On Getting A Good Night's Sleep

Or

On Missing The Bleedin' Obvious

For the last couple of years I have been tired; I don't mean just yawning a bit but so tired I could hardly function.  I'd wake up tired, I have to sleep in the morning, I'd have a nap in the afternoon and be just about awake for the evening.  Even though I'm retired I didn't have the energy to tackle the backlog of DIY in all round the house and garden - I was too tired to think straight.

I spoke to the GP and she, twice, sent me for blood tests but they didn't show any reason for me being tired.  Given the amount of medication I'm on (for depression, bronchiectasis, asthma etc etc) I began to feel I should just get used to it and to make the most of what energy I'd got left.

And then I saw the light

Literally

It said "updating"

You see in our bedroom we had an old TV with built in video player (yes, that old) and in order to watch DVDs and digital TV we'd bought a DVD/HD Recorder.  Now this wonderful piece of kit can record TV from its programme guide but to do this it has to keep the guide up to date.  Some bright spark had the brilliant idea of getting it to do this at about 4am each day and, just to add to the fun, get it to make little beeping noises while it goes about its work!  Now I'm a light sleeper and so that was enough noise if not to wake me but to disturb me out of a deep sleep.

It was a couple of weeks ago that the penny dropped - it nearly always said  "updating" on the front of the machine when I woke up at night.  First we unplugged it and, when this seemed to help, have replaced it with a basic DVD player to go with the new TV that we'd bought in the meantime.

I now wake up in the morning feeling refreshed and can actually get through the day without sleeping.  All that remains is to work out how to link the DVD/HD Recorder into the system in the living room so that we can record from cable as well.

The moral is the answer can be literally in front of your eyes.