Awake At 3.42am.

Nothing looks good at 3.42am.

Everything is amplified. The problem bigger, the hole deeper, the pain more acute.

The 3.42 wake up serves no useful purpose (unless you’re on an early EasyJet flight. Even then its unwelcome). Nothing gets resolved at 3.42am. It’s just an outlet; an opportunity for anxiety, worry or stress to grab the headlines. In truth, it’s less an ‘out let’ - as nothing goes away - more a window.

The 3.42am content isn’t the real show. It just comes dressed as that. The real show is the underlying fear, anxiety, doubt which is otherwise bubbling in the background, unseen.

3.42 is its only chance to grab the headlines; the only time the underlying worry, stress and doubt is heard.

I am prone to stress, to over analyse. Ideal 3.42 fodder.

Until this last week.

I’ve slept better in the last week than almost every week for a very long time. And the only difference? I’ve been actively, religiously, well, being nice. To myself. Taking time every day, several times a day in fact, to be nice. To say thank you, to celebrate, to acknowledge - me. If I was a kitten, which I’m not, I’d turn me over and tickle my tummy. Yep, that nice.

Being nice is good. It pays dividends. One week of extra niceness and already I’m sleeping better.

But no need to believe me. Believe science. Science knows - and we by extension - that habits zip themselves into our brains in as little as three weeks and in eight we might shift our entire brain circuitry.

That’s re-wiring your entire brain in just 8 weeks. And being nice lays down these new grooves. In 8 weeks, shifting the entire circuitry from an underlying pessimism to a lens of optimism.

And, I’m told, being nice to yourself makes you nice to others.

We’ll get to that. I’m only one week in, after all.