WHEN we wake in the night and find ourselves staring into the darkness for hours, it isn’t the joys of spring that fill our mind.

Instead, it’s the nagging worries we manage to distract ourselves from during the day that burrow their way through when night falls.

The mounting credit card bill; unfinished DIY jobs; tomorrow’s work diary; that thing you wish you had or hadn’t told someone, even though it was three months ago; the people no longer here you miss every day; nagging health concerns you’re afraid to confront; wasted opportunities; countries you’ll never see; the ageing process; a rough estimate of the years you have left, and all the stuff you still want to do...

All of the above have kept me awake, and at least one of those nocturnal niggles will be familiar to anyone who has ever struggled to sleep. We all have nights of broken sleep; twisting, turning, re-arranging the duvet, plumping up the pillows, drinking water, reading a few chapters, counting to 100, staring at the ceiling. Waiting for sleep. For years, this has been a pretty normal pattern for me at night.

I’ve reached the conclusion that I’m an insomniac, which I think is partly down to my age. “See a doctor,” my partner growls, whenever my fidgeting, duvet-kicking, bedside lamp-lighting and nocturnal wandering wakes him from the kind of deep slumber I would kill for. I draw the line at moaning to a harassed GP that I can’t sleep, but I’ve tried many things, including lavender drops and counting (instead of sheep I count present-day Coronation Street characters, but usually I get through them all and am still awake). Some nights reading sends me sleepy, other nights I read for hours. If I go to bed early I invariably wake up shortly after midnight, wide-eyed and alert. And all the while I’m fretting that I’m not getting the eight hours of sleep we’re told we need, and I’ll probably struggle to stay awake at my desk come 3pm.

A survey by Aviva Health Insurance reveals that 38per cent of UK adults, about 20 million of us, aren’t getting enough sleep. And since sleep is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle - aiding brain function, helping to balance hormones and blood sugar levels, safeguarding against mood swings and repairing blood vessels - it’s something I’m keen to tackle.

Could a slumber-friendly download help? Recently I read about some apps designed to help us fall asleep. One of them, Pzizz, creates “personalised soundscapes “to help you drift off - like having a “sleep DJ” at your bedside. You plug in the amount of time you want to sleep and the app adjusts a timed mix to lull you into a deep slumber and gently rouse you when it’s time to wake up. Maybe not so great for a sleeping partner who insists on total silence.

Another app, Sleep Cycle, is an “intelligent alarm clock” which tracks your sleep patterns. In the morning you get a report of how well you slept, with graphs illustrating how alcohol and other lifestyle factors affect your slumber. Sounds a bit intrusive... like being told off for having that third glass of wine before bed.

Then there’s White Noise Lite, which cuts out background noise - something I could’ve done with the other night when there was a loud late-night barbecue down the street. Through your headphones comes a relaxing audio combo of different frequencies to zen out to, such as crackling camp fires, rain on a car roof and crickets chirping.

I guess it’s worth a try. The older I get, the more I worry about the impact of sleeplessness on my health and wellbeing. Something else to fret about in the small hours...

* THERE are some things that everyone loves, but I can't be doing with. Among them are Ed Sheeran, mayonnaise, Harry Potter....and Les Miserables.

I've tried to like Les Mis, assuming I'm missing a vital bit that will click into place. I went to see the film, and felt like I'd been in the cinema three long weeks. I saw it on Broadway, enjoyed the songs but just didn't get it overall. It packs an emotional punch, but is annoyingly implausible. Why would a police inspector in 19th century Paris be so obsessed with one ex-convict?

Maybe screenwriter Andrew Davies, who's turning it into a TV drama, will change my mind. With a more subtle approach than the overblown musical, Victor Hugo's study of politics, morality, republicanism, justice and love may finally make sense to me.

* I QUITE enjoy the quirkiness of Britain's Got Talent, but it's becoming increasingly contrived. Those staged 'chats' between audience members and contestants backstage are particularly grating, as are the endless choirs that, frankly, all sound the same.

But it's the D Day Darlings who crossed the line on Monday's semi-final of the ITV show. The wartime singing act ended their rousing performance with a row of military veterans walking onto the stage. Is it just me who found this horribly exploitative and emotionally manipulative?