We should not grudge our judges a little sleep on the Bench. Remember that some of them start reading the stack of papers and go through the files from four in the morning. Eminent judges in England are also not immune from the sleep syndrome. Justice Finlay, when his court resumed after lunch, used to walk up and down the bench behind his chair because he was afraid of going to sleep. Justice Beaman of the Bombay High Court warded off sleep in similar fashion. Going through David Pannick’s delightful book Judges, I found a precedent for my youthful prank. Pannick recounts that Justice Cave regularly had an afternoon snooze at work and to wake him up, ‘‘flippant young barristers dropped heavy volumes on the floor or banged the flaps of the seat’’. Apparently naughty minds think alike.

The matter was aptly summed up by one Law Lord who said he did not mind his fellow Law Lords sleeping during the hearing of a case but objected to their snoring and disturbing the sleep of the other Law Lords. But the catch is, as Mark Twain points out, ‘‘there ain’t no way to find out why a snorer can’t hear himself snore’’. Fortunately no MP was found snoring during the Presidential address, thus obviating far-reaching constitutional issues like whether snoring would tantamount to contempt of the House.