Scripps Professor, Author of New Book on Challenges of Sleeplessness

Gayle Greene, professor of English at Scripps College, took a break from the world of memoir and Shakespeare to write a tale of personal experience. Insomniac, to be released in March, is a first-person account that combines narrative with scientific investigation to detail the reality of living as a writer with insomnia. “People are always saying to me, ‘No wonder you get so much done,’” Greene said. “Wrong. I get stuff done in spite of insomnia, not because of it—and because I cut a lot of other things out of my life. Insomnia doesn’t give me more time, it gives me less.”

Greene can discuss insomnia and the following issues:

• Sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on not only normal functioning, but also hormonal functioning, and it raises levels of stress hormones, diminishes growth hormone, and promotes insulin resistance.

• Insomnia increases appetite and impairs immune function, memory, and motor coordination, and puts sufferers at risk for diabetes, obesity, and other age-related illnesses.

• Why most insomniacs never consult a doctor about their condition. Greene believes this is because doctors rarely take insomnia seriously, and pride themselves on how little sleep they themselves need, as their own medical training was an exercise in sleep deprivation.

• Research suggests not all insomnia is caused by psychological upset, as in some cases it is genetically based.

• Her belief that therapies should be individually targeted to specific insomnia problems, which is a long way off, given that only $20 million annually is given to research a condition that afflicts as much as one-third of the population, with a large percentage of them being women, the elderly, and the poor.

• When insomniacs resort to meds, they put themselves in grave danger, as evidenced by the recent death of Heath Ledger; no sleep drug provides natural sleep, and all have undesirable side effects on memory and coordination.

Gayle Green has published dozens of articles in scholarly journals such as Signs, Contemporary Literature, and Renaissance Drama, many of which have been reprinted in anthologies (e.g., Blackwell¹s Shakespeare: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, 1945-2000,2004). She's also published in more popular venues such as Ms Magazine, The Nation, The Women's Review of Books, and In These Times. She's a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional medical society for researchers and clinicians, and a board member and the patient representative of the American Insomnia Association, an organization within the American Academic of Sleep Medicine. Insomniac has received praise from psychology professors, doctors, and writers, including best-selling author Joyce Carol Oates and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

Source: Halstead Communications