Dogger: northerly; moderate; showers; good, occasionally poor...

I guess I'm not alone when I say that all I want each morning throughout the week is a bit longer in bed and then come Saturday morning, guess what: I'm wide awake and bright as a button at 5am. Typical! I've learned that, whenever this happens, my best course of action is to switch on the radio. My radio is always tuned to BBC Radio 4 and the sound of voices soothes and relaxes me. I listen to it to go to sleep at night and I wake to it each morning.

Curiously, I don't listen to anything when I run. I know there are those who can't run a step without their iPod plugged in but I don't like being wired for sound when I run; I prefer the sound of my breathing and the whir of my imagination. I have an iPod and, for a time, I used it when running but I rarely listened to music - there's only so much Madonna that even a gay runner can take. Instead, I listened to podcasts; and one in particular: The History of Rome, which I became addicted to.

When I switched the radio on this morning, Radio 4 hadn't started broadcasting and so instead I got a selection from the BBC's World Service. This morning the World Service was just winding down with news headlines about yesterday's terrible events in Norway before flipping over to BBC Radio 4 with the Shipping Forecast. If you've never heard this programme, you don't know what you're missing.

It's an impenetrable and soothing three minute smörgåsbord of nautical and meteorological terms, guaranteed to send me to sleep. 3, 2, 1 and I'm gone. Starting with Viking and moving in a clockwise direction around the British Isles through Forties, Humber, Portland, Fitzroy (formally Finisterre), Shannon and Malin and many more to finish at South East Iceland; the listener is treated to a synopsis of British maritime conditions.

Because of the soporific effect it has on me, I think I've rarely got past German Bight. Certainly, by Trafalgar I'm fast asleep and dreaming that I might one day remain conscious until Rockall. And so it was this morning...

If you've never listened to this programme, you can find out more in Nick Higham's Close Up report and you can access the last few broadcasts on the BBC's Shipping Forecast website. You'll be asleep well before the end; guaranteed!