Nuisances of the night

I am blessed with the ability to sleep soundly; so soundly, that the ringing of the telephone doesn't wake me. Not that the telephone rings in the night very often. I think the last time that happened was when the hospital rang to tell me that my mother was dying and I slept through the bell. But that really has nothing whatever to do with what I started out to blether about.

There are two things that irritate me at night. The first happens at that delicious point when I have been lying there for a minute or two, cocooned in the warmth of the duvet, and am just on the cusp of falling asleep. Mrs S then jerks in her sleep and kicks me, or she turns and pulls the duvet so that it tickles my face. Either way, I am wide awake again and it takes me an age to get asleep.

Then there are those times when I wake feeling that I have had the best night's sleep for absolutely ages, I'm all fired up and ready to go. I want to jump out of bed and greet the day with a whoop. Then I notice that it is still pitch dark. I peer at the clock and see that it is only 1.00am and I've only been asleep for an hour and a half. Naturally, I sleep through the alarm the later in the morning.