From the author of 52 Ways to Walk and Windswept comes a counter-intuitive blend of memoir, science, and history that explores how women have—for hundreds of years—used sleepless periods during the night to find creativity, insight, and courage, thanks to their biochemically altered night brains.

In the winter of 2020, Annabel Abbs-Streets experienced a series of losses: her stepfather, then father, and finally her family’s puppy. Unmoored by grief, she couldn’t sleep. This wasn’t unusual—she had lived with insomnia for most of her adult life. Less expected, however, was her revelation that night had gifts to give. Her wakeful nights became a place of sanctuary, expansive and permissive. Once she stopped fighting her insomnia, Annabel tapped into something mysterious and beguiling: her Night Self.

In the nights to come, darkness became a place of creativity, reflection, and liberation. Her Night Self wasn’t a sign of failure-to-sleep or fear-of-the-dark, but an intriguing source of power and possibility. And she was determined to harness it for good. Moreover, new developments in the science of circadian rhythms seemed to explain why life felt so different at night.

In Sleepless, Annabel uses science, historical research, and anecdotal evidence to explore the complicated relationship women have with darkness and how the commonplace experience of female insomnia can be turned to ‘creative profit’. Her night journeys range from the darkest corner of the Arctic Circle to the brightest city on earth. And from women of the past—Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois, Katherine Mansfield, Laura de Cereta and dozens more—who opened their minds on sleepless nights, to contemporary women who found a form of healing in darkness. From glow-worm hunters to astronomers, from artists to astrophotographers, Annabel found she wasn’t alone. Cut loose from the anxiety of darkness and slumber, numerous women discovered strength, creativity and inner knowledge at night. Many also learnt to—finally—sleep.