Insomnia a Growing Problem for Many: Conventional Cures Are Not Always Enough

Filed in archive Sleep Disorders on March 26, 2009

© lewis chaplin

Topic: Running On Empty: Insomnia a Growing Problem for Many Conventional Cures Are Not Always Enough

Expert: Gayle Green, 510-847-5640 (cell), Professor, Scripps College (Claremont, Ca), and author of Insomniac

Contacts: Mary Bartlett, Scripps College, (909) 621-8223, mbartlett@scrippscollege.edu, Deborah Gardner, Halstead Communications, 212-734-2190 ext. 703, dgardner@halsteadpr.com

"Sleep is the fuel of life and we're running on empty." says Gayle Greene, professor at Scripps College (Claremont, Ca.), and someone who knows a great deal about the subject of sleep (or lack of it). She is the author of Insomniac, a first-person account that combines narrative with scientific investigation to detail the reality of living as a writer with insomnia.

"We hear a lot of ominous warnings about the dangers of sleep deprivation. To address the problem experts tell us to follow a few simple changes in behavior: keep a regular sleep schedule, don't use the bed for working or watching TV, avoid caffeine and alcohol, don't exercise too close to bedtime, sleep in a dark, quiet room, have a comfortable mattress." According to Greene these rules may be a place to begin, but they do not address the individual needs and problems of most people.

It was out of impatience with this kind of "expert" advice that led Greene into the field. Her extensive research and continued involvement with the subject - she recently convened a high level Sleep Conference at Scripps College, and is teaching a popular course on the subject - has given her a sense of the kind of advice people are more likely to need about sleep, advice that consists not of a set of hard and fast rules but rather the tools that enable them to think through their sleep problems and capacities and come up with responses of their own. There are no one size fits all solutions. Sleep is intimate, personal, and as individual and various as we are."

"People need to become sleep savvy, to develop a sense of their own sleep capacities and needs in a way that's suited to their individual circadian and hormonal rhythms. Learning how to make room in your life for sleep, nurturing your inner sleeper, sleeping when you can, using the web to research sleep problems and find techniques that have worked for others, and-if a person decides to go the drug route, which I recommend as a last not a first resort-managing sleep medication."

Greene is a member of the American Academy of Sleep medicine (AASM), a professional medical society for researchers and clinicians, and is the patient representative on the board of the American Insomnia Association, an organization within AASM.

Insomniac has received praise from psychology professors, doctors, and writers, including best-selling author Joyce Carol Oates and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.