Zine Review: Insomniughhh 1

Insomniughhh 1
Ashley
https://sites.google.com/view/insomniugh

This zine may be about living with a circadian rhythm sleep disorder, but I loved reading in the intro that this zine is Ashley’s step back into zinemaking after about twelve years. <3

Insomniughhh 1 is a short but informative introduction into what a circadian rhythm sleep disorder is and what it’s like to live with one.

Ashley’s disorder comes in the form of feeling the need to go to sleep at 2.30 to 3.30 in the morning. From what the word ‘circadian’ actually means to a breakdown of sleep studies, Ashley provides a lot of information in what feels like more than fourteen pages.

I love how informative this zine is. I didn’t know much about sleep disorders beyond the basics, and I loved learning more. I especially liked the larks and owls part. Most people have heard of night owls, but I’ve never heard of nor thought about its morning counterpart. (Spoiler: Larks)

I had to chuckle in sympathy when I saw CBT on the ‘What They Tell You Works’ list. (More power to you if it works for you, but it’s handed out like a wonder drug.) I liked how Ashley followed that with the ‘What Works For Me’ list. For me, it served as a reminder that what ‘they’ say is not the be all and end all for options.

The sleep study part was an eye opener, however. As someone who got a ‘something is wrong, but we’re not sure what’ from her own sleep study, I found some hope in finding out that sleep studies aren’t useful in circadian rhythm disorders.

Insomniughhh is a handwritten zine, but I had no trouble reading. It has a nice balance of text and pictures. The text occasionally skips outside the margins, but not too badly.

If you want to learn about circadian sleep disorders, then this is definitely a great zine to start with.