As well as being a non sleeping mutant I can now breath a sigh of relief that as I get older (50 on Sept 22) I am not grumpy. So nice to be a calm non sleeping mutant.

I shall show this to 'er indoors and frame it as well, but she'll still call me a grumpy bugger.

I don't believe it . . . old men are less grumpy
By Celia Hall
(Filed: 01/04/2005)

The widely held belief that men become more bad tempered as they age is a myth, new research suggests. It's women who stay angry, while men calm down.

The study showed that women's levels of anger were maintained through their lives and that the Victor Meldrew image of grumpy old men might be the exception rather than the rule.

The study by Jane Barnett, a PhD psychologist at Middlesex University, investigated self-reported anger in 101 women and 52 men aged between 18 and 60.

Her study showed that men and women reported similar levels of anger when they were young. But by the time they were in their 30s women were more easily angered, which stayed constant as they aged. Men became less angry as time went by.

Miss Barnett said she preferred to view women's reported anger as increasing assertiveness. "Women became more assertive and men less angry - perhaps because men have less to worry about," she said.