Les Matins Blancs

Anyone who has ever woken up in the night and been unable to fall back to sleep has had what is called 'Les Nuits Blanches'! This is a French term meaning white nights (not to be confused with white knights)and in my opinion it is an absolutely perfect description of what happens when we are wrenched from our sleep and unable to find our way back. This term cannot be applied to those nights when temporary insomnia motivates you to switch on your bedside lamp(low beam of course) and read yourself back to slumber because once that light is on, the 'white' is gone. For obvious reasons it is not recommended to have too many of these 'white nights'. It goes almost without saying that you will begin to have that haggard ghostly appearance which will not be a good thing if you can properly focus when looking in the mirror, and this new look will make you the subject of all manner of gossipy chatter around the water cooler so it is best to limit these nocturnal detours to as few as possible. There is however one other disruption that is also sleep (or lack thereof) related. That is the matin blanc. ( blanc,because matin is masculine of course) This occurs when you return home very late on a Saturday and finally hit the hay safe in the knowledge that you don't have to get up early on Sunday. Without warning you awaken at 6:00am ready to greet the day after only a few hours of sleep. Try as you will, you cannot get back to your dreams. You are in the full throes of a matin blanc.