Make America Sleepless Again

An Ask E. Jean Classic

Dear E. Jean: 

I’m an insomniac. I stay up all night trying to fall asleep. Sometimes, I can’t get to sleep until like NOON the next day. Not being able to sleep makes me hungry, and I eat junk food to try to calm myself down and scroll through Instagram and Twitter to try and tire myself out—(it never tires me out). I’m also on Depo-Provera birth control shots. The doctor told me they may have “a few” side-effects, so could this be the problem? In addition, I'm a writer, and I can work my own schedule, but I worry about my career and the new Covid variants. I get very anxious and paranoid at night when I can’t sleep—which is WHY I can’t go to sleep! I’m afraid of turning out the light. So I binge Netflix. I’m afraid of somebody stabbing me to death while I sleep in bed.

Please, E. Jean! I need your help! What’s wrong with me? I don’t know what to do. Sometimes, I think I have a great life, a wonderful sex life, everything. Other times, I get angry at any little th…