I'm Becoming Less Of An Owl

I'm Becoming Less Of An Owl

I have always been a night-owl. Ever since I can remember, "10.00 o'clock in the evening, and the night is still young!" has been the way my body clock operated, and I could work perfectly well on a lot less than 8 hours sleep a night; the difference being of course, that with an East African childhood behind me, I would also take the chance to have an afternoon "kip" for an hour or so, after which I would be refreshed and ready to carry on. Those were the days when I could work as a journalist all day, and every evening be on stage - either rehearsing a show, performing in one, or else competing in ballroom dancing competitions.

In the past few years, though, since Mum became more disabled, I have felt the odd twinge of tiredness creeping in. Anything to do with age? Nonsense! Just that I had a lot to do, I reasoned, and it was better to stay up and get the jobs finished, and start with a clean slate in the morning, than go to bed and perhaps fret about the things I had left undone.

I could still get myself settled down to the ironing (no complaints from me about that!) at 1.00 o'clock in the morning, and sit and watch an hour's programme whilst I did some dashing away with the smoothing iron.

One of the last things I would do before going bed, was to sit and write an entry for my blog, but recently my eyes have been complaining. Even allowing time for looking away from the screen at regular intervals, I have found myself staring at the computer, with my eyes feeling as though they are like two peeled, hard-boiled eggs peering out short-sightedly from my face. It is extremely uncomfortable.

I have therefore taken the hint, and been listening to my body, and am now writing and doing close work during the day, and going to bed rather earlier. The only downside is that I tend to sleep for the same number of hours as before, which means I also wake up earlier, feel hungry and have to go downstairs for some breakfast.

Heigh-ho. We have had a huge upheaval in the past few weeks, with Mum dying just over four months ago, and all the on-going battles to get some good resolution for Uncle John whilst it will still be of benefit to him. I hope everything will settle down into a new pattern soon.

I still enjoy restorative afternoon kips. Some things never change!