by Bruno Somerset

Created on: May 02, 2007   Last Updated: July 06, 2008

Insomnia affects untold numbers of people every night, at least in part because we have so much going on during any given day that we simply cannot quiet our minds enough at night to sleep. There are simply more things on our minds than our subconscious can handle. The question is whether this lack of sleep hurts or actually helps creativity.

Insomnia can help creativity if you use it right. The extra time at the end of the day, when everyone else in the family is asleep and the demands of the day are over, can be an invaluable time. Writing, painting, or engaging in some other creative pursuit can release some of this pent-up mental energy. By letting the creativity out, you also help yourself get to a point of being able to sleep.

Some people suffer from what others would call insomnia precisely because they have a creative pursuit that has them so excited that sleep is a secondary consideration. I know that there have been times when I've been so engrossed in working on a new chapter of a novel that hours have slipped by without me even realizing it. In this case, creativity actually caused my insomnia, and it's not something I'd ever complain about.

The problem is that rather than doing something creative, we all too often use medication to try to get sleep or sit staring at some television infomercial. Even if the meds work, they won't produce truly restful REM sleep, and the infomercials will rot your brain. This will hurt our creativity in the short term by making it hard to function mentally or physically, and in the long term by discouraging us because we've gone so long without writing or painting or whatever our pursuit is.

In either case, the assumption here is that your insomnia is not chronic and to the point that you can barely function for lack of sleep. If you've had insomnia for more than a week or so, you should seriously consider seeking medical help, because there may be physiological reasons for it that need attention.

So when you can't sleep, try working on whatever your artistic passions before reaching for Ambien or the TV remote. Start a new chapter of your novel, do some charcoal sketches, or even eneter into the lost art of writing haikus. See if that either relaxes your mind so you can sleep, or launches you into a burst of creative productivity. Either way, it's better than tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling.

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