For many years now I have been an insomniac. Not the sort who can manage on 2 hours sleep a night, I can and do actually get about 6 or 7 hours a night; but I have a long standing habit of waking in the middle of the night at about 3.00 and stay wide awake for an hour and a halfish. This all started about 20 years ago when I was struggling to run my own business, be a father to 3 growing children and attempting to complete an Open University course. I found that the only time available to study and write essays was in the middle of the night, so I would get up (bleary eyed) and spend an hour or so being academic. The problem was that my brain became somewhat hot wired to this routine and then when I had no need for nocturnal study, I couldn't stop the process. So, for the past 20 years I have been waking with a brain that wants to be active for an hour or so, then I return to bed until morning.
Some people would find this annoying and would try anything to stop it happening. I actually tried being hypnotised once when it was becoming a little more serious and was making me feel tired in the daytime; but the truth is that I really do enjoy my bit of time in the middle of the night when I can read solidly for an hour with interruption. After all there is nothing else that I can do but sit quietly and read because there is an unwritten law that says that making any kind of noise while others sleep is positively frowned upon. So no DIY at 3.00 am. So it could be said that I do not have a "problem" with sleep because I enjoy my routine. And I do enjoy it. But there is an added element that will turn my sleep routine into a problem, and it is this........
Ever since I was a small child I have struggled to sleep the night before I do anything exciting. I would lie awake in bed churning thoughts around in my increasingly tired brain through the long, long hours of the night, resulting in an overtired, crabby boy with a constantly sick feeling in his stomach. Christmas Eve was by far the worst of these occasions, but holidays and someone visiting also brought on the same effect.
Nothing has changed. Now at 56 years of age, I still cannot sleep in the night or two leading up to something that I am looking forward to. This Coast to Coast walk is no exception, and with plenty to occupy my brain - how much money will I need to carry considering that cash-points are few and far between on the walk? should I pack my fleece now that the weather has changed to a colder spell? and many, many other questions of varying importance - I find that I am tossing and turning in a bed that has lost all of its normal comfort, until I am forced to get up. All this thinking and lack of good refreshing sleep may well leave me feeling like I have already walked for a few days, before I actually take my first actual step. We will soon discover.
As I have no photos of the walk yet, or pictures of me asleep, here are some photos of some pebbles on Budleigh Salterton Beach.
The sponsorship is now standing at about £450. Fantastic.
Take care.
Rob.
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