I'm awake when the singing starts

Re. the insomnia: it endures. Got to sleep around half-one and woke up at half-five, for maybe the 10th time in the last two weeks.

But this morning was the first time I turned on the computer, and I have to say it's helped. Not 'helped' in the sense of getting me back to sleep, but helped with putting things in perspective. I'm awake, that's all.

A couple of months ago, my strategy would have been simple: a dram and a dose of Derrida or Deleuze. The only effective cure for sleeplessness I know, and I mean that in the kindest way.

Others have recommended: baths, bananas, and glasses of milk.

My mother will always sing the praises of Radio Forth. When I was a baby, Forth was the only all-night broadcaster and when I woke up crying she would switch it on and sit with me till I slept again. It's easy to forget how much of a godsend that must have been then, when the 4am television was nothing but static.