What do you think?
Rate this book
Insomnia: A Guide to, and Consolation for, the Restless Early Hours
A comforting and philosophical guide for the restless insomniac.
Not being able to sleep is deeply frightening. We panic about the demands of the next day; we panic that we are panicking; the possibility of sleep recedes ever further as the clock counts down to another exhausted, irritable dawn.
This book is an elegant companion to console us through even the longest of sleepless nights. It provides an alternative to pills and medicine, instead offering tools to help us reflect on our sleeplessness, define it to ourselves and others, and understand where it springs from in human nature. We learn to be patient with ourselves and to speculate constructively about what our insomnia might-in its own confused way-be trying to tell us.
Not being able to sleep is deeply frightening. We panic about the demands of the next day; we panic that we are panicking; the possibility of sleep recedes ever further as the clock counts down to another exhausted, irritable dawn.
This book is an elegant companion to console us through even the longest of sleepless nights. It provides an alternative to pills and medicine, instead offering tools to help us reflect on our sleeplessness, define it to ourselves and others, and understand where it springs from in human nature. We learn to be patient with ourselves and to speculate constructively about what our insomnia might-in its own confused way-be trying to tell us.
56 pages, Hardcover
Published November 5, 2019
11 people are currently reading
265 people want to read
About the author
The School of Life
173 books3,131 followersThe School of Life is a global organisation helping people lead more fulfilled lives.
We believe that the journey to finding fulfilment begins with self-knowledge. It is only when we have a sense of who we really are that we can make reliable decisions, particularly around love and work.
Sadly, tools and techniques for developing self-knowledge and finding fulfilment are hard to find – they’re not taught in schools, in universities, or in workplaces. Too many of us go through life without ever really understanding what’s going on in the recesses of our minds.
That’s why we created The School of Life; a resource for helping us understand ourselves, for improving our relationships, our careers and our social lives - as well as for helping us find calm and get more out of our leisure hours. We do this through films, workshops, books and gifts - as well as through a warm and supportive community.
We believe that the journey to finding fulfilment begins with self-knowledge. It is only when we have a sense of who we really are that we can make reliable decisions, particularly around love and work.
Sadly, tools and techniques for developing self-knowledge and finding fulfilment are hard to find – they’re not taught in schools, in universities, or in workplaces. Too many of us go through life without ever really understanding what’s going on in the recesses of our minds.
That’s why we created The School of Life; a resource for helping us understand ourselves, for improving our relationships, our careers and our social lives - as well as for helping us find calm and get more out of our leisure hours. We do this through films, workshops, books and gifts - as well as through a warm and supportive community.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 29, 2022
"maybe reading for a bit will tire the mind and indice us finally to sleep" - facts only
August 26, 2020
"We are naturally inclined to want to be normal. Yet thanks to insomnia, we are granted a crucial encounter with our weirder, truer selves. We can learn of our own apparent strangeness. The daytime self is a misleading picture of what everyone is like. Insomnia is a gift—and a latent education.
"Lots of books attempt to tell us how to sleep. This one will attempt to show us some of what happens while we can't sleep—so that we may feel less persecuted by, and alone with, our sleepless nights. It is a portrait of some of the more valuable, interesting and less-discussed things that happen in our minds at night, when we're supposed to be unconscious but are, in fact, more and more acutely conscious than at perhaps any other moment in our lives."
This book, another concise and beautifully presented collection of wisdom from The School of Life, very much lives up to that opening gambit. I'm fascinated with—and sometimes tortured by—what our minds conjure and undergo at night, and this book gave some genuine insights in that regard. As with the best of The School of Life's content, it gave me pause to consider what deeper truths my own internal wranglings are sometimes trying to tell me about myself.
"Lots of books attempt to tell us how to sleep. This one will attempt to show us some of what happens while we can't sleep—so that we may feel less persecuted by, and alone with, our sleepless nights. It is a portrait of some of the more valuable, interesting and less-discussed things that happen in our minds at night, when we're supposed to be unconscious but are, in fact, more and more acutely conscious than at perhaps any other moment in our lives."
This book, another concise and beautifully presented collection of wisdom from The School of Life, very much lives up to that opening gambit. I'm fascinated with—and sometimes tortured by—what our minds conjure and undergo at night, and this book gave some genuine insights in that regard. As with the best of The School of Life's content, it gave me pause to consider what deeper truths my own internal wranglings are sometimes trying to tell me about myself.
March 1, 2023
This was a thought-provoking, quick read that I will most likely be keeping on my nightstand for all of my future restless nights. A wonderful embodiment of all the mental gymnastics we do at 2 am - I will definitely read more school of life books :)
Want to read
July 1, 2019Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
June 2, 2020
Generalizado, pero bonito.
September 22, 2020
gotta love the school of life series. 💚
May 2, 2025
I think I found solace on this book as someone who's a nightowl. I could read more essays on this one.
August 23, 2025
originele insteek. wat levert slapeloosheid allemaal op.
October 29, 2025
Reflections and lessons learned/the content of this book made me feel…
…comforted that I’m not the only one with some of these strangely timed habits!
…comforted that I’m not the only one with some of these strangely timed habits!
October 5, 2025
a medium-paced and informative guide to the plague of sleeplessness. Ultimately asking the reader to grapple with the idea that insomnia is nothing to fight or rail against, it’s a fascinating and fast psychological/philosophical read.
October 7, 2022
Wouldn't change a thing about it. Alain de Botton always has a way of making my day brighter and my life more hopeful (unless he's talking about romance). A beautiful way with words and incredible insight into the simple, everyday occurances. The Seinfeld of philosophy.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews