You know that age-old advice that if you're swimming and feel yourself getting pulled out to sea by a rip current, to swim across rather than fighting it? Imagine doing that, but for your insomnia.
I have never read a writer who could turn the lemons of sleep deprivation into the lemonade of creative inspiration quite like Annabel Abbs-Streets does in "Sleepless: Unleasing the Subversive Power of the Night Self." The English novelist and nonfiction author had, by her own admission, never been a great sleeper. But when she was hit with the deaths of her father and stepfather in rapid, peak COVID-era succession, the sandman took a more extended leave of absence. What could have become a mental and physical health crisis instead served as an catalyst for Abbs-Streets to get to know her "night self," as she explored the curious, creative and quiet power of those midnight hours.
