Sleepless Everywhere

Hi Bloggers,

The passage from Dement's novel The Promise of Sleep put me at ease about my transient insomnia.  Since taking this class, I have been hyper aware of every night that I do not get enough sleep or that I don't sleep at all.  His explanation that this is common among people made my dramatic fear of illness fade away.  He states that this type of insomnia "accounts for three out of four cases of insomnia" proving that this is not an uncommon event. Also the causes of this were very helpful.  The hyper-arousal, time zone changes, and sleep environment all make sense and give reason to my sleepless nights.  I am always stressed out about something, even if it doesn't matter at all, I find myself staying up sometimes two extra hours just stressing about school.  Also the sleep environment seemed to fit me as well, the room above me is always loud and up late, waking me up every time I hit stage two. It is different in some respects though.  In the novel, Dement states that when people experience these issues with sleep they " resolve their personal problems, leave the hotel, or rotate back to day shift", whereas I can't move out or change my schedule.  The stories of the car wrecks are scary but true, we don't realize just how tired we are until we have to perform these types of tasks.  This passage mainly makes me appreciate that I do not have chronic insomnia!

Source: The Promise of Sleep By William Dement