Thursday, 20 February 2020

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #44: Sleep Well


I am not envious of my son for the world he will have to grow up in. I don't secretly wish to be as young as him and have it all in front of me again. I'm not even jealous of his innocence... but I regret he'll lose it soon enough.

The one thing I do envy him for though is his ability to sleep through the night, undisturbed, in any position he nods off in... without waking up stiff and grumpy, or tossing and turning, trying to find a position that's even remotely comfortable.

A quick google search under "sleep anywhere" will reveal hundreds of pictures that prove children (and cats, it seems) can sleep anywhere... and oh, how I wish that I could too.

I usually start the night on my back, but often wake myself up within an hour or so snoring. So I move onto my side, but need a pillow to raise my upper arm or I'll soon be waking again with pins and needles or a completely dead arm... one of those horrible floppy ones that feels like you've got a huge lump of Playdough hanging from your shoulder. Then I need a smaller cushion, or at least a bit of the duvet, between my knees, which have somehow become too bony to just lie together like they did for the first 30+ years of my life without complaint. And that's before I even start on the hip and lower back pain that wakes me most mornings around 5 and screeches with laughter at the idea that I'll be able to grab another hour without reaching for the Paracetamol.

How do you sleep?

I was going to choose a cool, hip blogger song to accompany this post, honest. I honestly considered all of these fine tracks...

Ballboy - Where Do The Nights Of Sleep Go To When They Do Not Come To Me?

The Silver Seas - Another Bad Night's Sleep

The Numbers - I Can't Sleep At Night

Spearmint - I Can't Sleep

Or even this, the really obvious one...

Faithless - Insomnia 

But as I lay awake at 3.15am, choosing music that will bring comfort to my churning mind, I often end up been drawn back to the songs of my youth. Hence this, from the time went TV stations around the world played the National Anthem every night before they went off air... which in itself seems like a lifetime ago...



7 comments:

  1. It's the having to get up in the middle of the night for a pee (sometimes on more than one oaccasion) which is my main issue.
    You've maybe got that still to come!

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    1. No, that's happening too. Although at least my recent prostate exam showed there was nothing to worry about with that!

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  2. How do I sleep? Badly, mostly.

    Naturally, I hope you Sleep Well Tonight.

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    1. Thank you. And I hope you manage to get some good sleep in while you're preparing for the bike marathon.

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  3. I've been blessed with the "fall asleep anywhere" gene - although this only comes after about 30 minutes of adjustments.
    My wife says I could sleep through a nuclear war.
    I haven't yet reached the "needing a widdle at 3am" stage, but am afflicted by the new pains that appear each morning. Back, neck, arms. And why do the soles of my feet now ache?

    (Saying that you sleep perfectly OK to someone who doesn't is a bit like saying to a blind person: "oh, I can see perfectly")

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    Replies
    1. To be honest, my other half sleeps FAR worse than I do, so I daren;t complain about my own sleepless nights. But that's what this blog is for!

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  4. I feel your pain Rol, literally.

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