Tallulah Bankhead
Bankhead had severe insomnia, during which she used to hire young homosexual “caddies”, who would keep her company, and one of their most important duties was to hold her hand up until she would drift off to sleep.
Franz Kafka
This writer kept a detailed diary, in which he described all his sleep problems. For example, for October 2, 1911, it was mentioned in his diary: “sleepless night. The third in a row. I fall asleep soundly, but after ah hour I wake up, as though I had laid my head in the wrong hole.”
Theodore Roosevelt
The main cure for insomnia of this president of the USA was receiving a shot of cognac in a glass of milk.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain suffered from insomnia awfully. When he got irritated by his sleep problem, he finally threw his pillow at the window of his bedroom one night, when he was a guest in his good friend’s house. As soon as the satisfying crash let in what he considered to be the fresh air, he finally fell asleep. Therefore, in the morning he found out that the night before he had broken a glass – enclosed bookcase.
Judy Garland
The major problem of this famous woman was the diet pills (amphetamines) addiction, which developed yet in a young age. Because of this she would sometimes be awake for days on end. In order to counter the effects of the speed, she preferred to take sleeping pills, which made a dangerous combination that without any doubt contributed greatly to her eventual death.
Margaret Thatcher
Just like Napoleon Bonaparte, this redoubtable Prime Minister of Britain was famous not only for her woman’s strength, cleverness and political skills, but also for the ability to sleep during only four or even less hours at night. However, nowadays there are people, who manage to speculate that her motto, which sounded like “sleep is for wimps” was really just a mere cover for her insomnia. And it is insomnia, which might be considered a condition that might be a weakness of this leader.
Groucho Marx
It is widely known that Marx’s insomnia started following the crash of the stock market in 1929, in which he lost $240,000 within the 48 hour period. In order to make the symptoms of insomnia easier, Groucho called strangers up in the dead of night and insulted them. However, this kind of activity is never recommended as one of the cures of insomnia. Moreover, everyone should keep in mind that in Marx’s days there was no caller ID.
To other world’s famous insomniacs belonged the following personalities:
Benjamin Franklin;
Carey Grant;
Catherine the Great;
Charles Dickens;
Marcel Proust;
Thomas Edison.
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