Insomnia

Is it keeping you up at night?

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

The first rays of dawn can be the most depressing sight in the world for an insomniac, as it means any hope of a good night’s sleep is officially gone.

As someone who has often struggled with insomnia for the better part of a decade, I know only too well the frustration; the tossing and turning, the gaslighting attempts: “You are tired, you really are tired”, the bargaining: “Just lay here with your eyes gently closed for 30 more minutes and if you still haven’t fallen asleep you can go read in the other room” and the many versions in-between.

But why, I wondered at 3 am this morning, why do so many of us suffer from these torturous nights? I wanted to know. I needed to know. And, as it was 3 am, I had some free time on my hands to find out.

Let’s start at the beginning. What is insomnia? According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Insomnia is when you aren’t sleeping as you should.” Yeah, I think most of us got that part. But they go on to say, “That can mean you aren’t sleeping enough, you aren’t sleeping well or you’re having trouble falling or staying asleep.” So, insomnia isn’t just the wide awake in the middle of the night deal.

I have visited various health practitioners in the past, and they all ask the same thing. “Do you have trouble falling asleep or do you have trouble…