Wide Awake: What I Learned About Sleep from Doctors, Drug Companies, Dream Experts, and a Reindeer Herder in the Arctic Circle

By Patricia Morrisroe

A fourth-generation insomniac, Patricia Morrisroe decided that the only way she’d ever conquer her lifelong sleep disorder was by becoming an expert on the subject. So, armed with half a century of personal experience and a journalist’s curiosity, she set off to explore one of life’s greatest mysteries: sleep. Wide Awake is the eye-opening account of Morrisroe’s quest—a compelling memoir that blends science, culture, and business to tell the story of why she—and forty million other Americans—can’t sleep at night.            

Over the course of three years of research and reporting, Morrisroe talks to sleep doctors, drug makers, psychiatrists, anthropologists, hypnotherapists, “wake experts,” mattress salesmen, a magician, an astronaut, and even a reindeer herder. She spends an uncomfortable night wired up in a sleep lab. She tries “sleep restriction” and “brain music therapy.” She buys a high-end sound machine, custom-made ear plugs, and a “quiet” house in the country to escape her noisy neighbors in the city. She attends a continuing medical education course in Las Vegas, where she discovers that doctors are among the most sleep-deprived people in the country. She travels to Sonoma, California, where she attends a Dream Ball costumed as her “dream self.” To fulfill a childhood fantasy, she celebrates Christmas Eve two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, in the famed Icehotel tossing and turning on an ice bed. Finally, after traveling the globe, she finds the answer to her insomnia right around the corner from her apartment in New York City. 

 
A mesmerizing mix of personal insight, science and social observation, Wide Awake examines the role of sleep in our increasingly hyperactive culture. For the millions who suffer from sleepless nights and hazy caffeine-filled days, this humorous, thought-provoking and ultimately hopeful book is an essential bedtime companion. It does, however, come with a warning: Reading it will promote wakefulness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: May 4, 2010
• ISBN: 9780679603634

Patricia Morrisroe

Patricia Morrisroe is the author of Mapplethorpe: A Biography, Wide Awake: A Memoir of Insomnia, and 9 ½ Narrow: My Life in Shoes. She was a contributing editor at New York magazine and has written for many other publications, including Vanity Fair, the New York Times, Vogue, the London Sunday Times Magazine, Travel + Leisure, and Departures. The Woman in the Moonlight is her first novel. For more information, visit www.patriciamorrisroe.com.

Reviews for Wide Awake

[course8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In her search for a sound night's sleep, the author explores both the mundane and the exotic. From doctors to spiritual guides, from new mattresses to a whole new house, she is relentless in the search for how to deal with chronic insomnia. I like the exploration of the history and the science. It was interesting to learn that the current norm of eight hours of continuous sleep is a relatively recent development for humans. Also, the focus of the medical community has been on those areas such as sleep apnea and drugs where the solution can be monetized. Other approaches include meditation, hypnosis and therapy. The book includes lots of interviews with experts with widely different approaches. The author weaves the technical information with her own personal journey, this makes it an interesting read. In the end, I think that the solution to wakefulness at night is as individualized as the unique history of each insomniac.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

All the things she tried to be able to sleep, ending up successfully with meditation. An interesting, fairly engaging overview of sleep difficulties and remedies.

[keithakers · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you are looking for a general overview of theories of insomnia and practical advice as to how to deal with it, this is a good place to start. But what makes "Wide Awake" really good is that it is a scream to read. I was not seeking it out because it was funny. But I finished the book, reading it like it was a novel, because it was funny. I checked this book out because I was interested in the subject of insomnia and wanted more information and ideas as to how to treat it. What I got was something which might actually be even better, a personal memoir about the author's struggles with insomnia. You get a quick tour of the major ideas and theories from a very personal point of view: that of an author who has been there and done that. Topics include sleeping pills, sleep clinics, cognitive behavioral therapy, sleep courses, hypnotherapy, wake-promoting drugs, shift-work disorder, sleep apnea, mattresses, power napping, searching for a quieter neighborhood, trying to sleep in an ice hotel north of the arctic circle, meditation, and the study of dreams.Morrisroe is on a mission, to get some sleep, and so it is a succession of stories as she tries one thing after another. None of them are completely without merit, but none of them give her satisfaction until a combination of factors at the end finally seems to get her back on track. I won't reveal the ending, but I am not convinced that what worked for her will work for everyone, and she doesn't seem to think so either, and certainly isn't promoting it. In fact, it's not even clear what it was, exactly, that helped.She leaves the impression that there is no real "science" of sleep. Even the best, brightest, and smartest of those in the field are still struggling to make sense of the whole thing. The really smart people understand that while we've got quite a bit of interesting research, there are just a whole bunch of things that we still don't really know -- like why we sleep at all, for example. Because it's a memoir, and because the author doesn't present herself as an expert, she isn't committed to defending or attacking this or that idea or set of ideas. In the end this is actually more helpful for us than it would be if she had just tried to write a more systematic treatise. Thanks for the book!