Now, blessings light on him that first invented sleep! It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap, and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even. ~Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605

I don't know if it is the clock change (or indeed how long a person can blame everything from bad cooking to tiredness on it), but I feel shattered. After several weeks of waking up an hour or two before the alarm, now I am struggling to wake up an hour or two after it. Make that fourteen hours after it. I'm nearly asleep now.

I've been reminded of the proverb 'Six hours's sleep for a man, seven for a woman and eight for a fool.. Either I am a fool or I am allergic to too much daylight. Or the proverb is wrong. Albert Einstein allegedly liked to sleep nine hours a night to reach his optimum working level - ten hours, apparently, if he had a busy day ahead of him. Margaret Thatcher only wanted, apparently, four or five hours sleep. Neither were fools but I'd rather join Albert's gang.

Better go and get a mug of coffee so that I can stay up late and watch telly.

*trudges towards the kitchen, thumb in mouth, clutching Teddy Edward*