My entire childhood and well into my twenties, I struggled with insomnia, trying everything from melatonin to magnesium — I spent most nights awake at 4am begging my mind to switch off so that I could get some sleep.

One thing that occasionally helped was listening to podcasts or watching television — but if I listened to a too-dull audiobook, my mind would drift, choosing instead to follow anxious thoughts around in my head for hours. Or if it was engaging enough to encourage my mind to focus on something other than round-and-round anxious thoughts, I would frequently be startled awake when there was a loud sound in the show, leaving me feeling even more alert and stressed out than before.

Later in adulthood, I was trying to encourage a very anxious eleven-year-old to fall asleep, and I decided to use my training as a Yoga Nidra teacher to coax her into a state of relaxation. It seemed to be working. I utilised some other Yoga Nidra techniques to keep her mind partially engaged in what I was saying; not wanting to be so interesting that she stayed awake, while being just compelling enough to keep her mind semi-focused.

She was asleep in minutes, this technique worked even quicker on her nine-year-old brother — and so The Boring Story was born.