Meghann Fahy: What thought won't let you sleep? — FLAPSS

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.

MF

Meghann Fahy

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here

All of the anxious thoughts that you are able to escape during the day that somehow know when you are lying down to relax.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 196 →

The perimenopause.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 September 2023 source ↗

Corinne Bailey Rae

All the big ones – climate change, safety for our children, money.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 September 2023 source ↗

Clive Myrie British journalist, newsreader, and presenter

Other people’s suffering.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 June 2024 source ↗

Adjoa Andoh English actress

Everything: I worry about whether the window frames need replacing, did I answer that email, how long my face is going to hold up, world peace, poverty…

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 September 2021 source ↗

More from Meghann Fahy

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Question How close have you come to dying? Death & what remains

A blood clot in my artery when I was 23.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Question What lesson has mattered most in your life? Time & hindsight

Your lowest moment is temporary.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Question When were you most embarrassed? Failure & regret

In my 20s I was in a show called The Unauthorised Autobiography of Samantha Brown. The actor who played my dad messed up his lines and it made me laugh so hard that I ended up peeing my pants.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Question What do you fear most? Identity & self

Crashing in an aeroplane into an ocean at night.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Question How would you sum yourself up in three words? Identity & self

Curious, thoughtful and kind.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

Question What is the harshest thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

I had a casting director once stop me in the middle of an audition and tell me to go wash my face in the bathroom because she felt my makeup was too distracting, but I wasn’t wearing any. It was mortifying. It felt like a power play and I was so young, I didn’t know what to do.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 April 2026 source ↗

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