Sleepless

Sleepless is both a personal account of the author's inability to sleep and a poetic survey of a range of artists and others who have suffered from chronic insomnia-a book for everyone who has found sleep elusive.

The world is divided into those who can sleep and those who can't.

What is it like to live with chronic insomnia? For Marie Darrieussecq, not sleeping began after the birth of her first
child and continues more than twenty years later.

In Sleepless, she recounts her own experiences alongside those of fellow insomniacs, mostly writers, some of whom claim a connection between not sleeping and creativity. With her inimitable humour, she describes her countless attempts to find a remedy, including consulting a somnologist.

Darrieussecq discusses bedrooms, beds, the homeless, refugees, trauma, our wakefulness online, and how our relationship with animals is connected to whether we can sleep. Sleepless will awaken you to the otherness of our world.

Insomnia feeds off this bewildering feeling- there is something else.