Insomnia
The origin of the word insomnia is found in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root swep (to sleep). PIE swep is the origin of words such as hypnosis, somnambulate (sleepwalking), soporific, and so on.
Insomnia, the chronic inability to sleep, comes to English in the 1620s from Latin insomnia (want of sleep, sleeplessness) from insomnis; i.e., in (not) + somnus (sleep) from PIE swep. A person with insomnia is an insomniac, a term from 1879.
I usually think of insomnia as a medical condition; i.e., something is ‘wrong’ or needs to be ‘fixed’ in an insomniac, notably something to be fixed with drugs.
However, the fact that the word insomnia has existed unchanged from ancient Latin until now suggests that people have always had insomnia to one degree or another. Perhaps, dare I say, insomnia might even be normal even though it is no joke. When you are engaged in the world and in your life, there are going to be things that keep you awake at night. Dark thoughts like to emerge unheralded and unwanted in the dark night.
To me, the problem in not necessarily insomnia but the fact that you have to get up in the morning. You have to go to work or care for your family or deal with some troubling situation.
If you can’t sleep and you’re up wandering around the house, consider taking a few minutes to read James Parker’s funny and insightful article, “Ode to Insomia”, on the back page of the recent Atlantic magazine (July/August 2020). Wait and watch. Have a mini-vigil. Go back to bed.
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/an-ode-to-insomnia/612274/
Insomnia, the chronic inability to sleep, comes to English in the 1620s from Latin insomnia (want of sleep, sleeplessness) from insomnis; i.e., in (not) + somnus (sleep) from PIE swep. A person with insomnia is an insomniac, a term from 1879.
I usually think of insomnia as a medical condition; i.e., something is ‘wrong’ or needs to be ‘fixed’ in an insomniac, notably something to be fixed with drugs.
However, the fact that the word insomnia has existed unchanged from ancient Latin until now suggests that people have always had insomnia to one degree or another. Perhaps, dare I say, insomnia might even be normal even though it is no joke. When you are engaged in the world and in your life, there are going to be things that keep you awake at night. Dark thoughts like to emerge unheralded and unwanted in the dark night.
To me, the problem in not necessarily insomnia but the fact that you have to get up in the morning. You have to go to work or care for your family or deal with some troubling situation.
If you can’t sleep and you’re up wandering around the house, consider taking a few minutes to read James Parker’s funny and insightful article, “Ode to Insomia”, on the back page of the recent Atlantic magazine (July/August 2020). Wait and watch. Have a mini-vigil. Go back to bed.
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/an-ode-to-insomnia/612274/
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