Owl City: Living with insomnia

Insomnia and me

I started getting insomnia when I was in high school. I was about 16 or 17. I'd get about three or four hours of sleep a night, So I was usually pretty run down during classes.

I guess there wasn't any one thing that caused it, but I found that I just started to lose sleep and couldn't find a way to catch up. I think the biggest cause was just the way my mind worked. When my mind wandered, instead of becoming drowsy, I'd end up staying awake.

“I'll be exhausted and that's when I find my mind wandering...”

Adam

Before I got into music, I'd stay awake thinking about schoolwork. I think my grades suffered a little bit. I probably went from Bs to Cs. It wasn't super serious, but it was kind of a bummer.

Then when I got into music, I was always writing and creating, or I'd be thinking about that stuff. So a lot of the time I would keep myself awake with all these ideas for music, and it was really hard to let them go. It hasn't really changed that much since then. These days I'll be in bed, done with the day and ready to sleep. I'll be exhausted and that's when I find my mind wandering.

It's become a blessing and a curse; I find that when I can't sleep, those are the times when I tend to be most inspired. So insomnia does allow me to get a lot done - it's definitely a double edged sword.

It's annoying just in terms of not being able to wake up and feel super energised and ready for the day. I'm not really a huge morning person anyway, but it takes me a long time to get going. My body's always exhausted. Eventually, I'll hit some threshold where sleep comes really quick, but then I have to pay for that later.

Music as therapy

The thing about imsomnia is that it's not an obvious thing to other people, so it didn't really come up as a serious problem when I was growing up. I don't remember it being a huge issue until high school. Now it's really something that ony affects me on my own time. It's not like it really affects anyone else, so it didn't really worry anyone else.

It's never been so bad that it turned me into a monster, but it's a constant, deep down exhaustion. Most people that do know about it are pretty sympathetic, they just don't assume that it's a big issue. It's not a huge life and death issue, it's just quite annoying to me.

“I've learnt how to arrange my schedule around sleep.”

Adam

It's still a struggle for me though. I've tried the home remedies like reading a book or drinking warm milk and all of that stuff, but nothing seems to work. I've been to the doctor a few times but so far, it's fair to say that I've not really found anything that works.

It's a little bit better now simply because I've learnt how to arrange my schedule around sleep. I do tend to sleep a little bit better when I'm on the road. The motion of a tour bus can rock me to sleep. But whenever I'm at home, I'm still trying to figure it out as I go.

But I can honestly say that if I didn't have the music to fall back on, and to run to when I'm in need, I think I'd be a lot worse off. For me it's always been my escape. Music has always been my true love, and it's something I use to try and fight the insomnia and get a lot done.