Damien’s Diary: it’s good to dream, sometimes

I didn’t sleep a wink last Friday night. It happens now and again. With the alarm set for 5am for Countrywide each Saturday morning, I always dread going to bed on Friday night not knowing if I’m going to nod off quickly or not and then when I don’t, I worry I’m not going to nod off which has the effect of me, eh well, not nodding off!

So at 4.15am last Saturday morning, I had enough, got up, pottered around for a while before heading into RTÉ to get ready for the programme which begins just after 8am. It has been my routine to reach the office by 6am at the latest every Saturday morning for over 11 years.

If I was getting up at 5am every morning, I would have a routine. But of course all our routines have been kiboshed over the past year. And that is why more and more people are having problems sleeping and indeed enduring “mad” dreams.

If you Google “coronasomnia” or #cantsleep, there are acres of articles and help sheets specific to our upside-down sleeping patterns which have become commonplace since the epidemic began. According to Professor Kevin Morgan, a psychologist from Loughborough University, “routine is the guardian of good sleep”.

He makes the general point that because we are not going to bed at the same time and not getting up at the same time, the anchor for our body clock is rocking all over the place. So not having to beat the rush-hour traffic, we are lying on in bed or staying up to watch “one more episode” of the latest binge-worthy Netflix series.

Dreams and nightmares show the incredible creativity of the human mind

He also says in reference to working from home, how important it is to get outdoors, telling the BBC: “Our eyes need exposure to outdoor light because of a hormone in our body called melatonin – it regulates our sleep and wake pattern. It’s the only way the body has of knowing whether it’s light or dark.”

And then there are the mad dreams! Dreams and nightmares show the incredible creativity of the human mind such are the profound and ridiculously constructed storylines and casts that would make Tenet look like a straightforward kid’s movie. The ones I can remember, I enjoy trying to decode, and in some cases it is scary how they do accurately reflect a real-life situation or anxiety.

Last Saturday night, needless to say I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and began dreaming wildly

And we are all consciously or subconsciously anxious right now about the ramifications of COVID-19 and the lockdowns. And according to the experts, anxiety is the rocket fuel for these dreams or nightmares which seem very common. It is one thing we are all in together.

Last Saturday night, needless to say I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and began dreaming wildly. The part I remember is of fellow agri journalist Darragh McCullough and myself racing from somewhere near Dundalk to Dublin, running on top of freshly pruned ditches through farms along narrow country roads.

Earlier on Saturday, Darragh was on Countrywide telling me about organic farming and we touched on the issue of allowing hedges to grow to protect biodiversity. We were under a bit of time pressure to get the programme finished by 9am so I had to rush along my guests including Darragh.

I woke up just before the race ended slightly ahead of Darragh

Based on this, my mind obviously spent Saturday afternoon creatively scripting this mad dream to accompany my much needed REM sleep. I woke up just before the race ended slightly ahead of Darragh who is a seasoned triathlon competitor! Would that happen in reality? I’d say dream on Damo!

It’s hard to believe some people would begrudge CJ Stander’s decision to retire from Munster and Ireland and return to South Africa. He deserves nothing but thanks from Irish rugby fans.