Extolling the gifts of growing older, Dame Judi Dench recently said she wouldn’t change a thing for the smooth face and flat stomach of her youth. ‘Who cares if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 in the morning and then sleep until who knows how much?’
Sometimes, though, you really do just want to fall asleep – yet it stubbornly evades you. What then? ‘I listen to Classic FM,’ she told broadcaster Zeb Soanes. ‘Especially at night sometimes, if I can’t sleep. Classic FM is my friend, neighbour, lover… anything you like. I’m right there with my ear at the radio.’
It sounds charming. But it also turns out to be remarkably well supported by science.
If you’re lying awake at 3am wondering whether anyone else is counting the minutes until morning, you’re very much not alone.
