Ernest Hemingway - "Now I Lay Me"

By reading the story of Ernest Hemingway “Now I Lay Me”, it made me think that beyond the poetical part that we can find to the theme, there is a real part which generally is translated to plenty of complications for people that suffers it (referring to the central theme of the story that it is Insomnia).

Personally, by luck, I don’t suffer this problem, but particularly my father does. This has let me watch that if it is not treated with seriously, it transforms in a problem which influence very inauspiciously in the life of many people, as it diminish the labor and intellectual performance the next day.

At first, when this problem started being more pronounced, my father went to the doctor, who recommended a medication that helps him but does not totally eliminate the problem. With all these, he made a series of habits wich diminished the anxiety so he could relax and reconcile his sleep as soon as possible. Some of the techniques that he implements are based on not watching t.v. when it’s late at night and the first habit he modified is not turning it on in his bedroom before he goes to sleep. By the contrary, what he does is reading some book or publication so in that way, after some time relax and be able to sleep.

A healthy, balanced diet, like the one he practices over a year and a half, now that he has a declared diabetes, accompanied by regular and constant physical exercise have also helped him. But this is a problem that forces you not to be careless because apart from all the precautions that he takes, for the person that suffers it seriously, it’s always latent and it appears in front of any alteration.

This is simply an attempt of reflecting some of the facts that I’ve been able to rescue and to relate the story with what happens to my dad, so that maybe something of what he practices to solve it, can help someone who suffers it.

From what he tells me, although it seems contradicted, the worst thing that can happen to him in front of this situation is to be lying down. Because his mind starts to link subjects, problems and situations that he starts to think about and the possibility of concealing sleep gets difficult every time.

That is why he automatically gets up and starts doing some kind of activity different that can distract him and allows him not to center his mind on subjects that worries him. As soon as he can clear his mind a little bit, there he goes back to sleep and then, with luck (sometimes and others with not so many), he can go to sleep.

I hope that some of this can be useful to someone.