall asleep.

The first half hour was great; I hit the pillow and five minutes later was asleep. According to Sam I was even snoring, which is brilliant (for me, obviously not for him).

Enter our neighbour’s muffler.

Words cannot describe how much I hate our neighbour’s beat-up old car. I dream about smashing in its windows and letting out its tires. This car not only causes its fair share of air pollution but makes a horrific, earth-shattering noise when it revs, like a succession of lawnmowers amplified by ten, always at odd hours of the night.

I woke up half an hour after I fell asleep, my perfect sleep bubble burst by the hrrrrr hrrrr hrrr of that wretched car. And I didn’t fall asleep until 4am the next morning.
However to my credit, I was extremely disciplined in my approach, waking and reading, then resting again in bed before trying the whole thing again. Eventually I resorted to lighting candles, which seemed to work.

Today I feel surprisingly lucid, though I managed to fall asleep (with my eyes open?!??) while interviewing the MD of a media agency in the city. I came back to reality with a start and realised he had been talking for five minutes and I had no idea what he was going on about.

But insomnia is not all that bad. There are many benefits to come out of my sleeplessness, including important preparation for baby-rearing, increased opportunity to read novels and the chance to toughen my mind like a zen master in bizarre deprivation training regimen. Sure, I may fall asleep at work, and yes, after dropping Christine off a few blocks away from home in Summer Hill I did accidentally drive all the way to Canterbury, but think about the number of Marian Keys books I could get through in a year!