When chronic insomniac Steph McLean read that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi boasted about zero to three hours sleep being the “norm”, she thought it was massively irresponsible for the leader to promote such an unhealthy habit. For McLean, three hours is a “good” night, but she doesn’t see all those “extra” hours in the day as a positive, as the lack of sleep has caused issues with her health, her relationships, and is one of the reasons she’s never had children.
“My mum says I was born with Fomo (the fear of missing out). I was an awful sleeper, with even the slightest sound waking me up. She said I used to fight sleep so hard that it often brought her to tears. She couldn’t understand why I just never wanted to settle,” says McLean. Despite taking her to the GP as a child, her parents were never able to get to the bottom of her sleep issues and were told she would grow out of it. But she never did.
McLean’s sleep issues continued into high school and university, where she would sometimes go for two or three days without sleeping a wink, and found that her nights were filled with racing thoughts. “I’d lie in bed listening to the sounds of the house settling around me. My mind wouldn’t switch off. Sometimes it would be replaying awkward conversations from five years ago. Other nights it would be making endless lists of things I need to do tomorrow. Occasionally, my mind raced for no reason at all.”
