Exhausted!
Roy was always tired when he woke up in the morning. "I really can't understand it,"
his brother said. "You go to bed earlier than I do
and you get up later. I know you sleep well because
you snore a lot! In fact, you sometimes keep me
awake half the night! So why are you tired in the
morning? It doesn't make sense!" "Perhaps it's
because I dream so much," Roy suggested. "But
dreaming is good for you," his brother told him. "All
the doctors and psychiatrists agree about that."
"Maybe," Roy replied. "But the trouble is, I always dream about hard work! Last
night, for example, I dreamt I was a miner. I went down the mine almost as soon as
I fell asleep and I dreamt that I was digging coal all night long. I was worn out in
the morning! Then, a few nights ago, I dreamt I was a sailor. I was on one of those
old-fashioned sailing ships. We were crossing the Atlantic and there was a terrific
storm. We had to struggle for hours to stop the ship from going down. It's always
like that. In the past few weeks, I've dreamt I was a waiter, a lorry driver and a
football player. I never have a nice easy job!" "I was reading an article about sleep
in a magazine the other day," his brother said. "The writer's advice was: try to relax
before you go to sleep." "But how?" Roy asked. "Well, why don't you listen to some
music? Something pleasant." Roy was willing to try anything. However, what sort of
music? He liked pop music, but that was probably too noisy. So he decided to play
some classical music and, just before he went to bed that night, he put on a CD of
Mozart. In fifteen minutes, he was fast asleep. "Well?" his brother asked him at
breakfast next morning. "Did it work?" Roy yawned. "Well," he said, "I didn't dream
about hard work for once. I dreamt I was conducting an orchestra. The trouble was,
the players were not very good and we had to keep on playing the same piece
repeatedly. In the end, we practised all night! I can tell you, I feel more tired this
morning than I usually do!"