As we get older we seem to sleep less well, often waking in the middle of the night. Why?
In my case that’s easily answered – it’s the fault of the Guardian Weekly, combined with the International Date Line. I’m writing at 1.57am in Australia, following my regular flick through the latest digital edition. The paper version will arrive in a few days’ time, but it’s worth losing a little shuteye to be the early Bird.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• If we sleep less at night, it’s probably be because we so often nod off over a book or a TV programme during the day.
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• That is when we suddenly remember something we had been trying to recall all day.
Avril Taylor, Dundas, Ontario, Canada
• Could it be that we have more to worry about? Or simply that the pain in my back tells me I need to have a walk before taking more painkillers?
Martin Bryan, Churchdown, UK
• They’re not called the wee hours for no reason.
Simon Leach, Taunton, UK
• It’s nice and quiet and we can read and think in peace.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia
• Just checking we are still alive.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• I find it more concerning that I often wake up in the middle of the day.
Jim Dewar, Gosford, NSW, Australia
If it’s in here, then it’s OK
Fake news is all the rage these days. But how do you spot it?
If it’s tweeted from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• Check if it’s in Guardian Weekly.
Gillian Shenfield, Sydney, Australia
• Treat all news from suspect sources as propaganda and take appropriate action: consider the reverse most likely until the position is clarified by more reliable ones.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• It is fake if it is not true.
Greg McCarry, Sydney, Australia
• It is in the eye of the beholder.
Sunil Bajaria, London, UK
Please give us more time
Why is the cliche “at the end of the day” uttered so often in interviews?
Maybe because we hope it really isn’t, that tomorrow we will still be going forward and have not yet reached our bottom line.
David Bouvier, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada
Can we help it if we’re good?
Do you have a pet name for the Guardian?
A close member of my family sarcastically calls it The Smartian, and has been known to burn it unopened, on the grounds that it removes me from communication for a two-hour block each Thursday.
Gerald Garnett, Kaslo, British Columbia, Canada
• The Veekly, in honour of the German newsagent in the small Northamptonshire village where I grew up in the 1970s.
Sarah Waterfield, Bristol, UK
I am ready for my close-up
Why does our foresight rarely match our hindsight?
I have been good at predicting the outcome of policies, for instance: adding carbon to the atmosphere, encouraging smoking, clear-cutting forests, unlimited population growth, President Trump’s platform, lowering taxes for the rich and so on. My only problem? Nobody listens to me. But if anyone does, my Nobel acceptance speech is ready.
Joe Harvey, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Foresight is guesswork. Hindsight is “I told you so”.
Avril Nicholas, Crafers, South Australia
Any answers?
Why are there so few books with really bad endings?
John Benseman, Auckland, New Zealand
Were your good old days really good?
Peter Stone, Sydney, Australia
• Send answers and more questions to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
