There are many famous insomniacs who despite their sleepless nights, or possibly because of it, led very productive lives. If some had gotten help with their insomnia, they could have been with us longer and others could have just had a happier life with less anxiety and depression.

Tallulah Bankhead – Had an young, gay man to hold her hand until she fell asleep

Robert Burns – Suffered depression and anxiety

Catherine the Great – Was too paranoid to sleep

Winston Churchill – When his depression aggravated his insomnia he would change beds

Charles Dickens – Needed his head pointing north and slept in the middle of his bed

Alexandre Dumas – He would get up and take long walks

Thomas Edison – Invented the light bulb so he could read at night

W.C. Fields – His cure for insomnia was to get a lot of sleep

Scott Fitzgerald – Was a prolific night time list maker

Benjamin Franklin – Got out of bed until it cooled down

Judy Garland – Took sleeping pills to the extreme

Cary Grant – Used hypnosis to quit smoking and to get to sleep

Abraham Lincoln – He would take long, midnight walks

John Stewart Mill – A philosopher with too many ideas and couldn’t quiet his mind

Napoleon – Tickled his belly to stay awake during the day

Groucho Marx – Made late night crank calls (before caller ID was invented)

Marilyn Monroe – Took too many sleeping pills and died too young

Sir Isaac Newton – Was just about to fall asleep when that apple hit him. Dang!

Marcel Proust – Wrote during his sleepless nights

Theodore Roosevelt – Drank a warm glass of milk with a shot of cognac in it

Shakespeare – Has helped thousands of high school students get to sleep

Margaret Thatcher – “Sleeping is for wimps!

Mark Twain – Needed an open windows and fresh air

Vincent Van Gogh – Took a dose of camphor on his pillow (which also helped poison him)

These famous insomniacs suffered many sleepless nights so you are not alone. But keep trying different things to get to sleep. Many will not work, but if you keep trying, you will eventually have a handful of tools that will work for you.