Kimberly Dean | Sleep On It

It’s often said that you should write what you know. Personally, I’m more from the school of writing what interests you or grabs your imagination. Looking back at my new Dream Wreaker series from Pocket, however, I realized that I had unconsciously done both. The books deal with sleeping and dreaming, something that I (and most people) do daily. Yet when I started learning about what happens during those resting hours, things got really interesting.

I was surprised to learn how many people have problems sleeping. According to the www.sleepeducation.com/ website, more than 70 million people in the U.S. alone have sleep disorders. Even more amazing to me, was that The Classification of Sleep Disorders, Second Edition documents 81 official sleep disorders. 81! As a sleeper, this information boggled the mind. As a writer, however, the possibilities opened to me by this information seemed endless.

Restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, night terrors, sleep paralysis… The list held so many ideas for so many interesting stories. In the end, I chose dreaming as the topic for my first book in the series, What She Wants At Midnight. Sleepwalking was the focus of the follow-up book, In Her Wildest Dreams. With so many readers having trouble sleeping, I thought the subject matter would be something with which they could relate.

So what about you? Are you one of those people who can fall asleep the moment your head hits the pillow and wake up eight hours later feeling refreshed? (I dislike you intensely.) Or do you suffer from sleep problems? Better yet, how do you conquer them?

Kimberly Dean
www.kimberlydean.com/