When I worked I often had sleepless nights, but there was a reason for this. I can worry for Africa, Asia and often the rest of the world! So there were occasions when I lay awake agonising over an issue and no matter how hard I tried, couldn’t ‘switch off’. But I knew why I couldn’t sleep!
On Sunday night I went to bed, struggled through a crossword puzzle, read an article in a magazine (nothing contentious), all following my nightly routine. Aware that my husband had to get up early on Monday morning I turned off the light at the usual time and settled down for the night. Wide awake!
What I should have done was go downstairs, get a warm glass of milk and a handful of almonds (apparently almonds help you to sleep!) and watch something mindless on the television. Instead I decided to try one of the many suggestions I had heard over the years to aid sleep.
I counted sheep, a lot of sheep, eventually colour coding them and throwing in a few sheep dogs. They herded the sheep over lush green fields, getting 50 into each pen. That’s where the colour coding came in. I had white, white with black heads, brown sheep all being herded by hyper-active sheep dogs darting around frantically selecting their colour sheep and steering them into their allotted pens.
That didn’t work so I tried the next ‘sleeping aid’. Starting from my toes, I relaxed them and then squeezed them tightly, relaxed my feet, squeezed them tightly and moved up to my calves, knees and on to my thighs. Alas, that is where this exercise failed miserably. I got cramp in my left thigh. The pain was excruciating! I stumbled out of bed, trying to be quiet so as not to wake the worker! After limping up and down the hallway and massaging my thigh, the pain eased and I got back into bed. Wide awake!
The next thing I tried was taking a worry, imagine writing it down on a piece of paper and placing it under the bed. Easy. But I wasn’t worrying about anything much so had to really concentrate. It wasn’t long before I had found the first worry and then the flood gates opened. Some of my worries had been very well buried and long forgotten. I decided to get up before I did any more damage to body or mind.
The grandfather clock chimed three. In the dark I carefully counted the stairs, thirteen and made my way to the kitchen. I heated up a glass of milk, took a handful of almonds and settled in front of the television to watch ‘Little house on the Prairie’. It worked.
I survived on two hours sleep yesterday. I didn’t have to go to work and make decisions, ensure there were the correct number of noughts on a payment document or deal with staff issues. I took things easy, went for a long walk with a couple of friends and still managed 10,000 steps! I don’t know why I couldn’t sleep and I don’t care. What a difference being ‘a lady of leisure’ makes. 👠
Jenny Burrell 