all-nighters

The NY Times is doing a series of columns about insomnia called "All-Nighters". Since that's a subject near and dear to me, of course I was interested. It started yesterday with this statement:

What do you do when the world’s asleep and you’re awake? All-Nighters is an exploration of an ancient malady and modern fixation — insomnia. With contributions from writers, scientists, artists and others, it will document the many ways we approach sleeplessness — as a nuisance, a disease, a curse, an opportunity or even a gift.

Today's column:

A Thousand and One Sleepless Nights

by Patricia Morrisroe

An Excerpt: Sleep and death have long been intertwined, with the ancient Greeks creating a colorful genealogy to explain it. Nyx, the goddess of the night, gave birth to twin boys: Hypnos (sleep) and Thanatos (death). Hypnos fathered Morpheus, the god of dreams, who lived surrounded by opium poppies, the giver of dreams. While there would be no Morpheus without Hypnos, the Greeks weren’t very interested in sleep per se, but in its magical offspring: dreams. They made pilgrimages to special “dream temples,” where, after offering sacrifices and bathing in sacred waters, a healing deity would appear to them in sleep, curing whatever troubled them. The Chinese believed in two different souls — p’o and hun — that represented the physical and spiritual worlds. The hun, which could separate from the body during sleep, often visited the land of the dead, where it brought back news of deceased ancestors. According to Robert L. Van de Castle, in his book “Our Dreaming Mind,” if the soul failed to return to the body before the dreamer woke up, “dreadful consequences would follow.”

Read the entire column here.

Her forthcoming book is available here.
A mesmerizing mix of personal insight, science and social observation, Wide Awake examines the role of sleep in our increasingly hyperactive culture. For the millions who suffer from sleepless nights and hazy caffeine-filled days, this humorous, thought-provoking and ultimately hopeful book is an essential bedtime companion. It does, however, come with a warning: Reading it will promote wakefulness.

Yesterday's column, On the Timing and Duration of Sleep by Ben Schott, was a table with all kinds of interesting details, part fact, part wives tale, about insomnia. See the original and larger version here.