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 millions of others – 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.
A mesmerising mix of personal insight, science and social observation, Wide Awake is for the millions who suffer from sleepless nights and hazy caffeine-filled days. A humorous, thought-provoking and ultimately hopeful book is an essential bedtime companion. It does, however, come with a warning: reading it may promote wakefulness.
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.
A mesmerising mix of personal insight, science and social observation, Wide Awake is for the millions who suffer from sleepless nights and hazy caffeine-filled days. A humorous, thought-provoking and ultimately hopeful book is an essential bedtime companion. It does, however, come with a warning: reading it may promote wakefulness.
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Reviews
Your essential bedtime story
provocative and witty
'a curious mixture of memoir, anecdote, popular science and social commentary. . . . [Morrisroe] gives an accelerated social and scientific history of each subject before talking to its practitioners and assessing its effect.'
A weird, wonderful journey in search of a good night's sleep.
... witty and informative, an absolute must-read for anyone looking to get to the bottom of why Americans spend $20 billion a year trying to get a better night's sleep. Morrisroe's hard-won conclusion might just change your life.
By writing about sleep Morrisroe tells an important story, providing a sepcific example of a profound social and political question: the relationship between medicine and money.
Cheerfully anecdotal...a journalistic stunt-a-thon full of deadpan funny adventures..a fine firsthand look at insomniac eccentricities.
Reading Wide Awake it's clear Morrisroe is well-versed in the scientific background of sleep. She intelligently breaks down jargon-filled research articles found in academic journals to educate readers about various sleep disorders and treatments.
Morrisroe's sparkling writing carries her through. That her journey ends happily, with her discovery of Qigong, means readers will be encouraged as well as informed, with as much on overcoming insomnia as avoiding snake-oil salesmen.
As someone who cherishes sleep almost as much as my kids, I found Wide Awake a fascinating romp through all aspects of insomnia. Stumbling onto this underground nation of sleep deprived people was like discovering a whole new sector of the population. I never quite understood the magnitude of the desperation until I read Morrisroe's personal, humorous, and well-researched memoir about the one thing we can never seem to get enough of.
Patricia Morrisroe tosses and turns her way through the landscape of insomnia, taking us along on a guided tour so rich in literary allusion, sleep lore, and uniquely personal insight that I stayed up all night reading it. At once poetic, intimate, and surprisingly informative, Wide Awake is a self-portrait of the insomniac as author - a story full of nuance, revelation and surprise that might just as easily be subtitled, Alice's Adventures in Slumberland. As for the title itself - I'm proud to share it!