The Insomnia project

I've dealt with insomnia ever since I was fairly young; I remember my sleep issues starting to appear when I was around 7 years old, and in my early 30s it continues to be a problem.

There are a multitude of reasons for this, but it's a pretty rough combination of factors that has brought about a lifelong, challenging relationship with sleep that continues to exacerbate my struggles.

As I get older, it gets a bit easier to deal with for the most part. I'm finding ways to manage and accept that this is something that I will likely carry with me forever, and I'm learning to deal with the sharp spikes that can come about from time to time (I sometimes have weeks where I'm lucky to get 20 hours of sleep across 5-7 days before I finally crash).

But during one of my recent bouts of intense insomnia, I decided to take advantage of it and create a life-long project centered around documenting the effects it has on me. I'm curious to see how my insomnia ages me and affects my long-term health, both physically and mentally. I'm interested in seeing how I can experiment with my camera to create a visual representation of how it truly feels to go days without sufficient sleep.

I'm hoping this work will connect with those who struggle with insomnia like myself to whatever degree, and that it will provide insight to those who have people in their lives that struggle with chronic insomnia but may not understand the great toll that it takes on their loved ones.

It's not always easy to continue to live your life in this very demanding era of humanity when you can't sleep, and I feel for all those who suffer from insomnia no matter what is causing it. I hope that you can find rest.