Earlywood: Insomnia – the Greatest Design Drug

Publisher’s note: I hope you were able to sleep, and sleep in, this morning. It’s once again Saturday, the day we publish Earlywood, a free excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) blog published in 2017. Enjoy!

For the last 20-odd years, I have benefited from regular bouts of insomnia.

When they happen, I’ll wake about 4 a.m., roll over and my head will spin with several conflicting images, usually relating to something on my workbench from the past, present or future. For years, I tried to get back to sleep when this happened. When Lucy and I had children who were young, we needed every moment of sleep possible.

Now, I take a different tack.

I sort through my frontal lobe slideshow as if I’m attending a university lecture in a foreign language. What is my subconscious trying to tell me because it cannot use words?

Then I sneak out of the bedroom and head to my sketchbook, which always sits i…