The Ice Man Cometh

I always used to be a good sleeper. When I lived in the heart of the city, no poilce siren, domestic disturbance or constant traffic drone could stir me from my blissful repose. These days, (nights?) I wake at all hours throughout the night. I no longer experience work related stressed and my kids now sleep through the night 95% of the time, so what gives? It's not so much the waking I object to, but, to the not being able to get back to sleep. My brain seems to whizz around faster than Chorlton and/or the Wheelies. The end result is that lie awake for roughly 2 hours, before I finally drop off to sleep. The problem here is that at that point I am ready to admit defeat and actually get up and go downstairs. My moment of martydom snatched from me at the last gasp (or snore in this case). All of which begs the question: "Sopor Interuptus - Why me?"

Last night, at least, I found a reason. Around 2 in the morning I was stirred from my slumber by a sound reminiscent of a scene from Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm". A loud, cracking noise was coming from outside and when I looked out of the window, I saw that all the snow on the road had turned to ice and it was cracking under the weight of the cars as they travelled over it. Now, I'll admit it would have been way cooler (get it?), when I peered out of the window, if I had seen a young Elijah Wood being electrocuted on a guard rail, but, at least I knew what had awoken me this time. So what happened next? Bingo! - I went back to my ritual of tossing and turning for another 2 hours, of course.


Here's 3 for the road (or bed, if you prefer)

When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, and you're never really
awake. ~Chuck Palahniuk

Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night. ~ Phillip K. Dick

Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep. ~Fran Lebowitz