[Quiet Man Cometh]

That can happen. I have umpteen reasons why I might not be sleeping, up to and including insomnia, depression, medication side effects, or just plain not feeling tired. Some vitamin B's can help, or chamomile tea. I've tried a bunch of things with varying degrees of success, and a number of friends have their own remedies. One must endeavor to try though, as one might get stuck following a two year old around all day.

Rurik vs. hell-hound sounds like a fun idea. :)

On action scenes (and writing in general) I think what helps most is to think of an author who writes action scenes that you enjoy, and study those to find out what it is about them that you like. Things like what details they chose to add, how their pacing goes, how long their sentences are, how specific they get, etc.