Sleepless nights are obviously uncomfortable.
But could never getting any shut eye, shut your eyes… eternally?
(“Great. Thanks. Fretting about that’ll *really* help me fall asleep now.”)
I’m so grateful I don’t have to worry about this.
Since I started writing for this site, I’ve had to do the kind of research that makes you learn all the ins and outs of countering insomnia. Everything from tried and true tart cherry juice to Tulsi tea and L-Theanine sit in my kitchen. Everything from deep breathing to yoga’s stocked in my noggin. I even know how to feng-shui my bedchamber into the most restful decor there is. I’ve got a whole de-consciousness arsenal of holistic Lunesta at the ready, at all times.
But, what about those who don’t?
What happens to them? The insomniacs of the world who haven’t experienced the wonder that is my website and applied it to their lives? Poor dears. What a way to live. And – aside from that – it’s not just about how bad living is when you’re without a good recharging sesh every evening. It’s about… dying. Yes. Sounds dramatic; I know. But I just learned recently that, yes, you can indeed get dead from never going to bed. And how’d they learn this? Well, while there are probably horribly Holocaust experiments that can confirm this but no one ever refers to for obvious reasons, another not so compassionate (but on rats, not people) experiment was performed to confirm this. Keeping them up for days on end perpetually led to a dead or near dead state.
And how long was that, exactly?
Between 11 to 32 days.
Granted, that’s not a quotable figure for anyone wondering exactly how long it’ll take. For example, an insomniac gentleman who was observed (not tested on, mind you – this was an opportunistic learning circumstance, thanks to a condition he had), took a bit longer to permanently power down. After suffering from a genetic form of insomnia (characterized by the horrible likes of hallucinations and dementia), he passed on after half a year.
But… why? Do people actually die from tiredness? Well, actually, they say that they dunno what exactly was the cause of death in each of these cases. And that’s fair enough. Not that it matters for rats, but in humans like the dude mentioned above, the possibilities of deadness are endless. It could be snoozing while cruising. Leaving on the stove (like the narrator in “Fight Club” did). Being lured into traffic by the imaginary imps your brain’s manifested. Or it could also just be the gradual effects of a lowered immune system, welcoming bad bugs one by one – and thusly not being able to recover from some exotic disease you only ever hear of happening on journeys to third world lands (or that one weird Discovery T.V. show).
(“This just in: insomniac drivers’ reaction times are akin to having a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent…”)
So, in sum: sure. Sleeplessness can smite you. It takes a little bit of time for that to transpire, but it can totally happen. So, if you find yourself living like Fight Club’s Norton character, take the right steps. See a doctor. Get a sleep study. And, if you hate all of those ideas, make a nice warm mug of Tulsi’s Holy Basil tea and browse my compendium of soporofic article awesomeness on this site.
’cause my writing’s something that won’t kill you – but’ll definitely put you to sleep.