Noise du Jour’s Sleep Deprivation: “When You Sleep” By Cake

Knowing that absolute negatives are in bad form I will say this: I cannot recall ever having sufered from insomnia. There have been occasions where, having consumed what I felt was a perfectly reasonable amount of amphetamines before bed I found myself quite incapable of forcing my eyelids shut, let alone attempting to sleep; but these occasions are few and besides, one grows accustomed to such small chemical induced inconveniences when one lives the life of a person who hammers listlessly at a keyboard a writer.

Indeed, sleep is one of my finest talents, one of the few things of which I am truly capable of and, until recently, felt little embarrassment about. I say until recently because, after having co-habited with another person for some time it was explained to me — tactfully and gently — that I was actually quite bad at it. In fact, far from the peaceful, relaxing repast I thought I had engaged in it was actually a violent, fitful affair full of wild thrashing, mumbling, and the odd shriek about honey badgers eating my intestines. Needless to say I found this newly attained knowledge… disheartening.

It is in the spirit of my uncontrolled, nocturnal gesticulations that I present “When You Sleep” by Cake, a song right in line with the rest of the band’s offbeat and always entertaining catalog. It asks hard questions, questions that, really, only others can answer. Questions, perhaps, best left unasked.