In 1914, a clergyman was found dead in a pool; he had left behind this suicide note: “Another sleepless night, no real sleep for weeks. Oh, my poor brain, I cannot bear the lengthy, dark hours of the night.”
That passage jolted me with a shock of recognition. Many people think that the worst part of sleepless nights is the daytime grogginess. But like that pastor, it is suffering in the dark hours after midnight, when one’s desire and raging thirst for sleep seems to drive a person into temporary insanity.
Sleep disorders affect 40 percent of adult Canadians according to a study conducted by Laval University researcher Dr. Charles M. Morin. His team surveyed a sample of 2,000 people across the country to draw a portrait of Canadians’ sleep quality. Their data revealed that 40 percent of respondents had experienced one or more symptoms of insomnia at least three times in the preceding month, i.e., taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, being awake for periods longer than 30 minutes during the night, or waking up at least 30 minutes before they had planned. Moreover, 20 percent of the participants said they were unsatisfied with the quality of their sleep, and 13.4 percent of respondents displayed all the symptoms required to diagnose it as insomnia. Only 13 percent said they had consulted a healthcare professional about it. I think I am a 30-percenter too.
Three or four times a month I either can’t fall asleep or I wake during the night and can’t return to sleep. I have a different remedy for each situation: Bedtime is 11:30 p.m. and if not asleep by midnight, I get out of bed to watch the last half of the ‘Late’ shows (John Oliver, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel). These guys are always entertaining and have interesting guests. Then follows the ‘Late, Late’ shows with James Corbin, Seth Meyers and a few others. They are so inane and tedious that even before the shows end I am back in bed sawing logs.
When I wake up during the night and can’t get back to sleep, I make myself a cup of tea which I drink very slowly and in a dark room. Problem solved.
Sleep disorders are well documented but scientists have yet to answer fundamental questions about the affliction. At the same time medical journals warn that bad sleep can fester into diseases like cancer and diabetes. However, there are almost as many unproven recommendations to overcome the ability to sleep well as there is almost the number of people fervent for a real answer. What might work tonight probably won’t tomorrow night. Standard suggestions are keeping your bedroom dark, go to bed and get up at the same time and never go to bed hungry. Eat snooze foods such as turkey and drink warm milk which promote sleep by the release of melatonin. I can see the milk but not the turkey unless it’s around Thanksgiving. As well, there is honey containing orexin, which reduces alertness. I recommend whipped honey laced with cinnamon (available locally).
Also, blue night-lights should be banished. They allow you to move around safely but have a drawback: They emit normal white light, which contains all the colours of the spectrum, including energizing blue that makes it harder to get back to sleep. Even a glow from a digital alarm clock can disrupt your shut-eye. Still worried – consider a comfy eye-mask.
Jules Verne was quoted, “Though sleep is called our best friend, it is a friend who often keeps us waiting!”
Let’s face it, you have to live your life. Fear of not sleeping can drive some to set extreme controls on themselves: Avoiding going out at night, being less ambitious at work, or sleeping in the spare room. This is not only self-denying but also futile, since extreme behaviour only increases anxiety. Rather, commit to making small actions every day that take you closer to what is important to you. A content brain is a sleepy brain.
I have a friend who copes with insomnia and doesn’t let it control him. Most bedtimes he goes to his favourite chair in the living room, puts on his customized headgear and spends the nights listening to talking-books in the company of great 19th century authors. He says, “I fall asleep when the characters are having dinner, and when I wake up they’ve only reached the drawing room. It feels like you’re in the company of friends, dozing comfortably in a corner as life carries on.” He admitted that literature didn’t cure his insomnia but rather transformed it into a manageable condition.
Over time and in warm evenings if I couldn’t get to sleep I would go to the back porch, sit on a lawn chair and study the stars. Inevitably I would fall asleep and not wake until the morning. It never failed to amaze me how I could be so revitalized. It reminds me of being a kid with a few friends and sleeping on someone’s lawn, with or without a pillow. That too seemed a special moment upon waking.
As a wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill could work his cabinet to exhaustion by staying up late, but he would also routinely take a solid two-hour nap in the afternoon. As such, he was a classical two-phase sleeper. His routine was quite regular. He would wake at 8, spend the morning in bed reading papers, dictating letters, etc., take a long nap at tea time, and work until as late as 3 a.m. He averaged 5-6 hours of sleep per day. He said, “You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway measures.” He was known also to say.” Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You gain one-and-a-half days in one day.”
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder as well. Sleepwalking occurs in a state of low consciousness while executing activities that are usual during a state of full consciousness. These activities can be as benign as sitting up in bed or walking to a bathroom, or as hazardous as driving a car, exhibiting violence or committing homicide.
I haven’t caught myself sleepwalking yet but if someone told me later that I was sleepwalking and dancing a perfect waltz while singing a millennial whoop song, I would be most regretful that I missed my debut performance.
