Nothing (36 page)

Levinas, Emmanuel, 169, 170, 198–199

Lewycky, Samantha, 234
n

“Library of Babel, The” (Borges), 195–196

light, 22–23, 29, 77–78, 79, 84, 145, 262

Lispector, Clarice, 62
n
, 95, 180–181

Log of the S.S. the Mrs. Unguentine

Lost Highway

Louis XV, 73–74

lucid dreaming, 159–163, 173–174

Lugaro, Ernesto, 77

Lunesta, 270–275

Lynch, David

MacNish, Robert, 76

Magic Eye paintings, 251

man in white car imagery, 123–126, 128, 129, 130–139, 214, 218–221

Marais, Jean, 188

Marcus, Ben, 172, 172
n
, 188–189, 253

marijuana, 27

Markson, David, 63
n
, 194

Massumi, Brian, 119, 119
n
, 197
n

masturbation, 154–156, 165–168, 263

McDonald’s, 63–64

McSweeney, Joyelle, 65, 65
n

meditation, 173, 240, 245

memory, 36.
See also
dementia

mesmerism, 74

metamorphosis of elements (Artaud), 184

Mezzanine, The

Microsoft, 241

Middle-earth Role Playing

Might and Magic II

mirrors, 13, 17–18, 22–23, 45, 48, 66, 66
n
, 92, 122, 134, 179–180, 183, 190, 193, 195–196, 199–200, 206, 212–213, 222

Molloy

monitoring system (MS), of brain, 59–60

Moniz, Egas, 86

Montgomery, Iain, 237
n

Morin, Charles M., 25
n
, 27
n
, 118
n
, 232
n
, 262
n

Mount Analogue
(Daumal), 177–178

moving limbs, 27, 73

Mulholland Drive

Murphy, William L., 81

music, 22, 161

Music for Airports

Mussolini, Benito

MySpace, 93

nakedness, 164–165

Nancy, Jean-Luc, 67
n

napping, 54–55, 77, 159–163

narcolepsy, 81, 89

NASCAR, 207, 240

Nembutal, 176

Nesterchuk, Fyodor, 115

neurons, 77

Nicholson, Jack, 187

nicotine, 27

Nietzsche, Friedrich, 80

night eating syndrome, 152–153

night terrors, 7–8, 9–10, 12, 15, 23–25, 27, 95–103

nightclothes, 36

Nightmare on Elm Street
films, 97–98

nightmares, 73

Nightwood
(Barnes), 193

Nix (Greek god of night), 71

nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder, 86, 175–176

nodding off, 54–55, 77, 159–163

non-rapid eye movement (NREM), 85–86, 232

nothing, 19–23, 37, 56, 103–107, 121, 229–279

Nyquil, 259

obesity, 107–108, 152–154, 162–163

obsession, 57

occult, 73, 173

OCD, 29

online forums, 40–43, 93, 165–168, 237–240, 253–254, 279

onset of sleep, 21, 55–59, 62–67

operating system (OS), of brain, 59–60

orgasm, 154–155, 167

Orpheus
(film), 188

Other, the, 169–170, 178–179

Ouija boards, 146

out-of-field (Deleuze), 198–199

outer space, 11

overeating, 152–154

oxygen, 74

Paesmans, Dirk, 245–246

painkillers, 264

paradoxical insomniacs, 27

parasites, 29

parasomnias, 27, 174–176

Parks, Kenneth, 174

Pasithea (Greek goddess of hallucination), 71

Pavlov, Ivan, 83

Perkin, Graham, 237
n

personality traits, 34

pillows, 25, 30–31, 52, 207–208

pineal gland, 72

Pinel, Philippe, 61

poker

Pollock, Jackson, 54

Poltergeist
(film), 184–186

poltergeists, 73, 184–186, 193

pornography, 155–159

Pressman, Mark R., 175
n

Preyer, Thierry, 78–79

priapism, 264

primary insomnia, 26–27

Proust, Marcel, 60, 190

psychophysiological insomniacs, 27–28

Purkinje, Johannes, 76

quality of sleep, 153–154

Quran, the

Ramón y Cajal, Santiago, 77

Rao, Madhu N., 154
n

rape, 175

rapid eye movement (REM), 80, 83–86, 232

Rauschenberg, Robert

rebound anxiety, 270

rebound insomnia, 270

repetition, 10, 11, 36, 245
n

restless legs, 27, 73

Rimbaud, Arthur

Ripley’s Believe It or Not

Rolando, Luigi, 76

Roth, Eugene F., 6
n

Rothko, Mark

Rowland, Perrin, 74
n

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 65
n
, 169–170

Satan, 75

Satanic Bible, The
(LaVey), 88–89

Schenck, Carlos H., 54
n

schizophrenia, 29, 29
n
, 34, 193, 245

Schopenhauer, Arthur, 50
n

Schotte, David E., 59
n

Scientology

secondary insomnia, 27–28

Shining, The
(film), 183, 185

silence, 12–15, 17–18, 22–24, 26, 41
n
, 43, 45, 51, 56, 59, 62, 64–65, 67, 72, 86, 101, 103–105, 110, 121–122, 131–132, 142, 144–146, 149, 166, 181, 191–192, 227, 229, 246, 249, 252, 254, 263, 268, 280–281, 283

skin, 53, 102–103, 182–183, 209, 217–219, 226

sleep.
See also
insomnia

as death, 6–7, 26, 29, 46
n
, 97–98

death during, 26

defining, 9–10

history of night, 69–94

vocabulary of, 46
n

Sleep
(film), 181–182

sleep aids, 28, 71, 77, 79, 90–92.
See also
sleep medicine

sleep apnea, 27, 81, 175

sleep associations, 87–88

sleep catastrophizing, 38–39

sleep deprivation.
See also
insomnia

causes of, 115–116

fear of sleeplessness, 102

impact of, 6–7, 21, 114, 116–122, 230–233

intentional, 114–115

for long time periods, 106–123

records for, 114–115

sleep disorder centers, 87–88, 274–275

sleep duration, 82, 92–93, 154

sleep efficiency (SE), 261–262

sleep labs, 21

sleep-maintenance insomniacs, 28

sleep manipulation, 160–163

sleep medicine, 80, 83, 87–88, 90, 176, 204, 235–236, 259–260, 264–275

sleep-onset insomniacs, 28

sleep patterns, 231–232

sleep position, 20, 24–25, 30–33, 52, 55–56, 78, 91

sleep problems.
See also
insomnia

causes of, 28–29

forms of, 73

inherited, 8–9

sources of, 77, 81

sleep speaking, 191–192, 271

sleep-wake cycle, 27, 74, 84

sleep window, 262

sleeping epidemics, 82

sleepwalking, 93, 174, 175, 176

Sling Blade
(film), 64
n

smell, 133, 135, 138, 139

snoring, 172, 175

Soini, Toimi, 114

Solanas, Valerie, 88

Solaris

Sommer, Wilhelm, 78–79

somnambulism, 93, 174, 175, 176

somniloquy

Somnus (Roman god of sleep), 71

sound, 21–22, 23, 29, 84, 94, 110, 150, 175

space, fear of, 169–200

Sparling, Ken, 210
n

spells, 239
n

Stalin, Joseph, 233

Stanford Sleepiness Scale, 262

Stearns, Peter N., 74
n
, 78
n

stimulants, 262

Stone, Geo, 176
n

stress, 28, 171, 263

Strong, Stanley R., 237
n

suicide, 44–47, 92, 176, 185, 230, 236, 272

Sukenick, Ronald, 67
n
, 194–195

Suspiria
(film), 183

Swann’s Way
(Proust), 60, 190

Sydenham, Thomas, 73

synesthesia

Talking Heads

Tarkovsky, Andrei

tattoos, 132, 157

telephone, 143, 218, 254

television, 86, 89–90, 91, 150, 155, 161, 233

temperature, 32–33

terror, 9–10, 16–18, 58–59.
See also
fear; night terrors

“Texts for Nothing” (Beckett), 67
n
, 85, 85
n

Thai Ngoc, 115

Thanatos (Greek god of death), 71

Thirty Are Better Than One
(Warhol), 180–181

This Is Not a Novel
(Markson), 194

Thousand Plateaus, A
(Deleuze and Guattari), 41–42
n
, 90, 90
n

Tillman, Lynne, 63
n

Time Bandits

time capsule, 4–5

torture, 5–6, 73–74

Tost, Tony, 49
n

Tractatus
(Wittgenstein), 192

transient insomnia, 34

trazodone, 264

Tripp, Peter, 114

Trobe, Kala, 239
n

Tudor, David, 86

tunnels, 9, 16, 66, 107, 156, 186, 188, 190, 202, 206, 211, 212, 218, 222, 239, 244, 267

Twin Peaks
, 233

Twitter, 253–254

Tylenol PM, 260, 275

Van de Laar, Merijin, 34
n

Van Gogh, Vincent, 233

video games, 245–246

Vincent, Norah, 234
n

violence, 174–176

against others, 174–175

toward self, 44–47, 92, 175–176, 230, 236, 272

Waldeyer, Heinrich, 77

Wallace, David Foster, 195

Warhol, Andy, 43
n
, 54–55, 88, 180–182, 182
n

water imagery, 160

Watson, John, 83

Watts, Alan, 62
n

Webb, Ethel, 51
n

Wegner, D. M., 59

Weston, Maureen, 114

white noise, 22

Willis, Thomas, 73

Winchester Mystery House

wire imagery, 214–219

Wise, Deirdre, 237
n

witching hour, 9

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 192

Wong, Tobias, 176

Yahoo! Answers.
See
online forums

YouTube, 93, 240, 253

Acknowledgments

Deepest gratitude and thanks to my editor Cal Morgan, without whom this book would not exist; to Carrie Kania and Bill Clegg, for the constantly amazing support and faith; to the entire tireless Harper Perennial team, particularly Gregory, Justin, Milan, Erica, Michael, and Brittany; to my family and home friends; to everyone at HTMLGiant and my internet friends and internet-flesh friends and sleep-people and the unreal; to so many who’ve been so kind.

Notes

 
1
From “The Most Commonly Used Torture Methods Applied to Victims Seen at the Danish Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture Victims” (Roth, 1405).

 
2
Ibid.

 
3
Bonnet and Arrand, 9–15.

 
4
Ibid.

 
5
Morin, 69.

 
6
Kellerman, 199.

 
7
Morin, 39–40.

 
8
A study of schizophrenics found they sleep on average two hours and twelve minutes a night (Gove, 790), a figure comparable to the sleep of a giraffe.

 
9
Van de Laar et al.

10
Gove, 793.

11
Harvey and Greenall, 12.

12
Ibid., 15–17.

13
Each sentence a container for each other sentence.

14
A book of faces, face of bookends, butt ends, endings, air.

15
In silence, yes, as it is inert, but with furor thereafter in such spillage that it might be thicker in its size by seeming to have no true dimension up front, and yet quasi-unending, of tiny slivers that fill the face.

16
Words bouncing other words out of them in a silence, refracted by association, filling out the flesh around the flesh inside the head with what.

17
Each day the same websites refreshed over and over, seeing nothing new and nothing new, though the flutter of the possibility of a newness having appeared since the last refresh causes some internal corridor through which I eventually return and find myself again refreshing, and refreshing, the site inert, to which I kneel.

18
“The abstract machine crops up when you least expect it, at a chance juncture when you are just falling asleep, or into a twilight state or hallucinating, or doing an amusing physics experiment. . . .” Deleuze and Guattari,
A Thousand Plateaus.