UP to a third of the population suffer from insomnia, according to the Great British Sleep Survey. This puts them at risk from mental health and relationship issues.

Dr Andrew McCulloch, chairman of the Mental Health Foundation, said, “Sleep has for too long been neglected as a major influence in the physical and mental health of the nation.”

Insomnia was in part caused by stress, longer working hours and money worries caused by the recession.

I must be one of the lucky ones, because I have never had a problem with insomnia.

Some times, when I was working in those halcyon days of journalism when two hour liquid lunches were essential to extract stories from council or police contacts, I was even been known to return to the office for a power nap, even though power naps had not then been invented.

But then I have always been a great one for a daytime sprawl on the sofa.

“Are you asleep?”

“No. Just resting my eyes.”

Or: “No. I’m thinking.”

I used to do a lot of thinking. Still do, as it happens, although working from home I no longer have to pretend.

Two o’clock always seems an appropriate time for a nap.

This in no way hinders my sleep patterns when I go to bed at night. I have the happy knack of going off like a light and, if I do wake up in the early hours, this never phases me or makes me long for sleep.

I take comfort from the fact that I am snug and warm and let my mind wander free.

Television is all very well, films can be enjoyable and books are even better, but the raw enthusiasm and range of the imagination knows no barriers.

In those silent hours, it surges free to a land where I am 32 and six foot tall and I let the adventures begin.

So if you are troubled by an inability to sleep, turn you

imagination loose down exciting paths of discovery, romance or fast action thrills. It’s all right. They can’t touch you for it.