For some, insomnia is a recurring nightmare. Others find it gives them a chance to reach deep into their souls.
By KEVIN SPURGAITIS
One dreadful night, after being awake for more than 48 hours, I saw a peppershaker do a jig atop my kitchen table. Its moves were in perfect 2/4 time, set to some classic Irish reel unbeknownst to me. Bemused, I inspected the accoutrement more closely only to find it was just a humorous hoax of my senses. Insomnia is sometimes funny like that.
I often go to bed with drooping eyelids but invariably end up gawking at the ceiling. It’s as if my mind and body continuously war with each other while the rest of the world, maddeningly, slumbers peacefully. During this nightly Armageddon, shadows are overcast and streetlights buzz outside my bedroom window. Then the house speaks to me: pipes clank, water runs, walls shift in the dark. But then again, my brain is on the boil with ideas. They come in a sudden, gushing stream as if my head is being invaded by thoughts that aren’t uniquely mine. Maybe it’s the Higher Power –– I’m not sure how I’m supposed to know. What I do feel is that something bigger than me is goading me to nurture each brainchild.
Since the turn of the 20th century, we’ve cut back our average sleep time from 10 to seven hours. According to Statistics Canada, one in every seven Canadians over the age of 15 — 3.3 million of us — has trouble going to sleep or staying asleep. Data from the recent Canadian Community Health Survey revealed that life stress and the general hubbub of modern society mostly kept Canadians up at night. Nearly one-quarter (23 per cent) of people who described most of their days as being either “quite a bit” or “extremely” stressful reported insomnia. There are lifestyle, socio-economic, physical and mental health factors too. Experiencing insomnia the most are middle-aged people (ages 45 to 64) and individuals who are morbidly obese, which can trigger sleep apneas — the temporary cessation of breathing, especially during sleep.
Sure, insomnia might seem counterintuitive. Conventional wisdom insists that to perform at our best, we need a good night’s rest. The ancient Greeks even extolled sleep as a “sacred salve releasing humankind from (everyday) cares and compensating for its daytime proclivities.” But some of the best ideas have also been known to come out of sleep deprivation. It’s said that insomniacs can gain a better perspective and develop a strong sense of enlightenment. There’s also something about the night: the coolness, the mystery, the peacefulness. For worse or better, mystics, artists and deep thinkers alike frequently burn the midnight oil.
There is a whole history of sleep deprivation being used by religious types as a form of asceticism or to heighten spiritual awareness. The Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo claimed to have entirely overcome the need for sleep. He saw sleep as a sluggish, lower kind of consciousness that could be conquered through intense meditation. Similarly, the desert monks of the early Christian Church were known to deny themselves slumber. Coffee, too, owes much of its spread in popularity through its use by Muslim mystics in all-night devotions.
Ret. Rev. Gailand MacQueen, of St. Peters United Church in Sudbury, Ont., often awakes at 4 a.m., usually as a result of a dream or a worry. “ . . . But being awake for an hour or two in the middle of the night really isn’t a burden of any kind; it’s sort of a little treasure,” says MacQueen, who teaches psychology of religion at Laurentian University, and is the author of The Spirituality of Mazes and Labyrinths. “Sleeplessness simply allows you to get into another world that can’t be entered during the day.”
Macqueen also values the solitude that insomnia affords. It has long been a favored topic of poets and spiritual writers. The benefits of solitude and being alone come easily to mind in Henry David Thoreau’s work Walden or in the spiritual writings of desert fathers. In each, separating oneself from others in order to be reunited with the natural or divine appears both life-giving and rejuvenating. According to MacQueen, solitude at night can mean having time to read a book uninterrupted — or to compose one, to create a work of art, to reflect on life’s journey and mystery, and to ponder questions he cannot find time or space to address elsewhere. He says that those who spend time in solitude return to the world better persons. They are renewed and bring to their lives a heightened sense of balance and focus.
Investigations into insomnia’s more positive effects are giving scientists a new understanding of sleep deprivation. Interestingly, they agree it can lead to tireless stamina, incredible creativity, heightened awareness — and, ironically, a cheerful mood. During this psychosomatic arousal, there’s a shift in brain region activity. Parietal lobes, which play a role in one’s sense of self and spatial processing, reduce their movements. With less of a sense of self, a person could feel like they are floating, feel oneness with their surroundings or feel the presence of a higher power. The extreme of sleeplessness: vivid hallucinations may occur after 48 hours or less. It may explain many Virgin Mary sightings!
However, on a purely physiological level, humans on average still require at least eight hours of sleep a night, according to researchers. It’s genetically determined. During this time, hormones are secreted, healing muscles and strengthening the immune system. The body synthesizes proteins faster in the retina and cerebral cortex — the newest part of the brain in evolutionary terms — enhancing restoration and growth.
“In ancient times, people used to think sleep was the sister of death. But now we know the very opposite is true,” psychiatrist and sleep doctor Dr. John Carlile tells me at the Sleep Medicine Laboratory in Kingston, Ont. “It’s a very active, chemical time — a time for the renewal of our bodies.” Having practised psychiatry for more than 20 years in South Africa and Canada, Dr. Carlile now focuses entirely on the science of sleep and lectures at various universities.
Sleep deprivation, he says, impairs the functioning of the cerebral cortex. Keeping people sleepy is a great way to brainwash and manipulate. No wonder cult leaders and political interrogators allegedly use sleep deprivation to weaken subjects into compliance. Studies well document the negative effects of it although scientists have found that not everyone is affected to the same degree. Generally, without ample sleep, one can experience decreased vigilance; increased fatigue; impaired memory, speech and decision-making; not to mention irritability, anxiety and paranoia. In severe cases, over time, one could get delirium, according to Carlile.
“Simply put, if you don’t get your sleep, you’re going to do some serious harm to yourself in the long-term. You’re going to cause problems with your coping mechanisms in your brain and shorten your life a little bit. Deconstructing the mind in that way, in order to reached clouded states of consciousness, is therefore dangerous.”
There are exceptions, of course. Well known among sleep researchers is the record-breaking stunt by Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high school student in San Diego, California. In 1964, Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours (eleven days even), breaking the previous record of 260 hours held by Tom Rounds of Honolulu. Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross of the US Navy Medical Neuropsychiatric Research Unit monitored Gardner’s health and later published an account of this event — the scientifically documented record for the longest period of time a human being has intentionally gone without sleep without stimulants of any kind. On his final day without sleep, Gardner presided over a press conference where he spoke without slurring or stumbling his words — and generally appeared to be in excellent health. “I wanted to prove that bad things didn’t happen if you went without sleep,” said Gardner, who after completing his record, slept 14 hours and 40 minutes, awoke naturally around 10 p.m., stayed awake 24 hours, then slept a normal eight hours, researchers noted.
Back at Dr. Carlile’s sleep lab in Kingston, scores of people await testing and treatment for insomnia and related disorders. During my visit, he promises to sort me out too. The prospect tickles my fancy and gets me feeling like a kid in a candy shop. The hallmark of this Bohemian-styled office is an ornamental wall fabric woven by Dr. Carlile’s wife. It resembles a series of cat scans and represents the states of human consciousness. Human head molds, sporting the latest in sleep apnea devices, also rest atop his desk — doubling as new age sculptures. And electrodes — cardiac and snore sensors placed on the chest and abdomen — decoratively hang on the walls. With these, lab technicians are able to record patients’ brainwaves, heartbeats, breathing patterns and abnormal muscle movements over night, in one of six sleeping sanctuaries wired up with sonograms and infrared cameras. The sign on the front door of the building that reads, “Please do not make noise, people are sleeping,” is no joke.
In the middle of my interview with Dr. Carlile, a woman in a hyperaroused state knocks on the door, seeking Dr. Carlile’s assistance. She’s undergoing treatment at the clinic but takes a curious intermission in her sleep hygiene. Her implacable case of insomnia snowballed out of a single night of poor sleep. Her movements light and tentative, Dr. Carlile’s patient then leans awkwardly on the doorframe and appears to fold inward on herself. The dark bags under her eyes speak volumes about her condition.
Increasingly, bleary-eyed consumers are asking their family doctors for sleep medications, which are today as popular as Viagra, Botox and other “lifestyle drugs.” In the first seven months of 2005, nearly 25 million prescriptions for sleep medications were filled in North America, according to the U.S.-based IMS Health. And the number of adults ages 20 to 44 who took prescription sleep medications doubled between 2000 and 2004, says a survey recently released by Medco Health Solutions, a manager of drug benefit programs. The newest narcotics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Ambien CR, Sonata, and Lunesta) aren’t as miraculous as their marketing suggests, but they’re far superior to traditional sleep inducers such as Halcion and Restoril. These older drugs make patients feel woozy and lose coordination, and are habit-forming.
When Oscar-nominated actor Heath Ledger was recently found dead in the bed of his rented New York City apartment, it appeared as though Ledger had overdosed on six types of prescription pills, including the sleeping variety. According to the New York City medical examiner, though, the cause of the 28-year-old’s death was really “acute intoxication” by the combined effects of the painkiller OxyContin, the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, and the sleep aids Restoril and Unisom. Ledger had said in a November 2007 interview that his most recent completed roles in the Batman movie, The Dark Knight, and Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There, had taken a toll. “One week, I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” Ledger told The New York Times. “Suddenly, I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.”
One never knows when insomnia is going to happen, according to Rev. Gailand MacQueen. “People should just accept that if it comes, it comes, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” he says, referring to theologian Matthew Fox’s book, Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home. In Fox’s discussion of natural and artificial ecstasies, he heavily favours the organic experiences of friendships, sex, arts and craftsmanship, sports, travel and work. The Episcopalian minister and author shrugs off artificial — or what he calls tactical —ecstasies, including ritual dance, drug use, alcohol consumption, formal meditation, abstinence and celibacy, fasting and biofeedback, as well as voluntary sleep deprivation.
MacQueen continues: “There should truly be a loss of ego or social self in an ecstatic state or altered state of consciousness. The whole problem with tactical experiences is the process of getting to a higher plane is very ego-centered. You’re making the choice of trying to manufacture this experience instead of allowing the experience to come to you.
“But the temptation is huge. When I was in my 20s living in Hamilton, I had a religious experience while sitting in a pew of a downtown church. The incredibly awful feeling I felt that day in the dead of winter suddenly went away. And I spent a couple of years trying to recreate that feeling of peace. Like I say, it’s a great temptation.”
Dr. Carlile agrees. “Because we’re not in physical contact with what’s believed as the next world, we have these mysteries. It doesn’t look like science is going to help us solve these yet, so people feel they must go on some journey in their minds. It may be wonderment and a lovely episode of goodness. But a quick, material alternation of brain chemistry is not a valid (metaphysical) experience.
“Heed the Buddha’s warning: ‘Don’t waste your time on fruitless practices that aren’t going to give you real spiritual advancement.’ It’s not very profitable.”
Sure, sleep deprivation seemingly opens the doors of perception, providing me with a glimpse of an arcane universe. It’s also an outlet for connections not made during my upright hours — a dredging-up process for ideas I didn’t realize I had in me. But admittedly, these gains from burning the midnight oil are quickly lost when it becomes a regular habit. Maybe, just maybe, I should perform these sleep exercises the experts tout; pick up a “holy book” or even a “dime novel” in the light of day, as Dr. Carlile suggests; and patiently await that ‘ah-ha’ experience. It’s something to sleep on anyway.
Deep thinkers, light sleepers:
Some famous figures in history were also famously insomniac. A sampling.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965), British wartime prime minister, statesman, orator and Nobel Prize-winning author. For most of his life, Churchill suffered depression — what Churchill himself referred to as his “black dog.” Some say it lead to the politician’s habit of sleeping only three hours each night. Churchill had twin beds and whenever he couldn’t fall asleep in one, he simply moved to the other. Only this way could he descend into blessed unconsciousness.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain (1835 – 1910), American humorist and author, as well friend to presidents and European royalty. The father of American literature lay awake most nights. Legend has it that he that he once threw a pillow at a bedroom window while staying at a friend’s house. When the crash let in what he thought was fresh air, he finally fell asleep, only to find the next morning that he had smashed a glass bookcase.
W.C. Fields (1880 – 1946), actor and comedian. A “misanthrope who teetered on the edge of buffoonery,” Fields drank copiously, which many believe fuelled his legendary sense of humour. For Fields, sleep was the “Great Eluder.” Whenever insomnia wore him down during a film shoot, he would retire to his trailer for a few winks and likely a few swigs from the bottle. “The best cure for insomnia,” he once quipped, “is to just get a lot of sleep.”
Mary Faustina Kowalska, Polish nun and mystic. Saint Faustina claimed that Jesus Christ repeatedly came to her, commanding her “to spread the devotion of the mercy of God.” A few years into that mission, she became gravely ill and moved into a sanatorium, where she mostly lay awake in her bed praying for distressed souls. But the Catholic Church believed Kowalska to be delirious and denied her sainthood until 2000.
Thomas Edison (1847 -1931), American inventor who influenced the world with his phonograph and other electrical creations. But the “Wizard of Menlo Park,” as the press dubbed him, had great difficulty falling asleep. At 2 a.m., he could be found lying on a cot shoved against a rack of galvanic batteries in the gas-lit den of his laboratory. He claimed this is when he would experience a flurry of ideas, one of which was his “big bonanza” — the electric bulb.
Job, a character in the Bible’s Book of Job and a prophet in Islam. The thriving livestock rancher, husband and the father of 10 is renowned for his piety. But with God’s permission, Satan tests Job’s godliness with catastrophes, including economic hardship, the death of Job’s children and an “evil” skin disorder that keeps Job up at night. Shocked and outraged, Job cries out: “ . . . The evening is long and I’m exhausted from tossing about until dawn.”
Originally published in The United Church Observer, April 2008
