During the years I spent travelling, living and working in many different countries, an indispensable item in my backpack (and now suitcase, now that I have grown up) has always been at least one pair of earplugs (preferably the yellow foam ones). I genuinely don’t know how I would have ever had a good night’s sleep without them (unless I had drunk enough of the local brew to send me into an immediate stupor). Many people say “I wouldn’t be able to sleep using those blasted things” (having never even tried), and then in the same breath complain that the noisy neighbours/ the bar downstairs/ the main road outside the window kept them awake all night. As far as I can see, you have a very simple choice: stay awake and silently fume with impotence, or give the little yellow foam cylinders a go.

I have just moved house, and at first glance the apartment seemed incredibly quiet, too good to be true. Everywhere I have ever lived, there has always been at least one thing guaranteed to disturb the peace. We once moved into a flat where you didn’t hear a sound at night. After having lived on one of the main roads in central Barcelona, we were in seventh heaven… until the downstairs neighbour came home just after midnight. He was a stone deaf, insomniac trash TV addict whose living room was right underneath our bedroom… I can leave you to guess the rest. Grrrrrr! Anyway, our new apartment is on a very quiet street, no dogs barking or howling (another major dread when moving to a new place), but we seem to have a flamenco dancer and her family living upstairs. “Click clack clickety clack” go her stiletto heels at 8 in the morning, and then again at 2am when she gets home from whenever she goes in the evenings. It’s no big deal, just one of the drawbacks of living in an apartment. At least I have my earplugs, whereas my husband says he couldn’t possibly sleep with earplugs in, or without them for that matter…

I thought this would be a good place for a little “plug” (excuse the dreadful pun); try this website if you sleep next to a snorer or have noisy neighbours! www.sleepwellearplugs.co.uk Sleep well…

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