I’ve had sleeping issues for a long, long time. During my Mother’s pregnancy, in fact. I’ve never been good at getting to sleep, and always envied people who seemed to drift off to sleep very quickly when they were tired. I used to think they were just fatigued, and that I didn’t actually have a problem. As I progressed in to my teenage years, my sleeping disorder got worse and worse, as the bags under my eyes will show…

Last week was once of the worst weeks I have ever had. Getting to sleep took more than 3 hours, easily. I would get into bed at 1am, which is the time I usually begin to get tired. 4am would often come and go, and on more than 1 occasion I saw the sunrise and had to endure the insufferable tweeting of birds. I was averaging at about 3 hours of broken, unrefreshing sleep. After a couple of days of this, psychosis began to kick in to some degree. Whilst I could concentrate on things I have to think about, things that I do without thought (such as making a cup of coffee) were affected. I frequently had to stop myself from trying to spoon milk into my cup, and putting sugar in the fridge. Seriously.

What’s worse is that, even though I was so tired in the mornings and throughout the day, by the time it got to about 4pm, I crossed the threshold of lassitude and was wide awake – my body clock clearly functioning as it shouldn’t. By the end of the week, getting out of bed was something of a prolonged struggle, divided by narcoleptic attacks. Thankfully I made it through the week, although I did completely lose my appetite and therefore lost some weight.

When Friday evening came I managed to stay awake until I was exhausted, and then managed to grab a good 10-12 hours sleep. Since then my sleep has picked back up. I’ve not had a peak like that for a very long time. I don’t think I’ve ever struggled with it so much, actually – as the last time I was suffering I was unemployed, so staying awake until dawn wasn’t an issue.

Curiously I saw a TV show about a man with insomnia. His insomnia was different to mine in that he had more trouble staying asleep, rather than getting to sleep. Having seen a documentary of a “severe case”, though, I feel I’m entitled to have my own TV show about it.