Insomnia affects around 60 million people in the United States every year. It is associated with a variety of health concerns, particularly among the elderly, including cognitive impairment and metabolic syndrome.
As any person who has had a sleepless night will know, trying to “will” yourself to sleep during an episode of insomnia is not just unhelpful, but it might also make matters even worse. But what if there was a “switch” in our brain that we could activate when we want to fall asleep?