I wanted to discuss a little about the effects of insomnia. Everyone knows that the problem is that you can't get a decent night of sleep, but most people don't really understand what happens to a person that experiences this problem.
If you're someone that has had this problem for a while, it gets harder to explain what it is like. There was a great quote from Fight Club that I want to use.
When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep... and you're never really awake.
With insomnia, nothing's real. Everything's far away, everything's a copy.
The point is the effect of insomnia on your perception of everyday things is quite different. You see things, but they just don't feel right. It's sort of like everything is almost like a hazy dream in a way. It's extremely hard to explain to someone that has never experienced it.
One of the biggest effects of insomnia is your ability to think properly. Sleep is one of the most important processes of the brain and when it doesn't get it, you have trouble. We arrest people that drink and drive, but not sleeping a driving can be just as dangerous. Your reaction time slows and your ability to think about consequences go right out the window.
Another big aspect of this is concentration. It goes right down the tubes. For all those college students that they think pulling an all night works, than you're wrong. Since your concentration is poor during an all nighter, you're just investing all this extra time to learn a little. The same applies for insomnia. If you're at work, you might stare at your desk for most of the day.