I can't get no sleep

Double negatives ahoy!

Next in the advent strop calendar: insomnia.

I go through phases of having trouble sleeping. Sometimes it becomes problematic; sometimes I can just progress as normal on little and fragmented sleep. I am currently somewhere in between those two realms. Although I am managing to get on with my daily activities, I have almost passed out on the way up the stairs to the office twice this week. I can't get to sleep for hours, then I wake up constantly throughout the night. I try not to focus on it, otherwise the alertness takes over even more. On Thursday night I decided to monitor the situation, however, so by the time I had woken up 6 times I thought I'd check the clock (a bad thing to get in the habit of doing when you're not sleeping): 1.30am. I'm not sure how I can manage on so little sleep, especially when I normally pass out anywhere with any kind of noise or distractions in the background. Perhaps I starve myself of sleep and then catch up for a few months. However I don't think this is healthy.

I went through the confident phase of thinking that I must just be one of those people who do not need to sleep. A young Margaret Thatcher (sans Tory mindset). So I put it to the test. In my Masters year I survived on about an hour of sleep each night for 3 weeks. And then I inevitably crashed and burned, in a horrifdic way.

So the sleep is clearly needed. The result is that whilst awake I float around in some odd half dream like state ("in the penumbra of uncertainty..." Garth Maranghi, 2004), and I feel frustrated and alert in the middle of the night. Perhaps I should start nightwalking. An old friend Evil Tom used to go nightwalking in Durham, and he'd meet up with all sorts of weird and wonderful nocturnal characters.

So, advice would be welcomed. I have tried all sorts of sleep rememdies etc. Perhaps I should use my time productively in the middle of the night. Please don't suggest reading, though.

Moon. xxx