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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Do you fall asleep reading?

28/4/2019

12 Comments

 
A lot of people take a book to bed, confident a few pages of text will help them nod off. That’s not me. As a reviewer, I take my reading far too seriously. Yet, settling down after dinner for two to three hours immersed in a book, I often wonder how long it will take for the words to blur, or for that jolt into wakefulness that signals the end of a micro-sleep. Why oh why?
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My internet search threw up a post hypothesising falling asleep reading is a conditioned response to bedtime stories but it’s a long time since anyone read to me in bed. Shouldn’t I have grown out of it by now? Another suggests our eyes get tired with all the back and forth, but that doesn’t happen to me in the daytime when I’m standing at the screen. It could be that, in my reclining chair, I’m simply too comfortable, but when one reads partly for relaxation, comfort is no bad thing.
 
My eyelids don’t droop every evening, but is that a function of the state of me or of the book? I don’t have to be bored for my mind to disengage, but it could be that the exceptional ones do have the power to keep me awake. I haven’t yet monitored this, but should that be the standard for determining my favourite reads?

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On that note, none hit the extra-sweet spot this month, although a few came close. You can check them out by clicking on the image above. I’d love to know about your own experience of sleep and reading. Do share in the comments box below.
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You can find my other posts on reading here. If I’ve left you nostalgic for bedtime stories, a scene in my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, about a woman who has kept her past identity secret for thirty years, might be the cure. You can read about it in one of my guest posts Tell me a story about when you were a little girl.


You can find this week’s flash fiction challenge by clicking on the image to the right. If the picture, and my musings on sleepiness aren’t enough of a clue, exhaustion is the 99-word story prompt.


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I’ve almost too much to say about exhaustion, and my attempt to narrow down the options has taken me to some of my longer pieces. An exhausted young mother opens my short story collection, Becoming Someone, and a shorter story, “Cracks”, is narrated by someone lying in bed. You can watch and listen to me read the latter – don’t worry I’m up and dressed – below.

As mentioned earlier this month, I’ve been micro-editing my possibly third novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, focusing particularly on repeated words. So I was surprised to find there wasn’t a single exhaustion – although there is now – but six words with exhaust at the root. There are also three versions of fatigue, four of tired and one knackered. My flash is a radical condensation of a scene involving Matty. I’m not sure if it works but it was fun to try.

Sleepless in a dormitory

What an eventful day! Matty could sleep standing up.

Yet she lies on her back. Then on her side. Her thoughts racing, jumping, spinning: packing one away, another springs up.

When the guests retire, she must contend not only with her own mental disarray but the groans that are the external manifestation of theirs. Could she smother them one by one with a pillow? Simpler to step outside.

Shivering in the cobbled courtyard, she cinches her dressing gown. Finally soothed by the diamond-studded sky, she makes to go indoors. But, when she tries the handle, the door won’t budge.
 
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
12 Comments
D. Avery link
29/4/2019 02:41:51 am

Yes, I fall asleep reading. I'm falling asleep now. And I love when I don't HAVE to sleep because I don't HAVE to be on the next day so can read away into the night. But tired is tired. My eyes are worse now too and make reading more of a chore. Those nonfiction books I prefer for their insides, yeah, they have to be read in a non-tired state.
Your flash, I am not sure what all is going on in that scene (yet) but that's the way of it. So tired you could sleep standing then toss and turn. Oof. I better off to Nod soon. Or else.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
30/4/2019 10:25:18 am

So falling asleep at the screen also? Hasn’t happened to me yet but I don’t use screens at night.
And things do change for us when our eyes get older and it’s harder to get a prescription that accommodates near and far distance.
Sorry the flash was confusing – it was condensed to a third was already fairly tight. But the novel should all be confusing for the first couple of pages and then we get into Matty’s mindset. Fingers crossed anyway!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
29/4/2019 12:55:16 pm

Falling asleep while reading is one of the reasons I don't do so much of it anymore. That's not to say I don't read. I'm either writing or reading most of the time. But I find it difficult to sit down with a book and read it for a sustained period. If I'm not too tired when I go to bed, I can usually read a chapter or two, but sometimes, when my head hits the pillow, I just don't want to think any more.
Poor Matty. Why is that, when we get so tired we could sleep standing up, our brains are usually buzzing and won't turn off? Matty had the right idea to soothe her mind but a locked door is not a wonderful result.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
30/4/2019 10:29:41 am

Oh, that’s a shame, to read less because of the soporific effect (though I get your point that you’re reading at the time). For me, it does mean some books to me longer to read than I have expected – but that usually accounts to an extra evening.
Yes, indeed, poor Matty! And she’s tried so hard to maintain a tidy mind. Thanks for sharing that moment with her.

Reply
Violet Lentz link
29/4/2019 01:40:28 pm

I am a terrible insomniac. I can fall asleep reading or watching tv, but will wake within the hour in a panic, and have to start all over again. I loved the calm with which she approached resting, well, until she found she had locked herself out! haha

Reply
Anne Goodwin
30/4/2019 10:33:30 am

Thanks, Violet, isn’t it a nuisance falling asleep at the wrong time? And then not sleeping at the right time.
Thanks for reading Matty’s story – and by the way, there’s a Violet in the novel!

Reply
Geoff Le Pard
29/4/2019 03:42:53 pm

Yep i can sleep anywhere often in meetings. In bed no problem so i don't read there. Looking forward to book three mind and the taster is a grand lead in

Reply
Anne Goodwin
30/4/2019 10:36:31 am

Sleeping in meetings can be a good move if you can do it discreetly – you wouldn’t necessarily miss much! I have a friend who falls asleep at our choir practice but it is after lunch.
I’m glad you like the taster. I’m looking forward to novel 3 too, although nothing confirmed as yet when it’ll be out in the world!

Reply
Lydia link
30/4/2019 05:16:04 pm

I read before bed to get sleepy, too. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on why this might occur.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
1/5/2019 11:13:07 am

Thanks Lydia. I hope you manage to get through enough pages before your eyes close.

Reply
Charli Mills
1/5/2019 11:30:52 pm

Interesting about the link between bedtime stories and falling asleep reading. I rarely ever do, although I have had my eyes blur from too much reading. I used to sneak reading books and I'd stay up late. Even now, I relish alone time after everyone else has gone to bed. It's still my favorite time to read.

I remember the greater scene from your manuscript and it is still one that sticks with me. Thus, I feel a chill at the last line.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
3/5/2019 05:12:08 pm

Oh, Charli, I'm sure I'm not alone in envying your capacity to read into the night without succumbing to sleep!

And thanks, I'm delighted you still remember where that scene goes, horrible as it is!

Reply



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