I saw this at the BBC news site this weekend.

Many people use the clocks going back to gain an extra hour in bed - but a sleep expert says the change can actually leave people tired.
Even such small changes, said Dr Neil Stanley, can disrupt sleep routines and cause semisomnia - low grade exhaustion caused by inadequate rest.

...and laughed like a drain.

You see, I work rotating shifts which plays sheer bloody havoc with your body clock, leading to an increased risk of getting such illnesses as diabetes, heart disease, bowel cancer, depression and (while not a disease) divorced.

Let me tell you about my sleep pattern over the past few days.

Tuesday night - Four hours sleep.
Wednesday night - Four hours sleep.
Thursday night - Twenty one hours sleep.
Friday night - Forty minutes sleep.
Saturday night - Eleven hours sleep.
Sunday night - Eight hours sleep.

I think someone somewhere said that regular sleep is good for you? This sleep pattern is me on 'day' shifts, when it gets to fitting into night shifts it gets even worse. Then I end up staying awake something like thirty-eight hours.

If I didn't do these rotating shifts then my £400 a week take-home pay would be cut by around 25%.

I love the government.

Yesterday was quite a pleasant shift, plenty of things to write about, but I'll start off with the only bad job of the day.

Called by a 'good Samaritan' (on which more later) to a 'male collapsed in the street', we turned up to find a drunk male snoring away in the rain.

We can't leave them there, because we'll only get called back to them and the police won't take him, so we loaded him up onto the ambulance and went.

Let my paperwork speak for itself.

'Patient found asleep in the street, smells heavily of alcohol. Pupils large and sluggish, nystagmus. No obvious physical injury. On waking refused to allow me to take observations. Told me to "Fuck off", which is apparently the only English he speaks. Unable to get details of patient. Acting aggressive.
On arrival at hospital patient attempted to hit me, told me to "fuck off" again and left the ambulance and walked off.'

Sadly, not an unusual job.

Here is an idea - if we pick up a patient drunk from the street, we should take the to hospital (unless someone decides to operate a 'drunk tank'), there they receive their treatment, then the police are informed and the patient is hit with a penalty charge of £100. The proceeds of which then go to the NHS.

Of course what would be better would be to have private companies running 'drunk tanks' where the 'patients' are looked after until they sober up - and then are charged for the privilege.