I suffer from bouts of insomnia like many college students do. It is nearly impossible for me to fall asleep before midnight, hence the name of my blog. There are a number of factors to blame including late night caffeine consumption, homework, stress and staying on my computer too late at night.
Tuesday night I found myself awake at 3 a.m. and instead of scrolling through newsfeeds on my phone in my restlessness I tried reading instead. During the school year, reading is a luxury. I almost never have time to read for fun because of the multitude of pages assigned for my classes every week. I started reading Paulo Coelho’s “The Witch of Portobello,” which according to its cover is a New York Times bestseller. I picked up the book this summer, mostly because it takes place in London on a road I lived three minutes from last Fall.
The first character I was introduced to was a journalist, which I loved. There is something about books and TV shows that have characters in your own profession. Reading is perhaps the best cure for insomnia because it gets your mind off whatever is keeping you awake. And of course I only read tangible books. I am one of the most anti-e-reader people you will ever meet. One time I went on a date with a guy who told me about the Kindle he had just purchased – I ended it right there… Just kidding, I’m not actually that intense about them. To me people who use e-readers are like people who smoke cigarettes, it’s fine if you do it, just not around me. An e-reader wouldn’t work well if you were reading for your insomnia because the backlight would keep you awake. And how can you binge read for seven hours straight with an e-reader? Eventually it needs charging.
I’ve got a stack of books in my apartment, some I’ve read and some still waiting to be opened. I guess the one positive side to sleepless nights is I may get the chance to read something other than 40 pages from a textbook that I paid a criminal amount of money for.
Reach the writer at newlin.tillotson@asu.edu or on Twitter @Newlin777
