Sleep Debt

I read on the internet recently that one can survive and function on as little as 5 hours sleep. I am not one of those people. I think I'm more along the lines of a 10 hours a night man, if you know what I mean. Although I love sleeping, the act of waking up is the most feared and hated, especially if I oversleep, then wake up and have to immediately get out of bed. Ahhh, curse you sleep, you are a cruel yet addictive and comforting mistress.

When I was a child, maybe 5 or 6, I remember going through quite a long spell of sleepwalking. Not that I went for long walks, more that it happened again and again over a number of months/years maybe. Now this was the 70's, kids could play football in the street, the sun always shone, there was no internet and life was pretty much comprised of old wive's tales and flares. I'm sure parents and families believed that most things that children did they would grow out of. Well I did with the sleep walking atleast, so no harm down there. But I wonder why it happens? And how can we function whilst asleep? There are unfortunately a few too many stories i could tell about sleepwalking out of hotel rooms in little or no clothes, but I'm not going to. I have read an article about a man from Philidelphia who was on trail for alledged lewd conduct. His defence was that he was sleep 'perving', sorry walking.


It is well known that some people with sleepwalking have very complex behaviors at night. And believe it or not, some have been found to be driving, eating, preparing meals. Most of us miss out on sleep, but only 1 percent to 2 percent of people suffer from "parasomnia," or actions while sleepwalking. This would maybe provide an insight into some poor driving on the M6.


Somniphobia is the fear of sleeping or going to bed. How frustrating must it be to have that as a phobia? I assume that as with all phobias the irrational fear of anything must be annoying, embarrassing and potentially debilitating. My phobia is probably one of the most common out there. Spiders. I've never liked them in anyway. The size, texture of their epidermis, number of legs, number of eyes, the way they scuttle, the fact you never see them eat or drink, and also the arrogant way that they never ask to move into you house or warn you that they intend to live in the bath, they just crack on, move in and wait for you to find out. There are plenty of other phobias out there in real life. Here are a list of some I quite like:

Pteronophobia- Fear of being tickled by feathers.


Pediophobia- Fear of dolls


Rectophobia- Fear of rectum or rectal diseases


Russophobia- Fear of Russians


Sinophobia- Fear of Chinese, Chinese culture.


Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat.


Consecotaleophobia- Fear of chopsticks.


Dendrophobia- Fear of trees.


Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.


Eleutherophobia- Fear of freedom.


Epistemophobia- Fear of knowledge


Ereuthrophobia- Fear of blushing.


Euphobia- Fear of hearing good news.


Eurotophobia- Fear of female genitalia


Genuphobia- Fear of knees


Geliophobia- Fear of laughter


Graphophobia- Fear of writing or handwriting


Geumophobia- Fear of taste


Helminthophobia- Fear of being infested with worms


Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.


Hobophobia- Fear of bums or beggars


Hylophobia- Fear of forests.


Ithyphallophobia- Fear of seeing, thinking about or having an erect penis


Koinoniphobia- Fear of rooms


Leprophobia - Fear of leprosy


Leukophobia- Fear of the color white


Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body


Linonophobia- Fear of string


Logophobia- Fear of words


Lutraphobia- Fear of otters


Melophobia- Fear of music


Nosocomephobia- Fear of hospitals


Oneirogmophobia- Fear of wet dreams


Panophobia or Pantophobia- Fear of everything


Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope


Although I'm not too sure the name of the phobia associated with having your bottom tickled by a great mole rate with chopsticks and an erect penis. I'll come back to you on that one.


It is a beautiful day, the sun is shining, so it's time to go and enjoy it instead of being stuck behind the laptop.




Post from a website on 1900 and 1980's TV programmes:
Horace 1982 - does anyone remember this series. it was about a simple child like man named Horace. i think it was set in the north of england. Does anyone remember the actor who played him?

Sounds a great programme, I'm sure they'll bring it back on ITV.