Night after night for some 40 years, the US independent filmmaker, Alan Berliner, has battled with his sleep demons.
He has tried everything to defeat them, including meditation, acupuncture, herbal remedies, “lots of sex” and earplugs.
Recently, he made Wide Awake, a film investigating both insomnia in general, and his affliction in particular. In the film, we watch as night vision cameras capture his nightly torment.
He says the process of making the film “induced, over time, a kind of madness”, and his mother suggests on camera that the process is damaging him. “Night after night I am watching myself watch myself not be able to sleep,” Berliner says of the 18-month project. “Each night, going to bed was a research opportunity. And that can be tiring.”