The Process of Sleep

For those of you who notice dates and times on when these blogs are posted, you will have noted that I am an Owl by nature. This may have come from working night shifts in a bakery in my youth and I have long been a nightbird, staying up into the early hours.

I took to prowling the city streets in my youth, leaving my wife alone in bed as I walked the streets in the city until two in the morning - restless, invigorated by the sights and sounds and the newness of the place as I had only moved to the capital a few months previous from a  country town. When I first arrived here (Brisbane) in 1976, you could only buy a cup of coffee at one coffeehouse in suburban Auchenflower. Now there's a 7-11 on every street corner in the city and the Valley doesn't really come alive until after eleven at night.

These  days, I'm approaching an age where I find it more difficult to sleep - thank God for the internet and an extra 10 channels on TV. I rarely walk the streets at night, except for exercise. For me, the process of sleep remains a mystery. Warm milk (Tryptophan), Bundaberg Rum, the works of Camus - none seem to have the desired effect of entry into the Land of Nod. So if you know of any cures (apart from vigorous and prolonged sex), please let me know.

Burn brightly, Pete.