Sunday, 22nd February, 2026
These days, I tend to go to bed before midnight but wake before 5.00 am. I have never slept particularly long. It has always seemed a waste of time. We only have so much time in our lives and to spend 30% of it comatose in darkness seems excessive although it has always fascinated me that all humans go into a darkened room and suspend consciousness every day. Throughout my working life, I never managed more than about 6 hrs a night which the NHS recommendations suggest isn’t enough although that has been challenged recently.
NHS Recommended Sleep Duration by Age
- Newborns (0–3 months): 14–17 hours
- Infants (4–12 months): 12–16 hours (including naps)
- Toddlers (1–2 years): 11–14 hours (including naps)
- Preschool (3–5 years): 10–13 hours (including naps)
- School age (6–12 years): 9–12 hours
- Teenagers (13–18 years): 8–10 hours
- Adults (18+): 7–9 hours
As a child, I was forced to spend a lot longer in bed than I would choose myself. Let loose, I found I was not an owl or a lark but bird of both. I love early mornings and I love late nights. It’s the middle bit that gets me.
We are told that we need sleep for optimal physical health, mental restoration, and cognitive function. Sleep is essential for immune system support, tissue repair, and hormone regulation. Chronic sleep deprivation increases risks for heart disease, diabetes.
You have gone through life in sleep,
Never woken to the nightmare.
I tell you, life would be unendurable
If you were wide awake.T. S. Eliot’s The Family Reunion
People do report going to sleep with a problem in their head and waking up with the solution and I have known that. Unfortunately, the unsolved problem can often delay sleep altogether. Older adults often sleep less or have more disrupted sleep due to aging but you only have to visit a Care Home and particularly one for Dementia and you will see residents asleep for long periods in chairs around the Lounge.
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
……
You have gone through life in sleep,
Never woken to the nightmare.
I tell you, life would be unendurable
If you were wide awake.When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats
We should all be resisting the gradual drift into inaction and revery. Nodding by the fire is my nightmare. I regularly cite my friend, John Ridley, when I talk to people about this. He is constantly active and contributing to the world be it in terms of Education and Culture as well as personal travel. As he takes his next guided tour of Fountains Abbey I am so admiring of his energy and commitment.
Monday, 23rd February, 2026
Anyone who follows/observes the religious calendar will know that Lent has begun. In our childhood home, we were forced to give up sweets and biscuits for the period of 40 days. Looking back it feels absolutely archaic, medieval even. Like eating fish on Fridays which we also did, it was out of an age of ghosts and witches, of superstition and religiosity as rules of life. If these sort of things were espoused outside the wrapper of formal region, they would be considered certifiable.
Catholic Easter is April 5th this year. Orthodox Easter is a week later. The beginning of Lent here was last Wednesday – marked by Ash Wednesday – and you couldn’t get much more of a medieval ceremony that that. Palm leaves said to be paving the way of Jesus are burned in a crucible in the church and the ashes are smeared on celebrants foreheads accompanied by the words:
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Well you would if you had no critical judgement, wouldn’t you. It was/is all part of the social control structure. It happened to me before I had freedom of control and underlined why I should reject such nonsense.
In Greece, today is Kathara Deftera, or Clean Monday – the beginning of Lent among Orthodox Christians. It is the day Greeks fly kites as symbols of the Resurrection and go on picnics outdoors. The holiday is also the unofficial start of spring for Greeks.
Lent is a period of self-flagellation, of repentance evidenced by self-denial. Greeks give up meat, dairy and olive oil as well as alcohol. Squid, Octopus and shellfish can be eaten. Wine and oil are permitted at weekends. (Phew!) Mind you, even though I love octopus salad, I couldn’t live on it for 40 days. You only have to begin to examine these traditions to realise they are utterly mad like believing the earth is flat the moon is made of cheese or there is a god in the sky. They are all of a pre-enlightenment, pre-scientific, pre-industrialised age.
Once you free yourself of these shackles and live life, self discipline is important and more meaningful. I rarely eat meat other than chicken. I eat oceans of fish and fields of vegetables. I impose weeks of abstinence from alcohol on myself but I do it for a purpose at my own direction not because of some shayman with incense burners and bottles of holy water. I am responsible for and in charge of my own condition. And that is as it should be.