What do you think?
Rate this book
Sleep Over: An Oral History of the Apocalypse
For fans of the oral history genre phenomenon World War Z, a worldwide plague of insomnia creates a devastating new apocalypse.
Remember what it’s like to last an entire night without sleep? That dull but constant headache. The feeling of your brain on edge. How easily irritated you were. How difficult it was to concentrate, even on seemingly menial tasks. It was just a single restless night, but everything felt just a little bit harder to do, and the only real comfort was knowing your head would finally hit the pillow at the end of the day, and when you awoke the next morning everything would return to normal.
But what if sleep didn’t come the next night? Or the night after? What might happen if you, your friends and family, your coworkers, the strangers you pass on the street, all slowly began to realize that rest might not ever come again?
How slowly might the world fall apart? How long would it take for a society without sleep to descend into chaos?
Sleep Over is collection of waking nightmares, a scrapbook of the haunting and poignant stories from those trapped in a world where the pillars of society are crumbling, and madness is slowly descending on a planet without rest.
Online vigilantism turns social media into a deadly gamble.
A freelance journalist grapples with the ethics of turning in footage of mass suicide.
A kidnapped hypnotist is held hostage by those at wit’s end for a cure.
In Sleep Over, these stories are just the beginning. Before the Longest Day, the world record was eleven days without sleep. It turns out most of us can go much longer.
Remember what it’s like to last an entire night without sleep? That dull but constant headache. The feeling of your brain on edge. How easily irritated you were. How difficult it was to concentrate, even on seemingly menial tasks. It was just a single restless night, but everything felt just a little bit harder to do, and the only real comfort was knowing your head would finally hit the pillow at the end of the day, and when you awoke the next morning everything would return to normal.
But what if sleep didn’t come the next night? Or the night after? What might happen if you, your friends and family, your coworkers, the strangers you pass on the street, all slowly began to realize that rest might not ever come again?
How slowly might the world fall apart? How long would it take for a society without sleep to descend into chaos?
Sleep Over is collection of waking nightmares, a scrapbook of the haunting and poignant stories from those trapped in a world where the pillars of society are crumbling, and madness is slowly descending on a planet without rest.
Online vigilantism turns social media into a deadly gamble.
A freelance journalist grapples with the ethics of turning in footage of mass suicide.
A kidnapped hypnotist is held hostage by those at wit’s end for a cure.
In Sleep Over, these stories are just the beginning. Before the Longest Day, the world record was eleven days without sleep. It turns out most of us can go much longer.
376 pages, Paperback
First published January 16, 2018
126 people are currently reading
2078 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
January 16, 2018
Can you imagine a world without sleep?
As the sun rises in each time zone, people around the globe realize that no one was able to sleep the night before. There's no relief the next night or in the following days. Sleep Over is a collection of interviews with survivors who explain what it was like to live through the Longest Day.
If there had been a great bolt of lightning or a thunderclap, if the earth had shaken, if a blood moon had risen and cast a hellish pall over the whole world, we would have had some event to point to and say “There, there is where the end of the world began.” No dogs howled, no wave of prickling goosebumps swept over our skin, no measurable occurrence registered in any of the things we love to measure. The end of the world began not with something happening, but with something not happening. And because we don’t do well with understanding danger from absence, and most people didn’t know that going without sleep is fatal, the whole world began to die.
No one knows what's happening at first. Maternity wards are swamped with expectant mothers, as even those tucked inside the womb aren't safe. Children are among the hardest hit and their reactions are a harbinger of the horrors to come. The Center for Disease Control investigates the phenomenon, but even their scientists are struggling with the effects of sleeplessness. Going twenty-four hours without sleep leaves a person in a state equivalent to being legally drunk. What starts off as a global summer party quickly descends into chaos. It only takes a few days for the established order to break down. Decades-long feuds boil over and a number of international incidents erupt, as governments take advantage of the situation or act rashly due to cognitive impairment. Terrorists and rioters bring violence to the streets. Spiritual groups enjoy a resurgence as people flock to them for answers and absolution.
Stage one is a bummer; light insomnia, coupled with the panic attacks, paranoia, and phobias that develop as a result. Stage two is shit; basically escalation as the insomnia becomes more pronounced, and hallucinations get added to the increasing panic attacks as the body starts to realize just how hooped it truly is. Stage three: you’re fucked. It begins when sleep becomes completely impossible. Accompanied by rapid weight loss. Finally, in stage four (completely, ultra-mega-fucked), people exhibit what is essentially severe dementia. They become completely mute and unresponsive. If no one was taking care of people at this stage, they would die (as if they could even make it to this stage without being cared for). Death arrived from seven to thirty-six months after the onset of symptoms.
The people interviewed are from a variety of backgrounds and countries. Everyone dealt with the situation differently. There are those who tried to keep everything functioning normally, opportunistic people who profited off the desperation for a cure, people who simply did the best they could to keep a routine, and the unlucky ones who drifted into oblivion. The insomnia plague ends eventually, but Earth's population numbers declined drastically. Could this second chance be an opportunity to create a better world? Will the survivors be able to convince future generations not to repeat the mistakes of the past?
It’s not like there was an enemy to fight. All our firepower, our armies, all our contingency plans, and the closest thing we had to help us were plans in place for influenza outbreaks. But how to you counter a disease (and we didn’t even know if it was a disease) which already had one hundred percent saturation? How do you enact plans when our collective competency was dipping past the point of klutziness and into danger?
I loved reading about how different people experienced a single, catastrophic event! The only issue was that everyone had the same voice, despite the fact they had diverse backgrounds and lived all over the world. I enjoyed the writing style, but my interest in collections like this plummet if there's not a ton of character variety. The most memorable perspectives were the ones where the voice most matched the character: the internet vigilante, the gamer, the five friends who made a bet to stay awake as long as they could before they realized they didn't have a choice, and the man who takes it upon himself to care for those who have ceased functioning. In terms of content, I was most interested in the perspectives of those who worked during the chaos: teachers, nurses, air traffic controllers, journalists, scientists, power operators, and the corpse collectors. What happens when even the first responders and problem-solvers can't be protected?
Certainly, during those times it brought out the best in people, but also the worst—those ugly, dark parts of us that we keep covered up to be able to function in society. But when that facade is no longer needed? When things are crumbling all around you?
How long could you go without sleep? I pulled an all-nighter once in college and that was enough to turn me off the concept for the rest of my life! Sleep Over is so relatable because (ideally) we all spend one-third of our lives sleeping. Most of us have also experienced the days after the nights where sleep didn't come so easily. The story is more open-ended that I would have liked, but it's a really interesting thought experiment. The imaginative scenarios that the author concocted show the expected and unexpected effects of a global insomnia plague. The testimonials are sometimes humorous, but always horrifying. Chilling descriptions of the humanity slowly draining from peoples' faces as the days passed will stick with me for a long time. The horrors and uncertainty experienced during the Longest Day show how important it is to support scientific research in the best of times, because it's already too late by the time the worst hits.
“I don’t know what all the fuss is about; I finally have time to read.” —On an otherwise blank page on the story wall of Champs-Élysées
Related:
Fatal Familial Insomnia (Referenced in the book several times, though it may or not be related to what happened) - a genetic disorder that renders its victims unable to sleep. There's a nonfiction book about this topic: The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery by D.T. Max
Timeline: The Effects of Sleep Deprivation What happens after 24/36/48/72/96 hours of no sleep?
How 180 Hours Without Sleep Affects the Body: The CIA kept "detainees awake for up to 180 hours, usually standing or in stress positions," according to the Senate's blockbuster report.
Here’s A Horrifying Picture Of What Sleep Loss Will Do To You (Diagram)
Waking Up to the Health Benefits of Sleep from the Royal Society for Public Health
What’s the Longest Amount of Time Someone Has Stayed Awake?
How Long Can Humans Stay Awake?
_____________
I received this book for free from NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing/Talos. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. It's available now!
April 29, 2018
I had tremendously high expectations on this one and had been waiting a very VERY long time for the release since first hearing about it and about those expectations, hhhmmmmmmm, well, they were met. I had a lot of fun reading this, there was nothing too heavy, nothing too gory or violent, and the only thing that took me out of being fully immersed sometimes was some of the voices sounded similar, like it was the same person just speaking for other different people. Not all of them but some. Definitely not as bat shit crazy as the Russian sleep thing, but worth your time and money.
September 21, 2017
***Note: I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Very interesting premises: one day, totally out of the blue, people can't sleep anymore - at all! The most affected are the youngsters and the old, pregnant women suffer spontaneous abortions or give birth to still-borns in most of the cases, less than 10% of the population managing to survive.
The stories I liked best were the gamers’ and the one with the five friends at the end.
Very interesting premises: one day, totally out of the blue, people can't sleep anymore - at all! The most affected are the youngsters and the old, pregnant women suffer spontaneous abortions or give birth to still-borns in most of the cases, less than 10% of the population managing to survive.
Before the pandemic, world population was approaching eight billion. Now our best estimates place us around seven hundred million.I very much liked how the whole event is presented, in the form of a collection of testimonials from different survivals, sharing their experiences during different stages of the calamity: some before, some during, some after.
There was no morning, not as we used to have it. No start to our day, because there was no end. But I did like to still have a sort of order to my time; beginnings and endings went a long way to maintaining, if not sanity, then at least a routine. And through routine, functionality.The story touches on topics like morality and ethics, vigilantism, returning to primordial state, survival, dictatorship for the good of mankind. What I disliked was that most of the voices were not very distinct, the cause of the pandemic was not known and there was no real conclusion (fortunately the structure of the story implicated the lack of resolution, so at least that wasn’t strange).
The stories I liked best were the gamers’ and the one with the five friends at the end.
“I don’t know what all the fuss is about; I finally have time to read.” —On an otherwise blank page on the story wall of Champs-Élysées
February 8, 2018
It's nice to see another book written in the oral history format of WWZ. There was a lot of good science about insomnia in here, and some really well thought out scenarios. There's a kernel of a good book in here somewhere.
That being said...
1) Typos. Typos, everywhere... considering I got this as a library ebook, I was surprised at how much editing it needed.
2) All the stories were written in the same voice - none of the "subjects" of the history sounded distinctive or different. This might be the biggest problem with this novel. We need to believe in different characters.
3) Several of the stories ended in such a way as the subjects could *not* have related their story for the fictional editor (dead dudes don't give interviews, is what I'm saying).
4) The conclusion/conference transcript was incoherent and it was very difficult for me to understand how we went from an apocalpytic medical disorder to the proposals in this chapter. There was no bridge, no connector, no hint in the rest of the stories that would lead the reader to understand how humanity got to the extreme positions espoused in the last story. Especially given the... lack of resolution to the main problem.
So - could be worse, but more like a draft than a finished book. I wanted to love it, but I struggled, a lot.
That being said...
1) Typos. Typos, everywhere... considering I got this as a library ebook, I was surprised at how much editing it needed.
2) All the stories were written in the same voice - none of the "subjects" of the history sounded distinctive or different. This might be the biggest problem with this novel. We need to believe in different characters.
3) Several of the stories ended in such a way as the subjects could *not* have related their story for the fictional editor (dead dudes don't give interviews, is what I'm saying).
4) The conclusion/conference transcript was incoherent and it was very difficult for me to understand how we went from an apocalpytic medical disorder to the proposals in this chapter. There was no bridge, no connector, no hint in the rest of the stories that would lead the reader to understand how humanity got to the extreme positions espoused in the last story. Especially given the... lack of resolution to the main problem.
So - could be worse, but more like a draft than a finished book. I wanted to love it, but I struggled, a lot.
June 15, 2025
2.5⭐️
premise was interesting; execution was lacklustre
premise was interesting; execution was lacklustre
October 18, 2020
4/5 stars
This was sick, crazy and honestly terrifying. I feel like that makes it sound like a horror book, which it isn’t, it is something not horrible: a sickness where everyone in the world stops sleeping (i.e. my worst nightmare). This premise immediately caught my attention and it held me captive throughout. Reading this was just sickening to the stomach, I don’t know how to explain it. The riots, the sickness, the death, it was awful but I couldn’t turn away. It was also so feasible, I can very much see that this is what people would do in such an awful/unprecedented situation. I think that is what made this book truly scary and eye-opening for me, it was an apocalypse that had so many aspects of reality. I mean, we’ve all gone too long without sleep. Imagine going weeks like that.
This is also the first time I’ve read an ‘oral history’ story. It was an interesting told book with each chapter from a different perspective, sometimes interviews and reports, but mostly personal anecdotes. I wasn’t sure how I would deal with such a disconnected story and without a main character, but it remained fully captivating and interesting throughout. Every story told a slightly different perspective and it was like watching a whole picture being constructed right in front of you eyes. I could never guess what was doing to happen next in each chapter, which really just kept me glued to the page. I know I have used this term repeatedly, but this was really a captivating story. It was intriguing, shocking but also distinctly human.
This was sick, crazy and honestly terrifying. I feel like that makes it sound like a horror book, which it isn’t, it is something not horrible: a sickness where everyone in the world stops sleeping (i.e. my worst nightmare). This premise immediately caught my attention and it held me captive throughout. Reading this was just sickening to the stomach, I don’t know how to explain it. The riots, the sickness, the death, it was awful but I couldn’t turn away. It was also so feasible, I can very much see that this is what people would do in such an awful/unprecedented situation. I think that is what made this book truly scary and eye-opening for me, it was an apocalypse that had so many aspects of reality. I mean, we’ve all gone too long without sleep. Imagine going weeks like that.
This is also the first time I’ve read an ‘oral history’ story. It was an interesting told book with each chapter from a different perspective, sometimes interviews and reports, but mostly personal anecdotes. I wasn’t sure how I would deal with such a disconnected story and without a main character, but it remained fully captivating and interesting throughout. Every story told a slightly different perspective and it was like watching a whole picture being constructed right in front of you eyes. I could never guess what was doing to happen next in each chapter, which really just kept me glued to the page. I know I have used this term repeatedly, but this was really a captivating story. It was intriguing, shocking but also distinctly human.
August 4, 2018
I enjoyed myself with this book so much, going to give it 5 stars as a dyed in the wool insomniac, even though it relies heavily upon the World War Z format. In fact, in one place of the book, one of the characters remarks upon World War Zzz, which would be an excellent name for this book, even though it's a little precious.
Suddenly, one day, world wide, no one is able to fall asleep. This book is the collection of various survivors' accounts and the old diary entries, found letters, newspaper articles, etc. of the almost extinction event. The longest a person has gone without sleep is 11 days and the book divvies it up to the various days as the extremely sleepy and panicked world spirals out of control.
Rating it against the zombie field this owes so much to, I give this book even more props--wildly inventive, tongue in cheek funny at parts, while horrifyingly scary in the larger view of things--a world without sleep is far more frightening than zombies or vampires.
For starters, it would kill off all babies pretty much by day 2. A third of the pregnant women die. Pilots would be unable to fly really past day 2. Exhaustion from no sleep makes all driving as dangerous as being very drunk. People either become catatonic or mass suicides or crazy or dig deep to try to survive (something like 700 million survivors by the end of the book). There could have been more and some chapters were stronger than others, but a fun and fast entry into the apocalyptic genre.
Suddenly, one day, world wide, no one is able to fall asleep. This book is the collection of various survivors' accounts and the old diary entries, found letters, newspaper articles, etc. of the almost extinction event. The longest a person has gone without sleep is 11 days and the book divvies it up to the various days as the extremely sleepy and panicked world spirals out of control.
Rating it against the zombie field this owes so much to, I give this book even more props--wildly inventive, tongue in cheek funny at parts, while horrifyingly scary in the larger view of things--a world without sleep is far more frightening than zombies or vampires.
For starters, it would kill off all babies pretty much by day 2. A third of the pregnant women die. Pilots would be unable to fly really past day 2. Exhaustion from no sleep makes all driving as dangerous as being very drunk. People either become catatonic or mass suicides or crazy or dig deep to try to survive (something like 700 million survivors by the end of the book). There could have been more and some chapters were stronger than others, but a fun and fast entry into the apocalyptic genre.
February 20, 2021
This was not for me, but two stars because I can see the author's talent. Such good emotional scenes, great detail with obvious research, realistic dialogue and accurate reactions with accurate motivations.
However, this is written in an anthology form, with a great many perspectives in several different stories. None are continued or returned to within this book, it just moves forward.
The details of the "event" have themes and similarities in each story, but I wanted more from each character. I was curious about what they were doing later, how they each reacted to the "waking" section.
It should have been the author's 4 favorite stories, fleshed out and completed, but that's just my opinion.
However, this is written in an anthology form, with a great many perspectives in several different stories. None are continued or returned to within this book, it just moves forward.
The details of the "event" have themes and similarities in each story, but I wanted more from each character. I was curious about what they were doing later, how they each reacted to the "waking" section.
It should have been the author's 4 favorite stories, fleshed out and completed, but that's just my opinion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2020
A fantastic Weird Plague novel in the style of World War Z. Instead of zombieism, we have a plague that causes everyone on Earth to no longer sleep. That sleeplessness drains people, pushes them towards self-harming behavior and dementia, and causes widespread failures. A Chinese dam explodes; the Los Angeles power grid goes down. The more days pass, the graver the consequences, and we see them play out at a daycare for small children, and a hospital, and churches full of faithful hoping God will deliver them, and political offices trying to get the exhausted masses to cooperate. There are so many clever angles on the conflict - my favorite being a woman who already had periodic insomnia, and how she judges a world that suddenly understands what her life is like.
A morbidly fascinating book. If this sounds like your thing, then jump on it.
A morbidly fascinating book. If this sounds like your thing, then jump on it.
December 14, 2017
A wonderfully chilling apocalyptic book that questions what would become of the world if no-one was able to sleep? We follow the story as the world breaks apart, bit by bit. The horror created by the insomnia of the entire human race is easily comparable to that of zombies or killer viruses. Its a highly original and thrilling read.
The book consists of a number of personal testimonials from different characters. There are tales from an amazingly diverse range of people with different backgrounds, all scattered around the world. You get to see the effect of insomnia through the eyes of scientists, policy makers, a taxi driver, gamers, nurses, to name but a few. The stories are grouped into time frames and each one reveals more about what is happening to the world. Some of the people's stories show humanity descending into its worse traits, others show survival and there are some touching tales demonstrating real caring and the best of humanity. The writing is beautifully haunting, vividly capturing the horror each person experiences but with brief moments of hope and joy scattered throughout. There are loads of brilliant thoughts and ideas packed into the 300 pages as we see the apocalypse through many different viewpoints. I don't want to give away any spoilers so will just add this is a book I really enjoyed and will read again in the future.
Overall this is a brilliant and original apocalyptic thriller. It's a thought provoking book that I'd suggest all sci-fi fans read.
I'd highly recommend to fans of: horror, apocalyptic thrillers, dystopia and sci-fi
I received a free copy via Netgallery in return for an honest review.
The book consists of a number of personal testimonials from different characters. There are tales from an amazingly diverse range of people with different backgrounds, all scattered around the world. You get to see the effect of insomnia through the eyes of scientists, policy makers, a taxi driver, gamers, nurses, to name but a few. The stories are grouped into time frames and each one reveals more about what is happening to the world. Some of the people's stories show humanity descending into its worse traits, others show survival and there are some touching tales demonstrating real caring and the best of humanity. The writing is beautifully haunting, vividly capturing the horror each person experiences but with brief moments of hope and joy scattered throughout. There are loads of brilliant thoughts and ideas packed into the 300 pages as we see the apocalypse through many different viewpoints. I don't want to give away any spoilers so will just add this is a book I really enjoyed and will read again in the future.
Overall this is a brilliant and original apocalyptic thriller. It's a thought provoking book that I'd suggest all sci-fi fans read.
I'd highly recommend to fans of: horror, apocalyptic thrillers, dystopia and sci-fi
I received a free copy via Netgallery in return for an honest review.
January 31, 2019
Disclaimer: I love to sleep. I can go through 10 to 12 hours of sleep without breaks and with almost no effort.
So .. reading a book about a worldwide plague of insomnia was like facing one of my worst fears: a world where you can’t take even a single nap?! That’s way scarier than a zombie apocalypse!
The book is structured in short chapters, each of them tells the story of a different individual and their way of coping with this nightmare, beginning from the first day of sleeplessness till the last ones.
The chapters I liked the most were the one about the guy who takes care of his catatonic neighbors (catatonics are called the Starers ) and keeps an eye on them and the one about the Chinese corpse collectors, just to name a few
Some aspects didn’t feel quite right, like the lack of distinct voices (almost all the characters sound the same), the abundance of male narrators compared to the few women’s ones and the usual cultural stereotypes which can be found so often in this genre (why do India and Pakistan have always to resort to nuclear war on the verge of an apocalypse??)
Despite its flaws, it’s a good and enjoyable end-of-the-world read
So .. reading a book about a worldwide plague of insomnia was like facing one of my worst fears: a world where you can’t take even a single nap?! That’s way scarier than a zombie apocalypse!
The book is structured in short chapters, each of them tells the story of a different individual and their way of coping with this nightmare, beginning from the first day of sleeplessness till the last ones.
The chapters I liked the most were the one about the guy who takes care of his catatonic neighbors (catatonics are called the Starers ) and keeps an eye on them and the one about the Chinese corpse collectors, just to name a few
Some aspects didn’t feel quite right, like the lack of distinct voices (almost all the characters sound the same), the abundance of male narrators compared to the few women’s ones and the usual cultural stereotypes which can be found so often in this genre (why do India and Pakistan have always to resort to nuclear war on the verge of an apocalypse??)
Despite its flaws, it’s a good and enjoyable end-of-the-world read
March 8, 2018
I loved how this book was written! The style lends itself to people who don’t usually have long periods of uninterrupted quiet. Every few pages is a good stopping point so it’s great to read when you know you might get interrupted.
The story is told from a ton of different points of view and surprisingly you never seem to loose track of the timeline. It’s a concept that has never occurred to me so it was a really fun read.
The story is told from a ton of different points of view and surprisingly you never seem to loose track of the timeline. It’s a concept that has never occurred to me so it was a really fun read.
November 12, 2019
This is an excellent addition to the apocalyptic genre and I highly recommend it to anyone who has read World War Z (oral history of the zombie wars) and enjoyed it. Here, the apocalypse is brought about by the most natural, but devastating of conditions: insomnia. Each chapter is a different voice, a survivor of the terrible time, relating what their experiences were. Some are absolutely dreadful (the sleep lab comes to mind) but all show in awful clarity the absolute need we all have for sleep and what happens to us as a species when we don't get it.
Great read.
Great read.
March 6, 2023
It was a little long for my tastes and some interviews felt like they were really unnecessary but overall I enjoyed the story and the structure was fun.
The author kept it real and bleak, even after the end when there's only a small fractions of humanity left, humans still suck, eugenicists are still eugenicists, a-holes are still a-holes and survival didn't favor the deserving, I enjoyed that.
The author kept it real and bleak, even after the end when there's only a small fractions of humanity left, humans still suck, eugenicists are still eugenicists, a-holes are still a-holes and survival didn't favor the deserving, I enjoyed that.
August 28, 2017
Really enjoyed this book. An interesting look into a world without sleep. Liked that it gave multiple perspectives from different people around the world and their experience during the event. The story beginnings seemed abrupt and choppy, this could have been a kindle issue but made it lose a star for me. All in all I would read more from this author, thanks to netgalley for the advance copy.
February 8, 2023
There were a few moments in this book when the writing just was bad - repetitive. But overall pretty well written. Ny biggest complaint is the total lack of explanation for what caused the insomnia apocalypse. It's an interesting thought expirement, but ultimately I really wished there was some kind of reason this happened.
July 14, 2023
My kingdom for more oral history horror novels. Does this actually qualify as horror? I think so. It’s certainly a terrifying possibility to contemplate. If it gives me nightmares at least I’ll be thankful I’m sleeping.
December 5, 2019
DNF. Got through nearly 40% of this book. I really wanted to like it, and made a wholehearted effort to finish it, but the vignettes were becoming too tedious read.
February 23, 2022
For eleven days, no one on Earth can sleep. Things get bad fast.
Fantastic concept, decent execution. Truly a nightmare scenario. Slightly uneven, but when it hits, it hits.
Fantastic concept, decent execution. Truly a nightmare scenario. Slightly uneven, but when it hits, it hits.
August 8, 2022
Starts okay the dragsssss.
Not bad
Not bad
February 10, 2024
Do not refrain from overdosing on Melatonin.
August 17, 2025
Loved the concept, a world slowly falling apart because people stop sleeping? Yes, please.
As someone with chronic insomnia and a love for apocalyptic stories, this sounded like a dream (see what I did there).
The science and practical parts were compelling, and the oral history format had potential.
Even though I could follow who was who, the voices didn’t leave much of an emotional imprint. I missed that sense of getting to know someone, even briefly.
As someone with chronic insomnia and a love for apocalyptic stories, this sounded like a dream (see what I did there).
The science and practical parts were compelling, and the oral history format had potential.
Even though I could follow who was who, the voices didn’t leave much of an emotional imprint. I missed that sense of getting to know someone, even briefly.
July 19, 2025
This terrified me. I ripped through this book in under 24 hours because I could not stop reading this horrific story.
What would happen if everyone in the world found themselves suddenly and mysteriously unable to sleep? Well, it wouldn't be good. You'd die a lot quicker than you might think. I had never even thought about how important sleep is for humans. This book really mulls every possible bad thing that might happen to the human body should such a thing occur. It was wild.
While the story's concept was addicting, as an oral history, this fails spectacularly. Characters who very obviously die provide details that they could not know, undermining that concept of this being an oral history. There were also a lot of spelling mistakes and errors that I, at first, thought might be trying to show that the "author" of the accounts was also suffering from lack of sleep. But I think it was just failures in the editing process.
Another weak point was the ending, where it seems to suddenly dive into a pondering of eugenics. Wtf?
Verdict
Getting past the distracting structure that just didn't work for this book, this was a very fascinating story! It is gross and horrific, but I liked that it was able to grip me and chill me that way.
What would happen if everyone in the world found themselves suddenly and mysteriously unable to sleep? Well, it wouldn't be good. You'd die a lot quicker than you might think. I had never even thought about how important sleep is for humans. This book really mulls every possible bad thing that might happen to the human body should such a thing occur. It was wild.
While the story's concept was addicting, as an oral history, this fails spectacularly. Characters who very obviously die provide details that they could not know, undermining that concept of this being an oral history. There were also a lot of spelling mistakes and errors that I, at first, thought might be trying to show that the "author" of the accounts was also suffering from lack of sleep. But I think it was just failures in the editing process.
Another weak point was the ending, where it seems to suddenly dive into a pondering of eugenics. Wtf?
Verdict
Getting past the distracting structure that just didn't work for this book, this was a very fascinating story! It is gross and horrific, but I liked that it was able to grip me and chill me that way.
December 31, 2018
Every year I usually close out the year by indulging in a little bit of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic reading. I was excited to pick up this novel because I *loved* World War Z, which this book name-drops in its summary blurb, and also because I love the idea of an apocalypse based on a world mass-scale inability to sleep.
This will be the third novel I've read on the subject, the first being Black Moon which I felt was decent, and then Nod, which I thought was great and really captured this feeling of madness and insanity that I feel would accompany such an intense event of everyone facing sleep-induced psychosis at the same time.
Sleep Over really failed for me on a number of levels. It tries, but for me, really doesn't succeed to pull off the same "Oral History" conceit that Max Brooks did so well and really originated with World War Z. I feel this is partially because:
1. The research into the different areas that the author discussed wasn't really there and everything felt a little made-up when it should feel hyper-realistic despite the obviously fantastical setting.
2. Everyone pretty much talked exactly the same regardless of where they were from, from Vancouver to China.
In the end both of these major issues stem from the same point in which there was just a massive lack of research and effort into something that's supposed to be a historical document that's *all about* research and effort. This brought me entirely out of the fantasy. No bueno.
The book had a strong start that sort of faded into limpness towards the end with some parts of the middle being really cringe inducing. My main problem areas were:
Writing this, I realized I liked this book even less than I originally had thought. A disappointed 2 stars from me.
This will be the third novel I've read on the subject, the first being Black Moon which I felt was decent, and then Nod, which I thought was great and really captured this feeling of madness and insanity that I feel would accompany such an intense event of everyone facing sleep-induced psychosis at the same time.
Sleep Over really failed for me on a number of levels. It tries, but for me, really doesn't succeed to pull off the same "Oral History" conceit that Max Brooks did so well and really originated with World War Z. I feel this is partially because:
1. The research into the different areas that the author discussed wasn't really there and everything felt a little made-up when it should feel hyper-realistic despite the obviously fantastical setting.
2. Everyone pretty much talked exactly the same regardless of where they were from, from Vancouver to China.
In the end both of these major issues stem from the same point in which there was just a massive lack of research and effort into something that's supposed to be a historical document that's *all about* research and effort. This brought me entirely out of the fantasy. No bueno.
The book had a strong start that sort of faded into limpness towards the end with some parts of the middle being really cringe inducing. My main problem areas were:
Writing this, I realized I liked this book even less than I originally had thought. A disappointed 2 stars from me.
May 29, 2019
There were things I really liked about this book. Without getting into spoilers: A chapter of a man in an abandoned town supplied with unlimited mirrors read like a great Twilight Zone episode. A chapter set in a school and written by a teacher was haunting and terrifying. And the gamer spreadsheet chapter was clever, if a little overlong.
But I had a big problem with the ending.
As others have mentioned, there were lots of typos. I actually made a list of the misspelled homophones, in case there was some Easter egg-like reason to explain them (pallet/palate, illicit/elicit, damns/dams, eek/eke) but didn't come up with anything. There were also random words set in bold text, but unlike say Mark Z. Danielewski's works, it didn't seem to add up to anything.
And also as others have mentioned, the voices of the characters were not diverse-sounding enough given their diverse backgrounds.
But I had a big problem with the ending.
As others have mentioned, there were lots of typos. I actually made a list of the misspelled homophones, in case there was some Easter egg-like reason to explain them (pallet/palate, illicit/elicit, damns/dams, eek/eke) but didn't come up with anything. There were also random words set in bold text, but unlike say Mark Z. Danielewski's works, it didn't seem to add up to anything.
And also as others have mentioned, the voices of the characters were not diverse-sounding enough given their diverse backgrounds.
December 2, 2017
A REALLY interesting idea that was well explored. One or two of the accounts got boring but on the whole I was completely intrigued.
May 13, 2020
Not being able to sleep is truly one of my nightmares, so this read more like a horror story than a post-apocalyptic novel. Seeing the effects of a pandemic of insomnia from so many perspectives was fascinating (but the voices of the characters could have been a bit different from one another).
July 8, 2020
So this book rating needs a review. The rating alone is too ambiguous. The first part is great. It's interesting and kept me reading. I read the first 100 pages quickly and expected the book to stay good. But it didn't. As it went on the voice seemed like it was the same person and the stories became repetitive and boring. I struggled to finish this one. I admit some of the stories I started to read rather quickly without obsorbing everything because it just felt like the same thing I just read in the past chapter.
The characters bled together. They didn't really differ despite the differences in the characters. And the characters were meant to be very different from different genders, professions, ect.
The ending is just kinda everyone fell asleep and talk about population control.
I really felt like this started out so strong and just fizzed. Like the author had an idea and maybe a shorter novela would have been better. What is an almost 400 page book lost steam around 130 pages in.
I'm giving it two stars. The first part is deserving of 3 to 4 but then it goes into one star territory. Can't recommend this one.
The characters bled together. They didn't really differ despite the differences in the characters. And the characters were meant to be very different from different genders, professions, ect.
The ending is just kinda everyone fell asleep and talk about population control.
I really felt like this started out so strong and just fizzed. Like the author had an idea and maybe a shorter novela would have been better. What is an almost 400 page book lost steam around 130 pages in.
I'm giving it two stars. The first part is deserving of 3 to 4 but then it goes into one star territory. Can't recommend this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 26, 2018
I really enjoyed the progression in this book. individual accounts of this Insomnia Plague are recounted, with each a bit further into the disaster. it's a unique concept for the potential end of the world. There are heartwarming parts, spine-chilling parts. how would you like to think you would behave in an apocalyptic event?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews