I finally cured my insomnia after barely sleeping for nine months

It's 4am. But rather than being snuggled under my duvet, gently drifting through soothing dreams, I'm sitting bolt upright in bed. I've wandered to and from my sofa countless times. I've aimlessly opened and closed the fridge, then peered through my French doors to be eyed suspiciously by a fox. I don't blame its annoyance at sharing this solitary hour with me. I'm thoroughly annoyed myself.

Yet when I return to my dark, shuttered bedroom, collapsing exhausted on to my bed, the one thing I crave refuses to appear. Sleep. My body aches, longs and screams for it. But it has been weeks since I slept – and that is no exaggeration.

For roughly nine months, in 2022, I barely slept at all. This was no brief period of insomnia, like that suffered by one in three of the UK population. It wasn't 'troubled sleep' or the occasional rough night. No, this was full-on, wide-eyed sleeplessness, the kind that could drive a person mad and their life out of control.

I finally cured my insomnia after barely sleeping for nine months

It's 4am. But rather than being snuggled under my duvet, gently drifting through ­soothing dreams, I'm sitting bolt upright in bed. I've wandered to and from my sofa ­countless times.

It's 4am. But rather than being snuggled under my duvet, gently drifting through soothing dreams, I'm sitting bolt upright in bed. I've wandered to and from my sofa countless times.