Somnium

Sophie and Rob sat together on their leather couch, enveloped in each other's arms as they were always every Friday night while grazing on popcorn and flipping through their TV. They were both running on so very little sleep they could barely concentrate on anything, taking in scattered bits of shows and movies that congealed into incomprehensible gibberish. Most times this was romantic and relaxing, resulting in playful kissing and the couple leaving the half-watched program frozen while they made their way to the master bedroom. This time, neither one could think about anything other than when they'd finally nod off to sleep.

They were in the middle of some brainless action flick when a special news bulletin cut through and caught their attention temporarily. A blonde newswoman with a stern look sat at a desk and seemed to peer at them with such a tired and haggard look they figured she had been up working tirelessly for days. Weeks, even. It scared them, like looking into a mirror and the same kind of look they had seen on all their neighbors and family.

"Robbie, what's going on?" Sophie whispered, more to herself as a rhetorical question. Rob didn't answer, he was transfixed, brow furrowed like a student determined to absorb the lesson no matter how difficult the material. The newswoman gathered a handful of papers and cleared her throat.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I have disturbing news tonight. The CDC and World Health Organization have declared a new worldwide health epidemic that is currently developing—"

The two of them clasped each other's hands tightly, so much so it practically hurt.

"This is not a disease that robs its victims of health or life like an ordinary virus. Instead, victims have reported an acute form of insomnia that is currently confounding medical experts around the world. Most have only had this type of insomnia for the past several days, but health experts are finding there are those reported to have gone without any kind of sleep for at least several weeks. There is no scientific explanation for this at this time."

The newswoman choked up at this, her eyes darting like a frightened animal. She seemed to struggle to say the rest, looking back at her notes and the teleprompter. It was obvious she was further along in whatever bizarre process was going on. Sophie, a doctor herself, couldn't help but think in terms of disease. But what contagion causes insomnia? There were lots of boring reasons for insomnia: stress, depression, anxiety, major life events, and so forth. They were all common, everyday explanations wherein the cure might be something as mundane as getting to bed earlier or taking a long, quiet vacation to settle the mind.

This was clearly something else entirely. Had she not been running so low on sleep herself, she'd find it fascinating to study. Rob was far more blue-collar and the whole thing had made him more and more agitated as the days went on and he lost out on more sleep. Now it frightened him just as much as the newswoman on the television. There was going to be a cure, right? He muttered it to himself like a mantra. Gotta be. That's how these things go, and there had to be people who were immune and could donate their blood or whatever to fix it. That's how he thought: just another problem waiting around for a solution.

The newswoman continued bluntly.

"At this time, there is no known cure nor pattern that has emerged to make this disease—if it is a disease in the traditional sense—easily identifiable. Health experts are working around the clock to shed more light on what is going on and urge the public to be patient. In the meantime, monitor yourself and if at all possible, try to get any sleep you may be able to get. It looks though that whatever is going on is progressive. Those that are starting to have difficulty sleeping will get worse as time goes on, though health experts have no definitive timetable. Eventually, victims may be unable to sleep or rest for any kind of period at all. "

Both Rob and Sophie's mouths were agape. Where they were was bad enough. Words slurred and thoughts would go on unfinished, but at least they could power through the days with a pot or two of extra-caffeinated coffee. That they had so much further to go remained a terrifying thought. What would they be like after a month, or several?

"Symptoms of long-term insomnia may include hallucinations, memory loss, hypertension, and other mental and physical symptoms. If you are in the early stages of this phenomenon, it is strongly urged you get sleep now. Sleep as long and as deep as you can, if possible. Your life may depend on it. We'll continue to report on this situation and keep you up to date as more details are made available."

With that, she signed off, looking more like a battle-weary soldier than the coiffed news anchor either one was used to. The TV went back to the mindless action movie. An explosion went off in the background, gunfire rang out, and if it were any other day Rob would have been glued to it while Sophie rolled her eyes at the insanity of it all. But it barely registered, and Sophie muted it. She looked at Rob and even with the glow of the TV reflecting off of her thick glasses, he saw nothing but abject fear in her eyes. That scared him more than anything, the look of the unknown in her eyes. Anything he was ever remotely curious about, she always seemed to have the answer (or knew a friend in a field who did, one phone call away) for anything no matter how complex. There was no explanation this time. Only questions that piled one on top of the other like a horrific car crash and just as disorienting.

Each in their own way had started to combat the ever-encroaching insomnia in their own ways. Rob had begun taking extra supplements and was having more late-night beers to induce something that would resemble the sleep he was used to having. Sophie had taken a more New Age method: meditation and a variety of herbal teas that calmed her down but failed to put her into any kind of sleep. Both began taking sleeping pills at heavier doses; what little sleep they had gotten before made them wake up groggy and feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds as they sluggishly got out of bed in the morning. Now they had little to no effect. They were stupidly ineffective talismans that could no more ward off insomnia than a dreamcatcher could stop bad dreams.

The couple tried to go to sleep anyway, taking the advice from the TV to heart. They stripped out of their clothes and changed into their nightwear. It was very dark outside now and late. Any other day they would have long since passed out into a blissful sleep. Those nights seemed like a wonderful dream from long ago, a hazy memory that could only be half-remembered at best. As Rob looked out the window he could see the neighborhood was buzzing with activity where once there was silence. Children played, people walked, and anyone inside was trying to busy themselves with something that hopefully made them tired enough to try sleeping again. Nothing looked to be working, everyone had a zombie-like, miserable expression on their face. Rob didn't want to go to the mirror to see he was wearing that same expression.

Sophie undid her hair and set her glasses aside looking like a fair-haired maiden from a fairy tale. Only she hoped a kiss from Rob wouldn't wake her from an eternal slumber, but the opposite. He kissed her goodnight lovingly and she returned in kind but broke it off before it went on for too long. They both needed sleep, even if it were for an hour. Both laid down on their respective sides, getting as comfortable as possible. Tired, but somehow still awake, they turned towards each other and talked.

"It will get better." Rob said as if he knew it to be fact, attempting to be reassuring. Sophie's expression didn't change.

"People can't stay up forever, right?"

Sophie didn't answer, but thought to herself maybe, maybe not. We're still learning what the human body can take, after all. Rob closed his eyes and Sophie followed a while later, though Rob sighed uncomfortably so much it was obvious he was still wide awake. She prayed for a sleep she knew wouldn't come and wondered just how bad a forever wakeful world could truly be.