Insomnia is a gross feeder. It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking.
Interpretation
Insomnia feeds on thoughts, often forcing the mind to dwell on the very act of trying not to think.
This quote highlights the paradox of insomnia, where the struggle to find peace in sleep can intensify one's thoughts rather than silence them. Clifton Fadiman suggests that even the effort to avoid thinking can become a source of nourishment for the restless mind, leading to an endless cycle of overthinking and disturbance.
In practice
During a talk on mental health, I shared this quote to illustrate the struggles of insomnia.
To read in bed is to draw around us invisible, noiseless curtains. Then at last we are in a room of our own and are ready to burrow back, back to that private life of the imagination we all led as a child and to whose secret satisfactions so many of us have mislaid the key.
One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.
A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself.
There are two kinds of writers; the great ones who can give you truths, and the lessor ones, who can only give you themselves.
When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.
A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke-and that the joke is oneself.
Hot things, sharp things, sweet things, cold things All rot the teeth, and make them look like old things.
Every thought that you have impacts you. Shift from a thought that weakens to one that strengthens you.
He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he that loses his courage loses all.
Peace is a rare gift. Peace of mind, peaceful sleeps, and peaceful spirits are all luxuries that few rebels can ever afford.
Those dreams I have at night are going to drive me crazy. Last night I dreamed that little red-haired girl and I were eating lunch together... But she's gone... She's moved away, and I don't know where she lives, and she doesn't know I even exist, and I'll never see her again... And... I wish men cried.
Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
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