“Catch some Zs!”
That’s the premise in INSOMNIA! But like real insomnia, catching some Zs isn’t so easy.
(Obsessive grammar note: I tried, but I just can’t use “Z’s” instead of “Zs.” The apostrophe in “Z’s” tells me it’s a possessive Z, but obviously it’s plural. I am aware that culture and grammar guides have made it acceptable to use apostrophes in this way, such as “1990’s” instead of the proper “1990s,” but it feels downright dirty. So deal with my “Zs.” I’m aware I break other rules of writing, such as refusing to italicize game titles, but this one I have to obey. Thank you.)
INSOMNIA! You control a bed containing a sleepless person at the bottom of the screen. Using the paddle controller, your goal is to catch falling Zs while avoiding the torments that keep you awake.
The more Zs you catch, the more you fill your “sleepometer.” If a torment touches you, your sleepometer drops a notch, and a second “Toss-and-turn-ometer” fills a little. If the latter meter fills completely, you succumb to restless leg syndrome. Your speed is slowed dramatically, making you easy prey for the torments. However, in this “toss and turn” mode you can tap on the fire button to kick your legs. This uses up a small amount of the sleepometer, but it allows you kick the torments aside, if you line up just right. Collect ten Zs or a lucky rare power-up to end this mode and regain your speed. Once the sleepometer is full, you’re treated to a small cutscene, and the game begins again, only with faster torments that follow new patterns.
The wide variety of torments, combined with your own strategic moves and power-ups, keeps this game engaging. Many torments look like retro emojis: frowning faces, anxious faces, angry faces. Others are more abstract, such as what appears to be a brain with a lightning bolt, a ticking clock, a monster face, a cup of coffee, a spiky pillow, red pills, a yellow sun wearing sunglasses, a TV, a mug of beer, spiders, red music notes, and a stick figure who seems to be running. These are just a few of the massive variety. Each torment has its own style of movement, and some sap more from your sleepometer than others. For instance, steer clear of the worms–one touch and you’re tossing and turning, because restless legs feel like worms crawling up your calves, to some people.
Power-ups include blue pills, blue music notes, books, bathtubs, a sleepy face, and super-size Zs, which wipe out the torments for ten seconds. Most of the power-ups fill your sleepometer several notches more than a single Z, and some of them allow you to shoot mini-Zs at the torments.
The cutscenes are cute. One features a saw cutting a log. Another shows a thought bubble with sweet dreams, such as a blooming flower or a dog wagging its tail. The most common cutscene is a row of rainbow-colored Zs spouting from the character.
I didn’t make it beyond wave five, because the torments become too fast and too many, though with practice I’m sure I could progress.
I entered my high score code into Playlife, the main game, and found it only increased my Stabilimeter a single notch, and granted nothing new to do. I still couldn’t talk to people or venture beyond the few opening screens.
Overall, I think Dr. Nerman did a good job translating actual insomnia into a game. I just overcame a month of true and terrible insomnia. It was no game. My brain would not let me rest. Once I finally fell asleep, I often woke at three in the morning, and would sometimes get up at four in the morning and start the coffee, because I knew it was helpless to toss and turn any longer. Like the spiky pillow torment, my bed felt uncomfortable.
If my restless legs kicked in, I tossed and turned for hours, with the feeling of worms crawling up my legs. I take pills for sleep and some for restless legs, but during my month of sleeplessness, the pills only helped to make me feel groggy and crappy but not sleepy. Worst of all, one of my sleeping pills triggers my restless legs, so it’s a losing situation either way. (If you have RLS, stay away from antihistamines, such as the common diphenhydramine, a.k.a. Benadryl, for it only makes it worse.) Many nights I slept only four hours, sometimes only one or two, and if I scored a full six hours, I considered that a success. This is coming from someone who prefers eight or nine hours. I avoided caffeine after noon. I stayed away from alcohol, though I am aware many use this to sleep, for better or worse. I avoided playing video games before bed. Basically, I kept away from all the torments, but I still couldn’t seem to catch any Zs.
Restless legs aside, much of my insomnia is psychological. I hold an overwhelming anxiety, for instance, that stems from the constant feeling that all is not right in my world. I don’t live where I think I should live. I don’t work where I think I should work. I don’t trust people. And so on. I’m aware of my own limiting beliefs, and that most of this is all in my head, but that doesn’t make it any easier to disregard feelings of unease that gnaw at me.
Plus, assuming that the doctors are correct and I am bipolar, the insomnia can stem from the extreme irritability and excitability of mania. It’s not always fun. In fact, mania for me and many others often presents as overwhelming anxiety and irritability.
Ironically, my recent bout of insomnia started at the psych ward. Everyone complained about the beds, which were hard, rubbery pads. A sleeping bag would have been better. I was kicking my legs all night. Plus, the nurses gave me a new pill before bed that had a laxative effect, so I was running to the bathroom all night. You’d think they could have given me something to help me sleep, but the nurses could only give me what the doctor approved, and he didn’t approve anything that actually works, like Ambian. It was torture. I slept only one hour during my final night at the ward. I thought getting home and sleeping in my own bed would solve the issue, but no, I would have to endure over a month of this sleeplessness before my exhausted body and tightly-wound mind would finally settle.
I need to see a sleep specialist. I need to do a lot of things to fill my own Stabilometer.
Comments