SLEEP CYCLONE

I woke up this morning feeling rested, for the first time in a long time.

It's that feeling you get when your sleep has been worth it and you've woken up at the moment your body thinks is the exact optimum.

The only trouble was, as I was soon to discover, that my body had clearly calculated that optimum to be 8:50am... and I had been asleep for 12 hours, making me totally late for work.

You know the melodrama that unfolds next. To an observer it looks like a small tornado is breezing through your house, picking up clothes, toothbrush, work passes and keys as it spins furiously from bedroom to bathroom wreaking its own unique trail of devastation before finally passing out of the hall, slamming the front door behind it.

I got to work at 9:20, dishevelled and looking less than professional.

This then, is the result of taking sleeping tablets. They have reduced my world to daylight only, making me drowsy in the evenings and late in the mornings. As a thrilling side-effect, the medication (mirtazapine) has also made me subject to waves of wooziness, which add that extra bit of unpredictability to the day.

That's the feeling you get when you step off a roller-coaster, or out of a really hot bath - a kind of dizzy cyclone that lasts for a few seconds and makes you feel sick.

I walked into a hedge yesterday. I'm not altogether convinced I ought to be in charge of a motor vehicle at the moment.

Anyway, here I am, at work, dishevelled and not particularly ready for the week. It's a busy one too - I'm not sure how I'm going to get through the evenings without falling over.

Still, at least I'll sleep well.