I had such high hopes for last night. Sleep-wise, I mean. I collapsed into bed in a state of sheer exhaustion and was still laying there wondering why I was wide awake but dog tired at half past three this morning.

So, I was late for work, then went to Holland and Barrett at lunchtime to investigate the herbal sleeping remedies. A surprising number of them had ‘WARNING: may cause drowsiness’ printed in helpful large letters on the side. In the end I settled for a brown bottle of what I assume is going to turn out a clear liquid, and is dispensed using a small glass pipette. It’s all very hippy.

The whole day was taken up in meetings, with a brief break in the afternoon to run out and collect coffee, and an opportunity to check emails, and news on the web. Made the mistake of typing ‘insomnia’ into Google and it threw up a nasty clutch of sites about Familial Fatal Insomnia, a terminal form of insomnia where the neurons in your brain that help you doze off are progressively destroyed by prions. Eventually you don’t sleep at all, can’t walk and die - normally within six months.

Your chances of getting it are slimmer than winning the lottery, apparently, and most often it’s passed down the family line, although there is suspicion that it could be caused by eating BSE-infected cows, which makes me wonder whether we’re on the verge of a massive outbreak of terminal sleeplessness in the UK rather than CJD.

The BBC has a rather nasty description of the symptoms one sufferer went through:

He gradually developed sleeping problems, and after six months had trouble walking. His eyes watered and sleeping pills were of little use.

Within a year he was confined to a wheelchair and his memory had deteriorated. He had problems telling the difference between dreams and reality.

After 16 months, hounded by delusions and hallucinations, he died of pneumonia.

The Sunday Herald has a story about a family in Italy where a quarter of all family members have been killed by the disorder since the 1700s:

In 1983 a third member of the family, the women’s brother, died of the disease. ‘He used to be a very energetic man but suddenly he started sweating profusely, his pupils became as small as pin heads, mucus came out of his nose, he had an irrepressible twitch and above all a tiredness that brought him to his knees,’ explained a family member.

Sleeping pills and other sedatives have no effect because the neurons required for sleep are missing, because the prions kill off the neurons that are required to bring about slumber.

Insomnia certainly is a nasty thing.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2003 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.