Comedian Stephen Fry has divulged his peculiar sleep remedy which involves whipping up mayonnaise at the ungodly hour of three in the morning. Living with chronic pain, Stephen shared this quirky tip with Nick Grimshaw on the Dish podcast during a mealtime conversation.
He revealed that engaging in what he dubs “mayofulness” helps soothe his mind and allows him to drift back to sleep. The 67- year-old elaborated: “I wake up at three in the morning, can’t go back to sleep, I go down and I start to make mayonnaise.”
“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 instance of Stephen opening up about his health; recently on Radio 4’s Today programme, he discussed his ongoing battle with chronic pain, which began after an accident where he fell from a stage at the O2 in 2023.
Speaking to guest editor Professor Irene Tracey, he described his complex relationship with the ailment and how he sometimes personifies it as a companion.
He expressed: “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 its first of all an alien, something you have to defeat, you give it a name, maybe of someone you really dislike,” reports Surrey Live.
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Discussing the complex relationship people have with pain, he noted: “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.”
He added that there is sometimes a belief “we should suffer if we have this injury, that it is the natural course” and pondered if the British characteristic of a ‘stiff upper lip’ ties into our nation’s approach to pain.
Contemplating this mentality further, he questioned: “Are we wrong to believe that it’s rather British to think that pain is something that should be endured? ” In an earlier chat with Good Morning Britain about his own ordeal, the host, who shared that he has since stopped using medication, revealed the extent of his trauma.
“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,” he explained to the presenters.
Even though he faced severe injuries, he acknowledged briefly using the controversial painkiller OxyContin, notorious in the USA, but emphasized it was for a short time and under medical guidance.