Quest for blissful slumber
‘My Sleepless Nights’ by Manohar Grandhi is a simple yet lucid account of how the author battles insomnia and finds a cure eventually
The world of Information Technology is growing in leaps and bounds but so are the problems that plague the technocrats whose overburdened work schedules are giving them sleepless nights. Manohar Grandhi’s book ‘My Sleepless Nights’ is one such account where an IT professional searches for solutions to his sleep deprivation in a world outside software algorithms but, ironically, not entirely outside his computer screen.
Grandhi shares some vital aspects of his tryst with insomnia where, as a starter, he attributes the root of the disorder to his obsessive compulsions pertaining to getting to bed. The author reveals that he had laid certain rules for going to sleep which included how the room should be conditioned. “I wanted a specific pillow. If it was out for wash, I would struggle to sleep”. His obsessive compulsions reached such an extent that he writes, “Back in 2013 when my daughter was born, my wife wanted my kid to sleep in the middle of the bed to avoid falling off the edge. Given a chance, I
would even resist that.” He terms this phase as ‘HOW I SOWED THE WORRY MINDSET’. He compares the manifestation of the disorder to the germination of a seed.
The author keeps it simple while taking the readers through his journey from developing insomnia to its final cure. As one keeps turning the pages, which barely takes time owing to the lucid short sentences, the reader comes across the various methods that the author opts for to look for a cure; a vast portion of which, quite ironically, is to search the Internet for remedies. Unknown to Grandhi, he may have also fallen victim to cyberchondria — a clinical phenomenon that arises from the irrational rise of health worries about common symptoms based on extensive
online search findings. His frequent search on the Internet reaffirms how we are entangled in this ‘world-wide-web’ which many health experts opine is one of the reasons causing sleep deprivation.
However, Grandhi claims that his insomnia began with his habit of night-time reading, but as he moves on to concluding chapters offering tips for relaxing the mind before sleep, he cites, perhaps unmindfully, reading a book, among other activities. ‘My Sleepless Nights’ is a coffee-time read and is more about what not to do than what to do.
Views expressed are personal
