What is our insomnia but the mad obstinacy of our mind in manufacturing thoughts and trains of reasoning, syllogisms and definitions of its own, refusing to abdicate in favor of that divine stupidity of closed eyes, or wise folly of dreams? The man who cannot sleep ... refuses more or less consciously to entrust himself to the flow of things (Yourcenar, 1954). Marguerite Yourcenar's poetic description of insomnia in Memoirs of Hadrian (Yourcenar, 1954) could be an excellent introduction to Schmidt et a/.'s (2010) paper 'Linking impul-sivity to dysfunction thought control and insomnia: a structural equation model' in this issue of Journal of Sleep Research, or even to the entire issue, which includes seven papers on insomnia and disrupted sleep. Schmidt et al. investigated how strategies of thought control at bedtime are associated with insomnia. Investigating 391 students who completed questionnaires on impulsivity, use of thought-control strategies at bedtime and on the severity of insomnia, they reported that specific personality traits may incline individuals with dysfunctional thought-control strategies to unwanted mental activity at night.
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