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Literature Professor Writes Seminal Book About Insomnia

Greene, Gayle. Insomniac. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2008. 503 pp.

When I launched my blog, Insomnia Simply Sucks, on Jan. 27, 2010, I had no idea that this book existed. I was looking for books about insomnia to review when I found it on Amazon. It appeared to be an interesting book, so I ordered a copy. As I removed it from its packaging, my first thought was, “Oh, no. This is a text book.”
I was wrong. It could be used as a textbook if Dr. Greene were ever to teach a course about chronic insomnia and its negative effects on the human mind and body. But it’s not a textbook in the conventional sense. Everything that I want to say about my insomnia in my blog posts is covered in this book, and then some.
After reading it, I must say she did a masterful job. I’m glad she writes well, because at 370 reading pages with relatively small print, it took me a while to get through it. Greene’s Ph.D. is in literature, which surprises me since she writes as though she’s an expert who has done extensive clinical research in the study of sleep. I suppose her education in literature and her experience in writing prepared her for writing this book in such way that makes it an easy and interesting read. In fact, it’s so well written that much of it reads like a novel.
In this seminal work, she approaches insomnia from every angle, leaving nothing uncovered. The first paragraph of the book summarizes well the effects of chronic insomnia:
The first thing to go is your sense of humor. Then goes the desire to do the things you used to do, then the desire to do anything at all. Parts of your body ache that you don’t know the names of, and your eyes forget how to focus. Words you once knew aren’t there anymore, and there’s less and less to say. People you once cared about fall by the way and you let them go, too.

If you’ve had insomnia for any length of time, you’ll have to agree that her description of the wrath of insomnia is spot on.
Greene reveals much of her own life with insomnia, explaining what the affliction has done to her physically and mentally over the years. During her research for the book, she interviewed insomniacs from various parts of the world and inserts their stories throughout the book, putting those stories in italics so the reader knows they’re the words of the interviewee.
She stresses in the book the fact that we aren’t taken seriously by the rest of the world: psychologists, psychiatrists, other professionals to numerous to mention, as well as friends, acquaintances, even family members much of the time. She advocates for insomnia to be “recognized as a debilitating, disabling, and perhaps even life-threatening condition [because] it takes you apart, piece by piece.”
In chapter three she talks about one of her pet peeves: that insomnia in not a clearly defined condition; therefore, progress in insomnia research has been slow. This is Greene’s definition of insomnia, which I think is excellent: “[I]nsomnia is when you can’t get the sleep you need to feel good, for no reason other than you can’t.” Greene’s argument is that perhaps insomnia isn’t caused by some other condition or problem; maybe it simply is it’s own problem. But without on-going, in-depth research, we’ll never know.
In 2002, Dr. Greene attended her first meeting of the Association of Professional Sleep Societies in Seattle, Washington. Every year since then she has attended this same meeting wherever it’s held. Her takeaway from these meetings is that insomniacs aren’t represented at these meetings, and the sleep professionals don’t want them there. But at the time of writing, early 2007, she says that “[t]here seems to be more speculation…about physiological etiologies for insomnia, new ways of understanding insomnia that are opening up.” So maybe there is hope after all.
Chapter 5 covered “the brain of the insomniac.” I admit that this is the one chapter where my level of comprehension needed to be more advanced. What I gathered from this chapter is that the human brain is still much to complex to say what inside of it might be causing insomnia, or for that matter, exactly how the brain and sleep are related.
Stress, depression, socio-economic status, and menopause were in chapter six. She discussed insomnia effects in ranges from children to senior citizens. One aspect I found interesting is that those with lower incomes and education levels are more likely to suffer from insomnia. Higher incomes and higher education results in a lesser chance of developing insomnia.
Dr. Greene made a comprehensive study of the medications used to treat the condition. Drugs from the oldest to the newest used to treat insomnia received attention. She commented on the drugs that she takes or has taken and the results, which made for interesting reading.
Attitude change, behavior modification, sleep clinics, alternatives such as different foods, supplements, and herbs received good coverage in the book. The last 133 pages included a notes section, a glossary, a selected bibliography, and an index.
I’ve never written a Ph.D. dissertation as Greene has, but I have written a statistical master’s thesis. So I know a little bit about the effort that goes into a work such as this: it’s a seemingly endless process requiring a great deal of time, and it consumes a good portion of one’s life. So I admire and thank her for reading a mountain of books and articles, interviewing medical professionals and insomniacs, attending sleep seminars, and extracting, analyzing, and synthesizing the information to write this book for the cause of chronic insomniacs such as you and me.
I think the key message I got from the book came near the end. It’s almost a plea. She writes:
We need an organization that is run by us, of us, and for us, not organized by the doctors and not run by the drug companies. We need to make our own way, free of entangling alliances with anyone who has their own agenda, whether medical or corporate.

I don’t know how a better book could have been written by a non-scientific person. The passion written on the pages of her book speaks loudly and clearly. If you’re a chronic insomniac, you need to read this book. You’ll learn things you didn’t even know existed about insomnia.