Diversions for Insomniacs #6

There's nothing like messing with your brain to make the sleepless fog of insomnia even stranger. Here are two diversions that can do just that.

The first is the puzzle of the
dancing lady. Which direction is she turning in? Most people see her going counterclockwise. Initially, I saw her going only clockwise; now, I can get her to change direction pretty much at will. I always thought of myself as fairly logical, so she surprised me. Some of the people who left comments were convinced it was at trick, since they could only see her going one way. It's all about perception.

The second diversion is designed to challenge our perception of time. One of the more curious aspects of insomnia is that it affects how we experience the passage of time. I may think I've been awake for two hours, but I've probably been sleeping lightly for part of that time. Each check of the clock is a surprise (although not usually a pleasant one). You never really know what it will read. There's a Chinese proverb that says, "Only when one cannot sleep does one know how long the night is."

But what if the way we experience time, during the night or the day, is just a result of cultural conditioning? The web site Grasshopper Enterprises has an interesting exercise, How to Stop Time. Can you make the second hand on the clock slow down? If so, what does that mean? Click on "Why Did Time Stop" for a very trippy explanation involving time, perception and consciousness.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - John Mayer

Since we're on the subject of insomnia, I thought I'd post this video, based on John Mayer's song Quiet. The video's creator, Michael Dyck, writes that he wanted to make "the video I saw in my mind every time I heard this song." I think he did a masterful job capturing the frustration and resignation of a sleepless night.

Maybe this video will act as a kind of inoculant and that by watching it, we'll all sleep soundly tonight. (Here's hoping...)

Insomnia is My Baby

How do people go to sleep? I'm afraid I've lost the knack.
- Dorothy Parker

Does this sound familiar? After having fallen asleep easily at bedtime, I open my eyes at 3 a.m. ("the soul's midnight") and can only hope to fall back asleep within a few minutes. Otherwise, I'm up for an hour or two, thinking too hard about things, then realizing that if I just stopped thinking, maybe I'd get back to sleep.

Or you may have the same issue as Dorothy Parker - trouble getting to sleep in the first place, lying awake 'til midnight or later, counting how many hours you have until the alarm clock goes off ("If I fall asleep now, I can still get five good hours"). Either way, insomnia is a pitiless companion. What we need the most eludes us, providing a cruel metaphor that only the most ardent pessimist extends into waking life.

There are ways to deal with recurring insomnia. Some people have home remedies they rely on (hot milk, chamomile tea, a boring book). Others use over-the-counter or prescription help. And some people make the best of it by jotting down their night thoughts in a bedside journal or even using the time to take care of bill paying or other low-key household tasks.

If you have a tendency to go online during your night wanderings, you can, of course, come here and watch some of the Lullabies for Grown-Ups to soothe you back to sleep. But for those who might be looking for something more interactive, I'm starting a new feature, Diversions for Insomniacs. The diversions will include games and other fun activities to keep you occupied until you feel ready to try that sleep thing again. I'll feature the diversions about once a month and I hope you find them fun and helpful.

The first one relates to the title of this post. That's the start of a story by the writer Roger Angell called Ainmosni, in which the main character is advised by a friend to write palindromes as a way to cure his insomnia. Palindromes are words, phrases, sentences or even paragraphs that read the same forward as backward. The usual examples include the name Otto and the sentence, Madam, I'm Adam. It can be fun to find words that can be reversed (like devil and lived). But actually writing a palindrome takes a love of word play and a great deal of perserverance. Often, the completed work makes no sense, because, as Angell notes, it's the only literary form "in which the story line is controlled by the words rather than the author."

In the case of Angell's story, the narrator becomes obsessed. It's a danger - I've written a few palindromes myself and it can be hard to stop. But if you'd like to try it, follow this link for some useful tips. I also recommend the use of a rhyming dictionary, which arranges words by the sound of their final syllable. This can help you find the right words to link threads of a paragraph together.

Give it a try and stay tuned for more Diversions for Insomniacs!