To Sleep Or Not To Sleep

I have insomnia; it’s 3 AM and I can’t sleep. So I got up, but now the question is what to do? I could write a blog post, but what can I write about? I guess I’ll write about the obvious: insomnia. It’s a subject I’m too familiar with.

All animals sleep. Migrating birds sleep: half the brain goes to sleep while the other half continues flying and navigating. Then the two halves swap and the half that was awake gets some snooze time. Whales sleep: pods of sperm whales have been observed sleeping vertically. Even insects sleep. It appears that sleep is an essential requirement for all life forms that have a central nervous system. So if sleep is so important, why do I have insomnia so often? I suspect a lot of people ask that question.

Drugstores sell over-the-counter pills that help to induce sleep. They work for a few nights, then they don’t work. Companies that make them tout this ineffectiveness as an advantage. “Non-addictive” the package brags. Of course they’re non-addictive. How would you become addicted to a pill that doesn’t work for more than two or three nights?

Drugstores also sell prescription sleep aids. They’re stronger and they remain effective longer, but even they begin losing their efficacy after awhile.  And they have many potential side effects, including causing the user to arise during the night and raid the fridge in order to eat mayonnaise and raw eggs (including the shells), or drive one’s car around town while asleep.

I saw a news story about an Italian man named Silvano who, at age 53, completely lost the ability to sleep. In desperation, he entered a sleep clinic and four months later, exhausted, he fell into a coma and died. Italian scientists discovered he had a rare genetic defect called fatal familial insomnia, or FFI. (It’s worth noting that Silvano died from a lack of sleep while he was in a coma. One might think a coma is a state of being asleep, but apparently not.)

On sleepless nights, I sometimes wonder why I bother going to bed. Then I think of Silvano, and I think maybe I should try to get an hour or two of sleep.