Dear LPG,

 I know that I am not alone in this.  When I was a fulltime worker I had no difficulty in sleeping, but now that I have more time on my hands, and can please myself about my bedtime, I don’t sleep as well.  I know that I am luckier than most, but I still have a certain amount of pain that I seem to notice much more during the night than during the daytime, when other things occupy my mind.

I often find myself up with nothing to do in the early hours, so lately I have turned the telly on as a diversion, and I have noticed the amount of half hour advertisements for products that appear night after night.

At the moment there is a miracle vacuum cleaner, and an electric pressure cooker that are the main features.   I have to admit to succumbing to the ones offering the shrinking garden hose and the miracle juicer-blender.  The saddest part is that the moment you get yours there is a new, more efficient version available and if you are not careful you will have a cupboard displaying the evolution of the product.  I stopped after the second incarnation of the blender, but I have to admit to not having used either of them for over a year.   I do use the hose though and I am now considering the miracle eye-wrinkle vanishing cream, but I haven’t actually bought that yet, even though that advert has been aired for quite some time now. 

The TV is a diversion, but there is often nothing else that I want to see on at that time.  The alternative always seems to be some horror film where the plot focuses on a murder or vampire-eating monster but, when I am alone and trying to get back to sleep, I really don’t want to see any of that!   You would be surprised how many of the Freeview channels show these adverts at the same time, though not at exactly the same stage.  As I switch from one to another I am bombarded with the same message time and time again.

While I know that I have the option to listen to the radio or turn the telly off, it seems to me that there are so many channels, but at that time in the morning so few really cater for us older folk as we learn about our individual versions of mild insomnia.  Am I the only one who thinks this way?

AJ, Lewisham.