Blake Butler: Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia

in films, 183, 184–186

of flesh, 197–198, 263

housing, 9–10, 71, 184–189

Aristotle, 72–73, 78

Artaud, Antonin, 51 n , 84, 184

Ascher, L. M., 59 n

Aserinsky, Eugene, 85

automatism, 61, 171–172, 181

Bachelard, Gaston, 186–187

balloon imagery, 1–3, 143, 218

Barnes, Djuna, 193

Barthelme, Donald, 103–104

Bataille, Georges

baths, 77

Baumgärtel, Tilman, 246 n

BBS (Bulletin Board System), 165

Beckett, Samuel, 67 n , 85

bedding, 25, 30–31, 32–33, 36, 52, 78, 113, 207–208

beds, 7, 23–24, 36–37, 70, 75, 80, 81, 83, 91, 92, 149–150

Bell Witch, 146, 147

Benadryl, 260

Berger, Hans, 83–84

Bernhard, Thomas, 19, 56

Bidart, Frank, 229

bipolar disorder, 27, 28, 29

birth process, 3, 282

Blanchot, Maurice

blank mind state, 19–21

blinking, 55

blood, 48 n , 69, 222, 226–227, 230, 231

drugs in, 79, 90, 92, 258–259

from gums, 48, 48 n

during sleep, 69, 71, 76–77, 86, 89

bloodletting, 71, 73, 234–235

Blumenbach, Johann, 76

Bonnet, M. H., 21 n

books, 16, 191–197, 210

bedtime reading, 97, 144–146

in dreams, 283–290

sleep manuals, 260–263

boredom, 5–6, 7

Borges, Jorge Luis, 195–196, 196 n , 209

Bouchard, Abel, 79

boulder imagery, 95–98, 100, 123, 124

Brackman, Roman, 233 n

breakfast cereals, 152–153

breathing problems, 27, 81, 271

Brown, John, 235 n

bruxism, 265

“busy brain,” 57–59

caffeine, 27, 73

Cage, John, 86, 104–106

Calvino, Italo, 66 n , 194, 194 n

Carson, Anne, 98–99

cells, 75

children

night terrors, 7–8, 9–10, 12, 15, 23–25, 27, 95–103

overstimulation, 81–82

chloral hydrate, 79

chronic fatigue, 83

chronic insomnia, 34–35

Cinema 1: The Movement-Image (Deleuze), 198, 198 n

Cioran, E. M., 65 n , 230

circadian rhythm, 27, 74, 84

clocks, 49–50, 53, 87, 88, 107

Cockeram, Henry, 73

Cocteau, Jean

Colette, 110 n

Collected Fictions (Borges), 195–196

computers, 40–43, 93, 147–149, 162, 165–168, 237–246, 248–254, 278–279

Cornell, Joseph

Cortázar, Julio, 193–194

Cox, Michael, 176

Crawford, Stanley

cribs, 7, 80, 83

Cronopios and Famas (Cortázar), 193–194

Crowley, Aleister, 173

Cure for Insomnia, The (film), 92

cybersex, 165–168

Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall (Sparling), 210 n

Dahmer, Jeffrey, 90–91

Damiens, Robert-François, 73–74

date-rape drugs, 79, 93

Daumal, René, 177–178

daytime rebound, 270

Dear Ra (Göransson), 250, 250 n

death

fear of, 29

killing others while asleep, 174–175

sleep as, 6–7, 26, 29, 46 n , 97–98

by suicide, 44–47, 92, 176, 185, 230, 236, 272

while sleeping, 26

Dejerine, Joseph Jules, 82–83

Deleuze, Gilles, 41–42 n , 50 n , 90, 92, 198–199, 244–245

dementia, 27, 101, 126–130, 201–210, 219–220, 231, 277–278

depression, 27, 28, 34, 93, 264

Dern, Laura

Derrida, Jacques, 58–59

Descartes, René, 72, 73, 185

Difference and Repetition (Deleuze), 245 n

disappearance, 2, 4, 11, 110, 123, 154, 160, 163, 166, 170, 178–179, 197, 207, 214, 282

domain names, 240–244

Don’t Look Now

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

Douchet, Jean, 188 n

dream questions, 173

dreams, 71, 72, 74, 78, 82

automatism and, 171–172

boulder imagery, 95–98, 100, 123, 124

as film, 199–200

lucid, 159–163, 173–174

man in white car imagery, 123–126, 128, 129, 130–139, 214, 218–221

wire imagery, 214–219

driving while asleep, 174

Dupin, Jacques, 46 n

Edison, Thomas, 79

EEG (electroencephalograph), 21, 83, 85, 174–175

Endless Short Story, The (Sukenick), 194–195

Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The

Eno, Brian, 248

Eraserhead (film), 188

Eroto-Comatose Lucidity, 173–174

Errera, Leo, 79

evening routine, 55–56

Evenson, Brian, 44 n

exercise, 77

exorcism

Eyes Wide Shut (film), 253–254

Facebook, 40–43, 93, 253

fat, 64, 107–108, 152–154, 162–163, 231, 280–281

fatal familial insomnia, 231

Fatalist, The (Hejinian), 151, 151 n

fear. See also terror

of body, 141–168

of death, 29

of self, 201–227

of sleep, 29

of sleeplessness, 102

of space, 169–200

feet, 32–33, 78

Finnegans Wake

Flet (McSweeney), 65, 65 n

Flight of the Navigator (film), 11

Fonte, Jorge, 54 n

Foucault, Michel, 61, 87

Fraser, Simon, 174

Freud, Sigmund, 78, 82

Friday the 13th films, 11–12

Gacy, John Wayne, 233

Gailly, Christian, 51 n , 230

Galen of Pergamon, 72, 72 n

Gardner, Randy, 114

Gass, William, 48 n

gevortsing, 188–190

Giarnella, Lori, 74 n

Giger, H. R.

Gilliam, Terry

Giorno, John, 181–182

Gizmodo.com, 254

glitch, 184, 185, 222

Global Positioning System (GPS), 93, 186, 198

Goldsmith, Kenneth, 181 n , 182 n

Golgi, Camillo, 77

Google, 93, 238–240

Google Alerts

Google Image Search

Google Maps, 186, 249–253

Google Reader, 254

Google SafeSearch, 249

Göransson, Johannes, 250, 250 n

Gove, Walter R., 29 n , 36 n , 193 n

Greenall, Emmeline, 38 n

Grey Gardens

grief, 28

Guattari, Félix, 41–42 n , 50 n , 90

Guinness World Records, 92, 114, 172 n

Hackett, Pat, 182 n

Hai Gaon, 173

hallucination, 41–42 n , 71, 114

Hammond, William A., 76, 76 n , 236 n

Harris, Hilary

Harvey, Allison G., 38 n

head position, 30–31, 52

headache, 234–235

Heart of Glass

Hedberg, Mitch, 63

Heemskerk, Joan, 245–246

Hegel, Georg, 169

Hejinian, Lyn, 151

Herpin, Al, 114–115

Herzog, Werner

Himmler, Heinrich, 232–233

Hippocrates, 71–72, 76

history of night, 69–94

Hitchcock, Alfred, 236

Hitler, Adolf, 232–233

hole imagery, 3–4, 9–10, 13, 23, 39, 40–43

Holy Bible, the, 26, 70, 173–174, 185

homicide, 174–175

horror films, 11–12, 97–98, 183–186

horror stories, 16–17, 146–147

hotels, 128, 183, 186

Houdini, Harry, 81

houses

architecture of, 9–10, 71, 184–189

evolution of, 71, 73, 75, 77–78, 79, 86

How to Sleep (film), 54

Hume, David

hypersensory experiences, 34–35

hypersomnia, 27

hypnopompic state, 99–100

Hypnos (Greek god of sleep), 71

hypnotism, 74, 77, 236–237, 240, 253, 255–257

Idel, Moshe, 173

Incandenza, James O., 195

Infinite Jest (Sukenick), 194–195

Inland Empire , 246

insomnia

causes of, 28–29

cost of, 92–93

diagnosing, 26–27, 237–240

impact of, 13–14, 21, 26–27, 35–36, 89, 91, 93, 170–172, 230–233

nature of, 169–170, 206–207