"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one."
- -Leo J. Burke
Welcome to this, the first post of "Sleepless in Saltdean."
Where is Saltdean?
Saltdean is a small village on the South Coast of England, about 5 miles East of Brighton. As you can see it sits level with breath taking cliff top views.
It has an unpretentious, family friendly feel to it. It has high street shops where the locals are quite likely to be on first name terms with the shop owners.
It's an undulating 5 minute walk to take our 3 year old son to nursery and our 5 year old daughter to School. It has a stunning undercliff walkway leading to some deserted beaches. It has a cliff edge cycle path which leads me all the way to work.
Awesome as all of this is it's often taken for granted by my wife and I as we're too bloody tired to appreciate it.
I genuinely wouldn't swop the life I have with anyone. I feel totally blessed not only to have a very long suffering wife,two great kids but also to have another one due in a couple of months.
If there was just some way of getting them to stay in their beds and not pad through in the middle of the night to sleep horizontally along the pillow line,stick their fingers in our ears or whisper questions we can't possible answer with any degree of accuracy at 2am.
"Why aren't you a girl?"
"Does the wind have teeth?"
"Why isn't Mummy a boy?"
"Do seagulls brush their teeth?"
"Why isn't it Easter tomorrow?"
A clean undisturbed 8 hours sleep is something I would happily swop any number of scenic bike rides or shop keepers knowing my name for.
A bit more sleep would take me from happy to very happy and probably 15-17% more grateful. I have also noticed that the topic of sleep it's the one thing that tends to unite anyone who is a parent.
How's the sleep? Is always the first thing other parents seem to want to know.
No one who has children really tells you that once you're a parent you will no longer get to decide how much sleep you have. Even if they sat you down and really tried to explain it to you you'd probably be too busy stock piling muslin cloths or obsessing about your skirting boards to really listen.
Why write a blog about being a bit tired?
Well that's a good question. I have found it can be good to have something to do at 1am when you'd give your left testicle and probably your right one to get your son or daughter to burp or fart up the last flaming bubble of wind that is keeping you from having enough sleep to be deemed legal to operate heavy machinery over the next 24 hours.
Who cares that you can't sleep?
I very much doubt anyone.
What do you hope to achieve?
If writing a blog about my obsession with sleep, my day dreams of going to bed minutes after I've put the kids to bed,amuses another knackered dad who is wondering why he keeps finding his car keys in the fridge or my ramblings help a brand new Mum realises she's not alone in craving some rest then that will be good.
So this is just a blog about the fact that you get crap sleep?
No it's going to be about the family and how I think the amount of sleep we all get can have a significant impact of the quality of our moods and life in general.
There is a scientific scale that is used to rate depression levels in patients. It's called the Hamilton rating scale for depression. Apparently according to this scale a good night's sleep is considered approximately four times more effective a way of dealing with depression as anti depressants.
If that's not something worth exploring for myself, my family and maybe a brand new Dad warming milk in the early hours then I don't know what is.
"Burrrppppppp...."
"Finally! Well done darling. Right probably an hour tops before I need to answer questions about the dental needs of Seagulls."
Gallery Proxima Generacion
Belle at Princess School
Felt pen and Pencil on paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
If you've enjoyed this blog, you might like these as well. They might help to pass the time if you find yourself in a lengthy queue, stuck on a train, stuck in a lift, or like me, stuck in an anxious moment.
One man's mission to help develop a universal basic living wage and send some postcards.
http://capitalsfromasouthcoast.blogspot.co.uk/
A man with a relaxed attitude towards sorting the recycling preparing himself for the inevitable rise of artificial intelligence.
inanimatesmayobject.blogspot.co.uk/
© 2018 james macdonald copyright
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