Sleepless in Singapore? A book can be a quiet antidote

The physical book can be a gentle lullaby in a world hurtling towards insomnia.

- Josephine Chia

It is only when you are deprived of quality sleep that you understand how essential it is to well-being. Without deep rest, the body becomes restless, the mind scattered and health begins to fray. Sleep deprivation brings fatigue and a pervasive sense of unease.

This was the plight of the Ancient Mariner from an epic poem by British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, the mariner wandered sleepless for seven days and seven nights after killing an albatross. His inhumane act condemned his soul to torture. Restoration occurred only after he unknowingly said a prayer for the water snakes.

Coleridge shows us that sleeplessness can go beyond the physical and become an emotional, spiritual and even moral affliction.

We may not perpetuate an obvious atrocity that prevents us from sleeping, but many of us commit the sin of disrupting our body's circadian rhythm by using our smartphones until bedtime, watching television, playing games on the computer or working on our laptops in bed.

Insomnia is no longer a rare affliction. Globally, an estimated 16 per cent of adults suffer from insomnia, with nearly 8 per cent experiencing severe symptoms, according to a recent study in the Sleep Medicine Reviews journal. Other sources suggest the numbers are far larger.

In Singapore, about one in four residents reported poor sleep quality even before the Covid-19 pandemic, with one in seven experiencing severe insomnia. These figures are more than numbers each one represents a friend, a neighbour or a colleague silently wrestling with the night.

Why do we find it so hard to fall asleep? The answer lies in how we toil. The inability to sleep is a modern malady.

Our ancestors burned the fires of their days with physical toil - fieldwork, household chores, long walks. At night, the spent body was ready to succumb to sleep.