I don’t just need more sleep but I need better quality sleep and for some reason I am not getting enough of either. As a young nurse I grew used to grabbing my sleep when I could get it, between shifts and social activities and of course I slept like the young innocent person with little responsibilities that I was. I felt sorry for the poor junior doctors who were completely sleep deprived, though they often didn’t seem to help themselves as they partied when not working too. They also were young though and their only responsibilities lay in the hospital, away from it they were single and ready for a good time.

During that period, as long as I could get my room darkish and was allowed some quiet at the point I wanted to sleep then I could get a good few hours quality shut eye before gettting up, eating and going back to work. Sometimes, during the winter, you could do a week of nights and never go outside, thanks to a tunnel running between the nurses home and the hospital.

As a young mother I came to appreciate the value of sleep much more. It was less about the number of hours you were in your bed and more about the type of sleep you had. My darling son seemed to need much less sleep than me, and loved to get up and play at 5am! Thankfully he is now a teenager and now needs more than he did at 2 years old (apparently).

It has come as something as a shock to me that I am suddenly struggling to sleep. Now don’t get me wrong, if I am tired I can fall asleep fine, the trouble is that the slightest sound and I am wide awake and with my mind suddenly in over drive I just cannot get back to sleep again. Most mornings this is around 5am when my husband goes out to work (and I tell myself that if this amount of sleep is enough for him then it should be for me) but last night it was 1.30am as I lay there wide awake reliving every minute of the last few weeks at work and I am kind of fed up with it. I don’t want to start resorting to chemicals to induce sleep so perhaps need to learn some relaxation techniques because having my sleep interrupted at night is definitely affecting me during the day in a way I have never experienced before.