exploration of insomnia

During World War I, Hemingway had himself developed insomnia so severe that he was afraid to go to bed with the lights out. And he struggled with sleeplessness the whole rest of his life, although this issue was often hard to separate from his other ailments — including severe depression, chronic alcoholism and diabetes. - A Thousand and One Sleepless Nights

But with sleeping pills what are we really getting? They only provide an additional 11.4 minutes of sleep over placebo pills, and they interfere with memory formation, with the result that people sometimes forget how badly they actually slept.