ILLUSTRATION: ALEX WILLIAMSON/GETTY IMAGES. *CHRONIC OR SEVERE INSOMNIA MAY REQUIRE MEDICAL ATTENTION. NEVER STOP TAKING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS WITHOUT CONSULTING A DOCTOR
Perhaps it won’t be much comfort if you’re reading this at 3am, unable to sleep, but the truth is that insomnia is fascinating. It’s a vivid example of what psychologists call an ironic effect, in which your desire to achieve a goal is the very thing that stops you doing so. You desperately want to get to sleep – but that’s precisely the reason you can’t. If you cared less, you’d probably drift off, but ‘trying not to care’ is a sure-fire way to tie yourself in knots.
I speak from bitter, bleary-eyed experience.