I dread the night. I sit in the living room with my family, drinking camomile tea, until 10pm or so. Then I retreat to my room, and look at my bed with a kind of revulsed horror — a sense of oncoming battle. I lie in bed, and try to quieten my mind. I try relaxation strategies. I see myself walking into the Abbotsford Convent, into one of the workshop rooms, crawling under the table and lying there. Breathing in, breathing out. This is the “safe place” I chose from the Melbourne University counselling website’s “safe place exercise”. I become marginally calmer for a little while, and then an alien, familiar thought collapses into my skull: What if this doesn’t work? I tense up, and a torrent of frustration, hatred, and helplessness will swiftly follow the thought. I’m in for a long night.
Insomnia is prevalent. Chronic insomnia is present in around nine percent of the population, and around 30 percept of people have short periods of insomnia. It’s more common in older people, and more common in women. It’s incredibly common in people with other psychological disorders — over 75% of psychiatric patients have sleep difficulties during the acute phase of their illness (Sweetwood, Grant, Kripke, Gerst, & Yager, 1980; found in Morin, 1993). If insomnia affects so many people, why isn’t everyone aware of treatments they can use?
Curious Notes 