Insomnia or just a state of mind?

Whilst wallowing in a bubble of self pity at 5am on a Sunday evening, I realised that we are a generation of insomniacs.

But what is the cause for our dishevelled sleep pattern?  Our self diagnosis reassures us that there is nothing wrong with us and that we fit into a group of individuals with the same problem.  But what truly is the cause of the increase in insomnia?

Perhaps we can blame the economic climate and the state of society for our lack of sleep.  Perhaps we could blame our personal lives.  The cynic inside me leads me to believe that it is a state of mind.  Are we really insomniacs or do we just tell ourselves this, so that we can justify spending stupid hours of the night thinking about our life problems?  Most importantly, how many hours can we truly admit to wasting dreaming of this idealistic and oh so fake world?    

Life may not be perfect and things may seem depressing at times but life is, surely what you make it.  When trying to sleep, maybe we should breathe.  Just that.  Inhale and exhale.  It couldn’t be that simple, right?  Scientists would surely have realised that this simple notion could release so many anxieties and make us exude a happy aura.   But a scientist is not needed for this sense of self acceptance and that’s what this all comes down to.  An acceptance that life is okay, that we can be happy in our own skin and take on whatever battles may face us, day in day out.

This is my simple and ever so slightly patronising answer to sleep deprivation.