Sleep

Thom Yorke is always never still. He’s a fidgeter, always has been. Even as a boy, he remembers being constantly scolded for it, teachers forever telling him to sit still. Even now, as an adult, he hasn’t managed to stop this habit. He squirms in interviews, perhaps perpetuating the myth of the neurotic tortured artist, when all he really wants to do is move. At least on stage he’s free to stretch his muscles, to take the energy the music gives him and translate it into frantic headbobs and flailing limbs.
Even when he’s trying to get to sleep he’s restless. Finding it impossible to stay lying in the one pace for any length of time, he has to toss and turn, forever searching for that elusive position where he’ll finally be comfortable enough to fall asleep. He needs space to stretch his legs out or they begin to ache, perhaps that’s part of the reason he’s never liked airplanes. The heat radiating from the body pressed against his back stifles him, and he’s constantly kicking the covers from his legs, desperate to cool down but reluctant to move away from his sleeping companion.
Jonny’s long become used to being woken. The first few times they shared a bed, many years ago now, they had struggled to find a position where they could both sleep comfortably. Now Jonny finds he can’t fall asleep without Thom’s skin against his. Even when Thom overheats and begins wriggling away from him, Jonny always ends up moving closer to him without even realising he’s doing it. Many’s the night Thom has to ask a half asleep Jonny to move over as he’s pushed Thom out to the edge of the bed, on the verge of falling off.
Even in sleep, Thom’s never quite still. Jonny often feels him twitching in his arms, lost in a dream which must be so vivid at the time, though he claims he never remembers them in the morning. His eyes dart under his closed eyelids, and occasionally his hand tightens where it’s gripping Jonny’s wrist.
Thom Yorke is almost never still. About as close as he ever gets is in the few minutes after he and Jonny make love. Those few minutes after the moment of release, where his limbs are heavy and his mind is for once calm. Lying with his leg draped over Jonny’s and his head on his chest, he is almost still. Still, except for the slight trembling through his body and the heave of his ribcage as he struggles to catch his breath.