Area man in shock puzzle doping scandal

Here’s a funny side effect for you.  I take dexamethasone (a steroid) on Friday and Saturday mornings when I’m on a  medication week of the cycle.  So I don’t sleep for very long on a Friday and Saturday night (and tend to crash a bit on Sunday afternoon and Monday).  I’ve got used to this effect (as previously documented here) and I’d generally noticed that on Friday afternoon and Saturday I do tend to be quite “focussed” on what I’m doing, but I’d not really seen any specific benefits.

This morning I was wide awake at about 5am (having grudgingly gone to bed at 1am), and opened up the Guardian Crosswords app on my phone.  I tend to dabble with the Guardian cryptic crossword, but it’s extremely rare that I find the time or the insight to finish a puzzle.  No such trouble this morning in the wee hours.

This was a puzzle that I’d previously completed about half of, and got no further.  The really weird thing is that (other than being wide awake so early) I didn’t feel any different, except that those clues that I’d previously got stuck on just seemed easy.

 
Ps. For those of you not in the know, “Area man in…” is a reference to The Onion – America’s Finest News Source