Sleepless Nights .........

Your eyelids are heavy, your legs feel like lead, if you yawn any wider you are in danger of swallowing yourself. You drag yourself into bed, your head hits the pillow and ......... nothing!! Sleep has been creeping up on you all evening, filling your head with thoughts of peaceful slumbers, the land of nod, a world of happy dreams, drifting into a peaceful repose, all the worries of the day packed into an imaginery box until the morning. So where does sleep go? Why does it wrap you in its magical spell, lie you down ...... and then vanish. Sleep, are you sadistic? Do you take delight in teasing, tormenting, gently kissing the eyes closed then taping them open like some form of ancient torture? You have plenty of time to rest during the day, so why oh why do you have to disappear at night? Are you ill? On holiday? Fed up and need a change? Then how about training up another sleep to take your place. Just a thought .....
Have you noticed how loud the ticking of the clock becomes when you cannot sleep, how fast the seconds seem to go yet how slow the night seems to pass. Shadows cast by streetlights slip
through gaps in the curtain, friendly as they touch the ceiling yet turning into some kind of macabre, long-fingered night demon as tired eyes send bizarre messages to the brain. You switch on the telly. Programmes that send you to sleep during the day, boring the pants off you, seem to have the opposite effect at night. So get out a book. Tired eyes blur the words, tired hands constantly drop the book to the floor. You lose your place, lose your train of thought. Crosswords. No, the only crosswords are those you aim at sleep and his continuing absence. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Yes, I am fond of sleep ....... or would be if I could find some. A drink, a nice, comforting, hot drink, just what the doctor ordered. You reach for the kettle .... but no. Just imagine, enjoying a late night cuppa, falling into bed, the eyes close,
you've hit the jackpot and then the inevitable happens. You need the toilet, need to relieve yourself when all you really want is relief from lack of sleep. Up you get, knickers down, cold toilet seat, and you are back where you started!!
So is there an answer. So many suggestions from so many people. Sleeping pills, lavender, milky drink, self-hypnosis, sounds of the sea ...... the list is endless. Am beginning to think that one gets used to the zombie-like state continued sleep deprivation creates, a brain stuffed with cotton wool, a day spent on automatic pilot. But I have a cunning plan. I am going to find sleep. He is out there somewhere, he cannot hide for ever. So I am going to build a sleep detector. There is already one for smoke, one for carbon monoxide, one for metal ........ so why not one for sleep. Can't be that difficult. After all, I'm not a stupid person. And they say lack of sleep drives you crazy. Not me, oh no, not me!!!!!