Comedian Stephen Fry has shared a quirky sleep tip that involves whipping up mayonnaise in the wee hours. Speaking to Nick Grimshaw on the Dish podcast, Stephen, who suffers from chronic pain, divulged his unique method during a mealtime conversation.
He credits the process of making mayonnaise, which he dubs “mayofulness”, with helping his mind unwind and allowing him to drift back to sleep. The 67 year old described his routine: “I wake up at three in the morning, can’t go back to sleep, I go down and I start to make mayonnaise.”
Stephen believes that “it’s a mixture of concentration and rhythmic relaxation that I think calms the brain down. Unusually, then I can go back and go to sleep in the happy knowledge there’ll be a jar of mayonnaise. I call it ‘mayofulness’.”
This isn’t the first occasion Stephen has opened up about his health; recently, on Radio 4’s Today programme, he discussed living with chronic pain following injuries sustained from a fall off a stage at the O2 in 2023. In a conversation with guest editor Professor Irene Tracey, he spoke frankly about his relationship with pain and the psychological strategies he employs to cope.
Stephen Fry
He revealed: “You become afraid of basic movements and you become annoyed with yourself being afraid of them so you start to make bargains with yourself. You talk about your pain as if it’s first of all an alien, something you have to defeat, you give it a name, maybe of someone you really dislike,” reports Surrey Live.
Stephen reflected on the complex relationship people have with pain, saying: “Or you do that other strange thing which is…you almost call it a friend and say ‘It’s OK, I know why you’re there’ and you’re not a failure on the part of evolution, or God, or whatever you want to call nature, you are there for a purpose.”
Stephen Fry makes mayonnaise at 3am
He also pondered whether cultural attitudes play a role in how we cope with discomfort, asking: “Are we wrong to believe that it’s rather British to think that pain is something that should be endured?”
In an earlier conversation with Good Morning Britain, the presenter shared his journey towards recovery, stating: “I’m feeling whole and healed thanks to good physiotherapy. It was pretty nasty. I broke my leg in two places, my pelvis in four places and a bunch of ribs, so it was really quite serious,” while discussing his experience. Despite the severity of his injuries, he disclosed that he had briefly used the controversial painkiller OxyContin, notorious in the USA, but emphasised that it was under strict medical supervision.