The question
What thought won't let you sleep?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A long-running fixed question in The Guardian's weekly Q&A questionnaire.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
People singing in the street.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 May 2026 source ↗
Eight years ago, I didn’t sleep for more than two hours a night and was very skinny. I went to a sleep clinic, and learned techniques to switch my mind off.
As I get older, sleeping gets harder. I exercise, I do mindfulness, I take drugs occasionally.
Nothing. I sleep like a log.
Not being at peace with myself, in spite of an ongoing lifetime effort to try to calm down and accept that, no matter what, I did the best I could.
Accidentally walking on to set naked for a scene where I wasn’t actually supposed to be naked.
Everything’s temporary, and how to make aioli.
Catastrophising.
Pigeons. One got stuck in my flat once for quite a long time and it really changed how I feel about them.
I’m not interested.
Snobbishness, superiority, condescension.
Geoffrey Rush, Bobbi Brown, Kerry Godliman, John Simm, Griff Rhys Jones, Louis Walsh
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