on the whole i sleep lightly – waking at the slightest hackney gunshot or police helicopter flyover – and, esp. if too hot, find it v.hard to drift off in the first place

for a long time – ie when i wz in my twenties – this is possibly bcz i drank 8-10 cups of coffee a day and SCOFFED at the idea it had powers over me!! possibly caffeine affects you puny earth-worlder mortals but i am IMMUNE! i sleep as twitichingly alert as a CAT and as a child was kept awake by BATS SQUEAKING* ect ect!!

anyway one day i got laryngitis and a side-effect of the antibiotics was i stopped liking or wanting coffee and after three weeks cold turkey i discovered SLUMBER AS DEEP AS I HAD NEVER KNOWN (and now rarely have coffee after mid-day)

however i continued inwardly to scoff at the unscientific notion that a HOT MILK DRINK would send me off quicker — until this last 18 months or so, when various real-life stresses really were keeping me awake… now i have taught myself, if i am still wide-eyed and hotly grumpy at 3, to get up, make a pan of milk, froth it up w.my little ELECTRIC WHISK, drink it not so quickly i burn my tongue, and mmmm WHUPFF** zzzzzzz!

*this bit is true
**sound of head hitting pillow