Wide Awake (2006) Movie Script
1
Einstein dream, take one.
There was a global campaign
to find a cure for jet lag...
and all of history's greatest...
No, wait. Stop. I lost my place.
These morning shoots are killing me.
Killing me. Alright.
One more time.
Einstein dream, take two.
There was a global campaign
to find a cure for jet lag...
and all of history's greatest
scientists were working on it.
Newton, Einstein, Copernicus...
Edison, Alexander Graham Bell...
even Jonas Salk.
And they were gathered at
a convention in Alexandria, Egypt.
There were lots of cameras
and reporters around...
from all over the world.
And everyone was especially excited
to hear from Einstein...
who was scheduled to speak last.
Now, somehow I was in
the audience too.
My grandfather,
my mother's father...
somehow used his connections
to get me in, at least I think so.
Finally, Einstein got up
on the stage and said...
"There is no cure for jet lag.
You just suffer."
Now, I don't know
what got into me...
but I stood up from the back row
and screamed...
But, professor Einstein...
what about someone who feels
jet lagged in their own time zone?
And he said, "Alan."
And I was shocked."
How he did he know my name?
He said, "Alan...
science doesn't even know
why we sleep.
Now get out of here,
go home and work on your film."
"I don't want to go to bed yet!"
"It's bedtime and sleep time.
Now put these things down.
Now, get under the covers
and out with the lights."
"Mom, I'm always awake for ages
after the light are out."
"Don't worry,
you'll fall asleep right away.
You'll be asleep
before you know it."
"Before you know it."
"Good night, son."
Inhale. Exhale.
I can't take it anymore.
Go to sleep. Forget it.
Think pleasant thoughts.
Inhale. Exhale.
The baby's coming in two months.
I've never changed a diaper
in my life.
Do I watch the birth
or film the birth?
Shooting it would be better
for the film.
But how can I watch the birth
of my child through a lens?
Just relax.
I'm too tired to relax.
I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow.
I feel like a zombie right now.
What was I saying?
What if he wants to be
an economist like Shari?
What if he becomes a doctor?
That would be okay.
He could get me
latest sleeping pills.
Stop it. Just relax.
He's not even born yet.
He's got to go
to nursery school first.
That reminds me.
We have to get
the applications early.
New York City nursery schools
are really competitive.
Inhale. Exhale.
Okay, everybody, rise and shine.
Up and at them, tiger.
Early bird gets the worm.
Early to bed, early to rise...
makes each of us healthy,
wealthy and wise.
That's a bunch of crap.
This is W-T-I-R-E-D,
radio in New York.
You talk to me in the morning,
I'll tell you how tired I am.
The sound of my voice in
the morning usually gives it away.
I'm a terrible sleeper.
Either I have trouble
falling asleep or...
I wake up too early
and can't get back to sleep.
The end result is that
I walk around tired all day.
It's like having a permanent cold,
only without the coughing...
the sneezing and the runny nose.
"Give you everything I've got
for a little piece of mind"
Until the night comes that is.
That's when I come alive.
When I do my best work.
To tell you the truth,
every film I've ever made...
I made at night.
You might say I'm trapped...
between the part of me
that doesn't get enough sleep.
And a part of me that's
too busy to worry about it.
How many hours of sleep
did you get last night?
Eight? Seven? Six? Five?
Four? Three?
Two? One? None?
The doctor will see you now.
How old are you?
I'm forty seven... forty eight,
I'm forty-eight, I'm sorry.
I forgot. I'm forty-eight.
I just turned forty-eight
two months ago.
And you're married and you're
expecting your first child?
- In April.
- And how's your wife doing?
- Knock on wood, she's doing fine.
- Great.
The birth of your child will be
a life changing experience.
- Smoking?
- Never bought...
a pack of cigarettes
in my whole life.
How about alcohol?
One or two glasses,
three or four times a week.
- Do you exercise?
- I jump rope actually.
For how long?
That's hard to do.
Minimum a half hour
every time I go.
- What is your best time of the day?
- The night.
And do you and your wife,
are you on the same schedule...
- or is she go to bed earlier?
- I put her to bed.
I tuck her in,
kiss her goodnight.
You don't work in your bedroom,
you don't eat in your bedroom...
No.
I hope you don't have TV
in your bedroom.
I do but I hardly ever watch it.
Your bedroom should be
just for sleep and sex.
Nothing else.
Do you awaken much
at night to urinate?
I've learned not to drink anything
a few hours before I go to sleep.
Do you have nightmares?
Haven't had a nightmare
in a long time.
Does anybody ever tell you
you look tired?
Everybody tells me all the time.
Back pain, or neck pain, or shoulder
or any other medical condition...
- which might be account for this?
- No.
Have you ever injured yourself
or others in your sleep?
- Acted out a dream that you know of?
- Never that I know of.
And never been hospitalized
and never had a suicidal...
Never.
Do you ever fall asleep
in the daytime without wanting to?
Only maybe in movie theaters.
- Do you walk in your sleep?
- No.
- Do you snore?
- Yes.
Do you ever awaken yourself
at night, gasping for air?
No.
But I have woken up suddenly...
Would you characterize
yourself as a worrier?
Definitely.
Stand close to the chair.
So is there something
I haven't asked...
that would be illuminating...
that would be important
for me to know?
If you said I can turn you...
from a night person
into a morning person...
I'm not sure that
I would want to do it.
I'm not sure
I'd be able to do it.
I wonder if I'm too far gone...
if I'm wired this way...
So you're a hopeless case?
- I don't know.
- You're wondering.
I'm wondering.
"Those electrodes
are monitoring my brainwaves...
my eye movement,
my heartbeat, my breathing...
the oxygen in my blood,
the muscle tone in my chin...
my leg movement."
Not only that but there's
a camera on the wall...
and a microphone hanging
from the ceiling.
The only thing they can't record
is what's going on inside my head.
Every night...
when I put my head to the pillow,
is like an adventure.
I never know how long
it's going to take me to sleep...
if I can fall asleep.
But what always happens is that
my mind starts to race...
uncontrollably.
I don't shut off.
My brain doesn't shut off.
And I can't control where it goes,
or for how long.
Sometimes, as soon as my head
hits the pillow...
I start hearing music.
In some cases, it's a song
I heard that day on the radio.
In some cases, a song
I heard a month ago.
In other cases, it's a song
I heard a year ago.
And in some cases, it's a song
I never even thought I knew.
And things just start
looping and looping...
and the song just
keeps going in my head.
Over and over and over again.
And I can't get it out of my head.
In fact, there are some songs...
even some albums
that I'm actually afraid of.
Because I know,
if I listen to them during the day...
they're going to come back
at night to haunt me.
There's a song for, instance, by
Leonard Cohen, "In My Secret Life.
In the middle of the night, all I
keep thinking in the same rhythm...
in the same melody.
"In my sleepless night..."
It just repeats over and over again.
"In my sleepless night...
What is... what's going on?"
That's a rumination.
Chewing on something
and being unable to let it go.
How do I,
how do I shut all that off?
What you're describing's basically
a routine that you've learned...
and it's probably taken a long time
to develop to this particular state.
And so what's really
important about that is that...
there can be an off switch, but you
got to learn how to turn it off.
"It's not like we can just
give you one and say...
up, there it is on the wall,
flip the switch, you're off tonight."
Over the years I've tried
to cry myself to sleep...
to drink myself to sleep...
aromatherapy, changing mattresses,
changing pillows. lavender beads...
massage therapy, white noise,
meditation, counting sheep.
- Did the sheep work?
- No.
No, I lose interest
after a couple of hundred.
A couple of hundred?
"Melatonin, valerian root,
acupuncture, acupressure...
chamomile tea, warm milk,
hypnosis even, yoga...
homeopathic medicines, marijuana...
- lots of sex before go to sleep...
- Have you mentioned hot bath?
- Hot baths...
- Wake me when he's done.
- Herbal teas, biofeedback.
- So nothing worked, nothing worked.
- I've been tired my whole life.
- Right.
Maybe some
of my insomnia's related to...
bad sleep habits from infancy?
- Or maybe it's...
- There are so many people...
who've bad sleep habits in infancy
and end up sleeping well.
I think so much of it
has to do with...
how long he's been making films...
and making them
at funky hours of the night.
I remember Alan,
four o'clock in the morning...
- used to go upstairs to go to sleep.
- It's over twenty years.
and then we couldn't...
we couldn't call him
until eleven, twelve o'clock.
So what is that?
Do you think that's normal?
Even by your standards
of normal?
So, I just wanted to ask you...
what kind of sleeper
was I as a baby?
- Would you say I was a good sleeper?
- Can you remember?
I'm not that old, Lynn.
- Of course I can remember.
- Did you read books about sleep?
No. I didn't think I had...
- a problem with you.
- Most people don't think about it.
It's one of the most important
things.
I used to come and sing you
a lullaby, a French song...
rub your back and the next thing
I know you were sleeping.
What was the lullaby
you sang me?
- That's the one.
- That's only two lines.
Alan, you didn't bring me
here for singing...
By the way, I have a question.
Do you count sheep?
- No. Never.
- You've never counted sheep...
- in your whole life?
- No.
I did, but you told me
I was doing something wrong.
- What do you mean?
- You said I should say...
sheep after each one.
- One sheep, two sheep, and I...
- That's how I do it.
No, and I just count it
and I see them going up a prairie.
- You know, jumping.
- So, you say, one...
- and then imagine the sheep jumping.
- Right.
- Then you say two and visualize...
- But you told her that...
- she was doing it incorrectly.
- Yes.
How could you could you
count sheep incorrectly?
- Could just be counting anything.
- No, but she visualizes it...
- what difference does it make?
- I visualize it...
- Which is the right way to do it?
- Both.
It works because it gets you
focused on something mentally...
besides the worry
or the other stuff.
So, whether it's just the numbers...
or where there's an image
associated with it...
you're focusing
on something particular.
Why sheep?
I don't know where the sheep
came from, but you know what?
If something else works for you,
that's good too.
"142. 143. 144."
"173. 174. 175. 176."
"225. 226. 227."
"Some nights when I hit the pillow,
all I hear is pounding."
Pounding, sure.
Sometimes it feels like there's
a woodpecker under my pillow.
- Well, that's cool!
- It's not so cool, drives me crazy.
You know what that is?
The carotid artery...
has a, is... is just
real near the ear there.
And that's all you're doing,
is you're hearing your own pulse.
It's very, very normal,
it's not abnormal.
Well, why don't you hear
your carotid artery?
I do.
I just don't pay attention to it.
How long should it take me
to fall asleep ideally?
Most people fall asleep
in fifteen minutes or less.
And what should be
going through my mind...
when my head hits the pillow?
That you love the way
that pillow feels.
That you love the way
that bed feels.
That you've never felt more
comfortable in your life...
and the next thing is... nothing.
You just lie there...
enjoying how wonderful it feels
just to be in this bed.
- That sounds like science fiction.
- No. That's...
you asked me what you should feel.
That's it.
If every night...
night after night after night
you don't sleep well...
then what happens is,
the bedroom itself...
the sleeping environment,
the whole idea of sleep...
For me becomes a battlefield.
Good sleepers don't view sleep
as a battlefield at all.
Good sleepers...
that's the escape
from the battlefield.
You don't have to learn
how to sleep.
It's built in to the brain
to every 24 hours go to sleep.
It's natural and easy and...
- And I can't do it.
- And you can't do it.
Why can't I go to sleep?
"Our subject this evening is sleep,
going to sleep."
"You're all tied up in knots.
don't fight so hard."
"I'll begin by asking you to find...
as comfortable a position
as you can."
"Breathe out the clocks
and the calendars...
breathe out the tensions
and breathe in the cool comfort."
"Breathe in. Breathe out."
"Now...
walk with me down a stairs...
going to walk out
into a beautiful garden."
"Take one step down,
and then two, then four...
half way five, six, seven...
we can almost see that door,
eight, nine, and then...
stepping down, turning a little,
do we see the door."
"When you can't sleep
because tension has you...
all wound up."
"Your active mind
remembers the pressures...
and the problems of the day."
"You see, active minds bring
on nagging sleep-robbing thoughts...
that create sleep static."
When is your usual time
return to bed?
As early as two,
as late as five. It depends.
Do you work right up
to the time you go to sleep?
All the time.
"Find out what the world record is
for staying awake?"
"Make a list of all idioms and..."
"Find out how much people slept
in the Victorian era."
"Find as many alarms clock sounds
as possible."
"Make a list of writers,
poets, painters and musicians...
who were insomniacs."
"Find out what time of the day...
The Three Mile Island
accident happened?"
"Search for outdoor clocks...
Find out if it's true that...
Leonardo Da Vinci slept
only 15 minutes every few hours."
"Research sleep deprivation
as a form of torture."
"See if there are any studies...
about the relationship
between sleep and cancer."
"Find out if some cultures
are better sleepers than others."
And what about plants?
You can't just go...
from this high intensity thinking
about everything...
and immediately think
that you can go to sleep.
Doesn't happen that way.
"The road to sleep
can be filled with detours."
"Nothing to worry about..."
"I can't believe I forgot
how to fall asleep.
"I forgot how to fucking
fall asleep."
"That's like
forgetting how to walk."
"Or breathe."
Nothing to worry about...
"It's like the clock is laughing
at me."
Get rid of the clock.
All it's doing is feeding
that rumination and worry...
Instituting a regular
wind-down period...
where you read
non work-related material...
that just allows you to relax...
and enjoy some other
part of life...
is going to be
an important part of this.
- Alan, you woke me up again.
- I'm sorry...
- I dropped a book.
- What are you doing?
Alan, you're filming me.
Go away.
- Shari, just go to... Sorry.
- Alan, stop filming me.
I can't stand being
woken up with a...
with a light in my eye.
You wake me up
with the camera in my face.
- It's not in your face. Please...
- Alan, please...
You're going to break the camera.
Stop it.
- Alan, turn the camera off.
- Go back to sleep.
Don't tell me to go back to sleep.
Who's going to go back to sleep
after I'm pissed off at you!
Waking up after just a few hours
of sleep drives me crazy.
Is the awakening abrupt?
Are you fully alert
or do you just slowly come to?
I would say I'm awake instantly.
My big problem is
getting back to sleep.
- Because once I'm up, I'm up.
- And what do you do?
I sigh, basically.
And then head
for the medicine cabinet.
The only way I can put
the dragon to sleep...
is with a sleeping pill.
That's the one thing
that works consistently.
The sleeping pill is
the sword for your dragon.
That's how you do it.
And what's interesting
about that of course, is...
your perception
that it is a dragon.
Not a puppy. It's a dragon.
It's part of this battle again.
The dragon is me, you know?
The dragon is me.
Yes, you said it. I didn't.
Insight doesn't always lead
to behavior change though.
What you need to be considering is...
how not to slay the dragon,
but tame the dragon.
I have a dirty little secret,
I might as well just tell you.
I have been taking a sleeping pill...
for a really long time.
You read the bottle it says...
don't take more than a week
or two or three.
It's a short-term thing.
I mean, I'm...
Don't be afraid, say it!
Year.
Years!
What exactly is happening to me
when I'm taking the sleeping pill?
What is it doing to me?
Nobody knows exactly what these
compounds are doing.
I'm taking something everyday
and no one knows what it's doing?
There are all kinds of medications...
they don't know exactly
what they're doing...
but it's more-so probably
with sleep medications.
"Medical science
introduces Shut-Eye...
a truly remarkable new
sleeping formula...
made especially for people
with active minds."
"Minds too busy to sleep."
They tend to be classes of drugs...
which have some effect
on a lot of brain cells.
It's stimulating a lot of places
in the brain that relax you.
Ones that shut the brain off.
And once you're brain is off...
then your real sleepiness
takes over...
and you can fall asleep.
- What are you doing?
- You're snoring again.
I was just trying
to move you because I can't...
I can't sleep.
- I was trying to...
- I'm not snoring that loud.
Yes, yes you are.
Well now you're not.
So, it worked.
That's what a loud snore looks like?
Yes and then you stop...
and you're slowing
your breathing down.
And then...
So, is snoring bad for me?
We're not sure
how benign snoring is.
It may increase blood pressure.
If I told you that...
the snoring's gotten worse
as the sleeping's gotten worse...
- would that make sense?
- Yes.
As people get sleep deprived...
the muscle strength of the throat
gets weaker.
Your snoring gets worse.
If you drink alcohol...
which weakens the muscles
in the throat...
your snoring gets worse.
It's one thing
to be told you snore.
It's something else entirely
to actually hear it.
Now I'm terrified
of falling asleep in public places.
I don't want to be the person sitting
next to you snoring loudly...
The one you just want to grab
by the throat and scream...
Wake up!
But if you are someone
who snores heavily...
you might have
a condition called sleep apnea...
which can be very serious
and you should go see a doctor.
What time do you get up
in the morning?
Depends what time I went to sleep.
Depends if I woke up
in a middle of a night.
Depends if I took a sleeping pill.
The number one rule
of sleep hygiene...
get out of bed
at the very same time.
Regardless whether you slept
the whole night...
whether you went to bed at four,
whether you didn't sleep at all.
When I wake up in a morning...
I never really have a feeling of...
Well, whatever,
I don't have the whatever...
The satisfaction
of feeling well rested.
"Boy, what a sleep!"
It is October 15th, 1989.
It's about 3:25 in the morning.
I'm always very tired.
There are people that tell me...
how are you, I say, "I'm tired".
And they say, "Alan, as long as
I've ever known you...
that's always what you say.
You're tired."
I get irritable.
I lose my appetite.
Cant concentrate.
I get listless.
I shy away from people.
I sense my mood shifts
can be more volatile.
I feel like shit.
Yawn all day.
I look like shit.
Tomorrow morning my eyes
will be blood shot...
my voice will be low.
My syntax will be awkward...
and my thought processes...
if there are and enough
to be plural...
will be sort of
in slow motion a little bit.
And while I'm at it...
I'd like to make a public apology.
For those people
who don't know me very well...
my insomnia's the reason...
that I've never returned
your phone call.
It's the reason...
There can't be
any moving around...
I got to just concentrate,
it's too distracting.
What is he getting that? What's?
Justus sit in a place,
just for this little bit...
I can't, it's, I'm having,
I'm having trouble concentrating.
If you have to get something,
just get it.
Every, sit down,
everybody sit down.
Just sit down.
Someone referred to...
sleep deprivation in a metaphor
that I thought was really creepy...
but very powerful, they said...
if you boil a frog slowly..."
"the frog doesn't know
anythings wrong.
That's a kind of...
interesting thought.
That's a great metaphor for
what sleep loss does to people.
You lose sleep,
you're in a fog...
and the worst person to say
how you're feeling is...
the person in the fog.
And until you come out
of the fog...
you don't realize how bad off
you really were.
Sometimes when I'm
on the street running errands...
I forget exactly what errands
it is I'm running.
Two months ago...
I forgot to bring
the videotape of my film...
to the screening of my film.
"In New York, witnesses say
it felt like an earthquake...
and sounded like
the world was coming to an end."
"Without warning, pedestrians
on 56th Street looked up...
to find themselves
under a downpour of rock...
glass and metal..."
I start to think
that this expression human error...
just means fatigue.
Sleepiness.
Someone was too tired
and did the wrong thing.
Said the wrong thing,
pushed the wrong button.
You just can't function well...
when our body's
not prepared to be awake.
So, ill slept leaders
and presidents...
could make very poor decisions...
like leading a country to war.
Absolutely.
President Clinton in interview
in US News and World Report...
actually acknowledged that every
major error he made in his life...
he made when he was tired.
Then it's not so far fetched
to think that something...
like the World Series could be
won or lost...
based on whether a key player
got a good night sleep?
In football,
baseball and basketball...
studies have shown
that just direction you fly...
and the jetlag can effect
who wins the game.
By the way...
this music that I keep playing
over and over again...
comes from a film called,
"That Uncertain Feeling"...
directed by Ernst Lubitsch in 1941.
It plays over the shot of
a woman who can't sleep...
pacing her bedroom
in the middle of the night.
Critics call it
Lubitschs worst film.
The score however,
was nominated for an Oscar.
I know it supposed
to make me feel stressful...
but for some reason
I find it oddly soothing.
Rapid eye movements.
Here's a big one,
here's a nice one.
You're in solid REM sleep.
- I'm dreaming.
- You're dreaming.
I find myself walking
around city all night...
looking to find
someone who can tell me...
why everyone else
knows how to sleep, except me.
When morning came I found myself...
in a police station
looking through mug shots.
And I go through all the mug shots
and the photograph that...
I pull out is a photograph of my
great-grandfather, Solomon Isaac.
Who I never met obviously,
who lived in Poland.
Somehow I needed to find him.
My father told me that...
the only way I could find him
was by wearing this helmet...
this scuba helmet.
The next thing I know...
I'm swimming
with a school of fish.
Which kind of made sense...
because I know that he had been
a teacher in Poland.
And it's really important that
I find him and ask him how he slept.
That's why I've come all this way
to ask him how he slept.
And when I finally found him,
he smiled at me...
and said in a really strong
yiddish accent...
you got the wrong guy...
I sleep with the moon
and wake with the sun.
Don't blame me, young man.
You did say that
there are some relatives...
with some insomnia-type problems...
Yeah. On both sides of my family.
In fact, one of the first things
I did when I started this film...
was to look through
all of my family home movies...
for some kind of evidence
of insomnia or sleeplessness.
All I found was everyone
acting for the camera...
as if they just had
three cups of coffee.
With one exception.
A shot of my Grandpa Joe
looking really, really tired.
Was his problem staying up late too?
My mother and my uncles
never figured out...
if he was a night owl
because he couldn't sleep...
or whether he couldn't sleep
because he was a night owl.
Heres a man whos taking pills
for twenty-thirty years.
And the size of
these sleeping pills every night...
My father took a lot of things
very personal.
The events of the world
on his shoulders.
Why there are wars.
Why there's fighting.
Why there's arguing.
Why can't people live in peace?
He just had so many things
on his mind.
He couldn't relax.
- And your father, is he living?
- No. He died in 2001.
- How old was he when he died?
- Just shy of 84. He was 83.
Do you remember
if he was a good sleeper?
How are you feeling?
- How you feeling?
- I didn't sleep last night.
Why not?
Shoot me in the head
I didn't sleep.
Almost all night I didn't sleep.
So, I have a little bit
of a headache.
At the most basic level...
the amount of sleep
an individual needs is...
probably genetically determined.
And I say that because you need
a certain amount of sleep...
and it's not like
you can change that.
So, the amount of sleep
my child will need...
- could be genetically...
- Genetically...
related to how much sleep I need.
Yes. And your grandfather.
But, as you know
about genetics...
it's how those genes
are expressed...
within the environment.
Remember I told you,
I used to...
listen to you and mommy fight
every night.
So, I knew you were going
to get divorced...
way before you ever did?
I thought you were asleep.
"Why aren't you in bed?
What's wrong Billy?
Is something the matter?"
My parents used to fight a lot.
"Well, let me tell you
something young lady..."
I would get out of bed...
and hide behind the wall
and listen to them.
I should've been sleeping.
I couldn't tell my sister...
she was too young,
I didn't want to upset her.
Couldn't tell family members.
But the night was the time
when I would listen.
I thought you were asleep.
Sneak around the house and listen.
And then lie in bed
and dwell on it.
Hearing things at night...
that are upsetting is
an activating kind of training.
Clearly, whatever's happened...
has had an effect on you
being a night owl.
On the mental ruminations
that go on at night.
We're getting a divorce!
It took a long time to develop
the pattern you now live.
"Mother!"
More than one of the doctors
said that there's a possibility...
that my association
with being up at night...
and not sleeping
and hearing you fight...
and listening to conversations
that you had...
is one of the reasons that
maybe I might be a...
not such a good sleeper.
That it's a deep memory set...
in which I associate the night
with that kind of pain.
Blame the mama.
Do you think that if they weren't
arguing that you would've slept?
- Maybe the two of you...
- Alan...
- we're fighting so much...
- We weren't fighting...
- when you were eight or nine.
- Really?
Mom what are you saying?
I know, you were fighting...
when we were two, three,
four, five, six, seven...
You just stayed married
when we were eight, nine, ten.
I mean, Ma,
how could you say that?
A little revising of history here,
I'd say.
But do you think
that's what kept you up?
- Can you analyze that?
- It could be.
As soon as I picked up...
on what was going on
between my parents...
I fixated on that.
That's why I'd stay up
in the middle of the night...
to watch you, to listen, to...
I watched everything.
That was my big fascination
in my whole life was...
- to watch you and Oscar...
- Battle it out.
Yeah, both privately...
and also to watch
how you functioned...
in family situations
or in parties to see...
I thought I was great...
- in family situations.
- You mean acting...
that you were
happily married to him.
- I had to.
- No, you didn't.
For seventeen years
I put on a great show.
Well, I watched the performance.
I'm your, I was your best...
- audience.
- Fan.
Well, I don't know about a fan,
but I was your best audience...
I was your most attentive audience.
And on some level that very well
may be the because of all this.
- I'm not blaming you.
- Okay, are we finished with me?
Let's go back to you Alan.
Tonight's the night.
Turn around. Keep turning around.
- Show the belly one more time.
- Not now. Bye.
- Show the belly one more time.
- No, go away.
- It's his belly, not even yours.
- No. Go away. Bye, Alan.
Sharon!
Alan, I said not to. Come on.
How's he going to know his mommy?
He'll know his mommy.
Alan, stop it!
Alan stop it!
I like this wipe that you are making.
It's very visual.
Alan, come on,
we don't have much time.
- One more time.
- What?
- Show the belly one more time.
- Alan, no.
- Can I shut the light?
- Yeah, please.
Let me get a little yellow,
if it's there.
My God.
These are the very first recorded
moments in life of Eli Oz Berliner.
Born 9:24 AM, April 6th, 2004.
He kept us waiting all night.
The best sleepless night
I've ever had.
Now, check out Elis first yawn.
There.
Not even five minutes old
and he is yawning.
Most people think yawning...
has to do with getting
a quick shot of oxygen.
Kind of gives you a wake up.
Studies show, maybe, maybe not.
But there's no question that...
it seems to be associated
with drowsiness...
and that it's infectious.
So, what would happen...
if I created a sequence in my film
of several people in a row yawning?
You're going to get...
probably 90 percent of
the audience yawning with you.
I've actually been so tired that...
I've yawned after
just reading the word yawn.
How about this little factoid?
Going without sleep for 24 hours
gives you the same reaction time...
as someone who would be
considered legally drunk.
Will there ever be
a so-called sleepalizer?
Like there's a breathalyzer?
Like we can take blood
and measure cholesterol.
I hope so.
People are searching for it,
they're working on it...
and it's application is enormous.
"The object is...
to note the position
of the clock hand...
at the instant the bell sounds."
Thirty.
"The more rest
and relaxation we get...
the greater
is our mental efficiency...
and the more quickly we react."
Fifty?
"You can try this test yourself."
"Remember, try to tell
where the hand of the clock is...
when the bell rings. Ready."
"Did you get it right?
Twenty?"
"Don't blame yourself
if you didn't make a good score."
"Maybe you were up
too late last night."
Now, in case you're asking,
in case you're wondering.
Why doesn't he just drink
a cup of coffee right now...
and put himself out of this misery?
I haven't had twenty cups
of coffee in my whole life.
- In your life?
- Life.
I learned a long time ago
that caffeine made me...
Hyper.
And I learned to stay away from it.
- "Coca-cola"? "Pepsi"? Soft drinks?
- Don't touch it.
- No caffeine at all.
- No caffeine.
If I drank coffee,
I wouldn't sleep for days.
For the last 30 years
that's been my mantra.
The way that I wake up,
is by taking a shower.
A hot shower
for five or ten minutes...
that jolts me into the real world.
Now, I've been getting
a lot of pressure...
from friends
and family members...
and even some people
on the crew I might add...
to try taking coffee. So...
Okay. I'm not going
to take a shower this morning.
I'm going to go out right now
and get a cup of coffee and...
I'll be back in 10 minutes.
- Yes sir, what can I do for you?
- Fill her up.
Why can't sleep be like
going to the gas station?
Why can't I stay up
for as long as I want...
until I get absolutely exhausted...
And then just start all over again.
That's a good analogy
if you were a city bus.
The brain doesn't work that way.
We have a group of cells
in our brain...
that sort of act like a clock...
and that's really what determines
our sleep wake schedule.
And that clock is programmed...
to have you be awake
during the day...
and asleep at night.
It controls everything
in your body actually...
when you get hungry,
when you go to the bathroom...
when your hormones are secreted,
body temperature...
when your performance
is up and down.
Controls all of that.
Including when you're awake...
and when you're asleep.
In the middle of the night
about 3 to 5 AM, 3 to 6 AM roughly.
These are times
when your clock has you...
at your lowest point
for your performance...
your alertness, your mood.
Many of your hormones...
your internal body temperature
at it's lowest point.
It's very powerful.
This is when you supposed
to be asleep.
You're programmed
to be asleep and in bed.
Well, if that's true...
then my biological clock
needs to go to the repair shop.
Because even at that time
of the morning...
I'm pretty much still cooking.
In the old days I'd sometimes...
go to sleep
after the sun had come up...
but it always made me feel weird.
Ever since then,
as long as it's still dark out...
even if it's just 5 or 10 minutes
before sunrise, it's okay.
Since I go to sleep so late...
I have most of
my family and friends...
trained not to call me
before 11 o'clock in the morning.
But there's always something
that wakes me up too early.
Either the UPS guy rings the bell.
Or the telephone rings.
Or there are hammers pounding...
from construction
in the apartment next door.
Or I have to wake up extra early
to do a shoot for my film.
- The day intrudes.
- Life intrudes.
And so that whole day...
I'm operating under the weight
of my fatigue.
By the time the late afternoon
rolls around...
I can barely keep my eyes open.
And in fact,
our biological clock...
is programmed to have us
sleepy during this time.
That's probably
why siesta was created.
People get sleepy
in that afternoon window.
In Great Britain,
when do you drink high tea?
4 PM you're drinking caffeine.
In the United States, what do we do?
We push through it,
we pretend it doesn't exist...
and just kind of keep going.
Actually our conversation is
reminding me of a film screening...
I had a few years ago.
I remember I had to wake up extra
early that day to catch a plane...
in order to be there
by four in the afternoon.
And I remember
I hadn't slept well for...
the few days prior to the screening
especially the night before.
And I was sort of nervous...
about speaking in front
of a large crowd of people.
Especially because I was so tired.
But when I got there, there were
hardly any people in the audience.
- And it was a big room.
- That's funny.
I don't know if that happens
when doctors give lectures but...
Anyway, that's a big part of the life
of an independent filmmaker.
By the way,
I have this little camera...
which I'll take from you now,
thanks a lot.
Does anyone mind if I stand in the
back of the room or on the side...
and take some shots of the audience
in the dark?
Does anyone
have any problem with that?
No? Okay. Thanks.
Louder.
But that's not
why I'm telling you the story.
For some reason
I decided to bring my camera...
a little camera that shoots
infrared so I could see in the dark.
It didn't take me long to see...
that five or six people
in the room had fallen asleep.
- "What's the matter?"
- "Nothing."
Were literally asleep.
What happens now?
The most sleep-deprived group
in our society are college kids.
They're getting so little sleep,
they are tired all the time.
So, they're sleepy to start with.
The other is,
four o'clock in the afternoon.
You're in that window siesta time.
And so, staying awakes
a pretty good effort...
because you got to override
that biology.
If you haven't had enough sleep...
and so there's a pressure
for sleep...
whatever you do that's
conducive to falling asleep...
like put the lights out,
make it warm, get comfy.
All that's going to do...
is let the sleepiness emerge
and you're going to nod off.
"Means nothing to me.
You're making one mistake."
"You're trying to put your head
on my shoulders and it won't work."
"There's an old saying, you can't
teach an old dog new tricks."
"And I'm that old dog."
A lot of times people say...
you know it's the boring film
that put me to sleep.
Thanks for not saying
that it was my film...
And it wasn't.
And that's what's critical
about this.
If people had enough sleep...
and you put them in a boring lecture
or a boring film...
they'll sit there and be bored.
And they'll be doing
a crossword puzzle...
or they'll say,
why did I come to this thing...
or God this is really horrible...
But they'll be awake.
Let the coffee experiment begin.
Cheers.
It feels like
the presence of something...
different in my bloodstream.
Just a little
something's going on.
It's a little different.
Starting to feel something
happening in my extremities.
My toes, especially.
I'm feeling it in my arms,
a little bit...
I'm feeling a sort of a tingling
in my arms.
I'm starting to feel
some sweat in my armpits...
Is coffee known
for making people sweat?
Yes.
My eyes feel...
more awake, more open.
My eyes feel more open.
It's official.
I have now had my first cup
of coffee in more than 31 years.
Feeling quite active,
activated I should say.
Now, are we in wide shot?
No? Head and shoulders shot.
Can we make it a wide shot?
Do what you have to do
to make it a wide shot.
Keep rolling.
While the cameras
resetting positions...
think back to what I looked like
this morning without coffee.
Testing 1, 2, 3.
This is what I look like
with coffee.
We have a wide shot now?
Okay.
Now, while I have this moment
and while I have the energy...
You see these boxes behind me?
Red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, violet.
The colors of the spectrum.
The red boxes,
they are black and white film.
Old newsreels, educational films...
things I got
from the national archives.
The orange boxes
are sound effects...
Footsteps on brush, cement,
dirt, grass, gravel...
ground, interior, snow water.
The yellow is color film.
Filmmakers actually
give me their outs...
because they know that I'll store
them and put then in the archive.
The green boxes are...
American family home movies
from the 1920's, 30's and 40's.
All anonymous.
In a way, sometimes I think of this
as sort of an orphanage...
for lost home movies.
This is some rare footage from
the Old Negro Baseball Leagues.
Looks like she's been drinking
some coffee too.
The blue boxes contain
my own family home movies.
Mostly stuff my father shot
when I was a kid.
Everything else is stuff
I've shot ever since.
The violet boxes,
remember ROY G BIV...
the violet...
these are photographs that
I've collected all over the world.
Again, anonymous.
Pick a box, any box.
Okay, this one, can you see here?
These are portraits.
I know none of these people.
If you recognize
anyone in this box...
let me know I'll give them
back their picture.
The black boxes contain
photographs...
I've been cutting out
of the newspaper.
The history of the world
over the last 25 years...
is somewhere in these boxes.
Did I mention everything's
alphabetical? Naturally.
When you surround yourself
with so much stuff...
you have to be extremely organized.
I need an image, I know where it is.
I need a sound...
That's the whole point.
To be able to act
at the speed of thought.
Every time I get an idea...
I write it down
on a small piece of paper.
After I act on it...
I put it on one of these things
you see in Chinese restaurants.
By the way,
I am really buzzing right now.
Okay. This shelf right here...
these are all
found family photo albums.
Orphaned family photo albums.
I mean, I don't even understand
how they come to be.
Can you imagine
if your family photo album...
somehow ended up at a garage sale
or a flea market?
Got lost somehow?
That's the phone.
The phone's ringing
during the coffee experiment.
Say something to the film.
Okay, hold on, go.
"Did you fall asleep last night?"
Can't really talk
because I'm in the middle of this.
That was my mother.
This is a collection
of glass negatives.
People drink coffee every day.
I can't even imagine.
This cabinet right here contains
every photograph from my entire life.
My mother is pregnant with me here,
my sister is born here.
It's our entire family...
all the way through my life up
to here.
My mother's side of the family.
My father's side of the family,
my father's army pictures.
My parents wedding pictures.
For both sides of my family
I am the keeper of the memory.
I don't think anyone really knows.
I don't think anyone really cares.
Okay. I also collect objects,
different objects.
Here's a drawer called spheres.
Pyramids. Alphabet. Bells.
Here's a drawer called Flip Books.
Time.
This is one of my favorite things
in the whole world...
miniature watch parts.
This is a sound sculpture
that I once made called Audiofile.
Here's a drawer called,
No Trespassing.
Good morning.
If you'd like
to set your clocks...
WINS news time at the tone
will be exactly 11:30.
Sleepless Night.
Can you go and soothe him,
please, I am so tired.
Go to sleep.
- Go with the flow, Alan.
- How do you go with the flow...
when he wakes up at three o'clock
in the morning every day?
He doesn't anymore...
So, it's his first few months!
- Four o'clock in the morning.
- His first few months.
- That's normal.
- Crying.
So you know, you wake up,
you bum out and you let him cry...
You don't want Eli to grow up...
like how you grew up
always asking your father...
How are you?
I'm tired and I have a headache.
You don't want to be like that.
Well, the truth is that
he is very irritable these days...
because he's not sleeping
and because of that...
he's being arguing with me
all the time.
- But you're tired too.
- But I'm not as irritable...
- when I get tired.
- How do you know?
I know. I see how I react,
I see how you react.
When you get tired you get
very irritable.
- I know. That's terrible.
- And you get more critical...
When Eli was age 0 to 3 months...
I was the only one
in our entire world...
that knew, that he had to sleep...
between 16 and 18 hours a day
and I knew why.
- You showed to me 15 million times.
- Fine. Okay, I understand.
- You know what's interesting...
- Because his brain was growing!
Okay!
Everybody's brain is growing.
- Everybody's brain grows.
- When they're sleeping!
A new baby is going to sleep...
- even if you weren't controlling it.
- Even if it's not 16 hours...
- his brain will grow.
- Most parents aren't...
controlling their sleep.
I think Alan judges his day
by how many naps Eli had.
Did you have a good day?
Well, Eli napped three times,
I had a great day.
No. That's his scale of life.
I mean, really,
it's becoming ad nauseum, really.
It is.
And a mother can tell you that.
- A sister can tell you that.
- A wife can tell you that.
- Exactly.
- Because you know what?
- People will lie to you. No problem.
- What do you mean will lie to me?
Did he sleep?
Yeah, he slept.
How long did he sleep?
So, wait. When I bring him
to your house to babysit...
- you are lying to me...
- No. But we might.
- But we could. We would.
- We could absolutely.
- We don't have to...
- To give you piece of mind.
Someone has to know
what the stakes are.
Alan, stop it! We all know
what the stakes are.
What are the stakes,
where you are today?
I have become the protector
of his sleep.
I want him to go to sleep
at the same time every night...
I want to make sure
that he takes naps...
two or three times a day.
I want to make sure that
this little boy sleeps...
as much as possible.
When he is sleeping,
I am at peace.
I filmed Eli sleeping
when he was about 2 months old.
And very shortly
after I put him to sleep...
his face went into a smile.
Babies actually smile in sleep
before they smile in wakefulness.
And he's actually in REM sleep
while this is happening.
He's dreaming.
Somehow his brain
is practicing what just might be...
the most important
survival skill of all.
A smile.
Something that's going
to strengthen the bonds of love...
and attachment with his parents.
And it works!
And it's also not a bad skill
for him to learn...
for later in life as well.
It's almost as if Eli has become like
Alan's science project, and...
Does it bother you
that he's eating a lot?
- No.
- Thank God.
As long as it doesn't interfere
with his napping.
I actually think that sleep
could be the X factor.
He will be more responsive
in terms of alertness...
learning and development,
if he's well slept.
I can see his disposition is better,
he's not as cranky.
He eats better.
When he's had his naps...
and when he's in a groove
with sleep...
he's better.
I think in Alan's next life...
he should be a pediatrician
and specialize in sleep.
Because you sound
like a text book.
- When he's tired he's fussy.
- He's a bore.
That's what he's come down to,
worrying about these things.
I'm upset with your obsession,
exactly. I'm upset.
Is there any chance
of changing any aspect of you?
I'm upset
that you are like that, Alan.
You are possibly giving your child...
the best gift you could
ever give him for his life.
In our society today,
nobody protects sleep.
And for you to do
that with your child...
- from the beginning of his life.
- Hold that for one second.
You see Shari, you see mom,
you see Lynn? See!
There have got to be limits...
because you got to be careful
not to get too crazy about it.
Older fathers
are the most neurotics.
You are revving at a higher rate
than other people.
You get activated at night...
you're alert
before you go to sleep...
and really the time
you should be sleeping...
if you follow your own
biological clock is quite late.
So your clock is off.
That is
a particular condition...
and it's called
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.
What was that?
Say that again.
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.
Which is our fancy word
for night owl.
You are a night owl.
Anything that I have to do...
That's really important...
I do it...
At night.
I'm Cinderella...
In reverse.
The night for me
has become a total haven.
There's a sense
of being outside of time.
The darkness, the silence.
The peacefulness of it.
Food tastes better.
Music sounds better,
I'm sharper.
It sounds to me like you actually
enjoy being awake...
more than you enjoy sleep.
Sometimes I think
I'm addicted to being awake.
Does that also mean
that I'm addicted to being tired?
If I'm not going to sleep anyway...
why toss and turn in bed
and make myself crazy.
If my curse here is to have
three extra hours a night...
Hey, I'll take it.
That's 21 hours a week.
That's 90 hours a month,
that's 45 days a year.
Over a 40-year period,
that's 1800 days.
5 years of alert,
waking, productive creative time...
that I'm adding to my life.
Is there a drug
or a magic potion or something...
where I could still be a night owl...
get five or six hours sleep,
and feel great?
No.
I've heard insomnia described as
the last frontier of imagination...
and individual freedom
by a philosopher named Blanchot...
whose point was
that to go to sleep...
when everyone else goes to sleep
is sort of conformity.
That to work
and embrace the night...
and stay awake while
the rest of the world is sleeping...
it's a kind of rebellion.
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep after I die.
Now, I need to say this really
in a devilish kind of way.
Am I enough,
not enough, too much?
No, after I die is,
once I'm dead is a little too...
like the word dead is too harsh.
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep after I die.
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep.
After I die that is.
No, that doesn't...
One more time...
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep after I die.
It's hard to get the...
Do you think I said it
the right way one of them?
It's not that I'm racing
against time you know...
like trying to outrun
death or something.
Although sometimes
it feels that way.
You know in some mythologies...
the God of sleep
and a God of death are brothers.
Sleep is as close as you get to death
in your current life...
as you probably ever will.
So when you think
about being taunted everyday...
with I don't want that,
I want being awake...
I want life.
The joy, the passion,
the productivity...
And anything that
detracts from that, like sleep...
Which is boring, monotonous
and a waste of time.
That's the battle that's going on.
You don't know how much more
creative you might be...
if you slept a little more.
You may not care
about an extra film or two...
but you'd be living
your life better.
Maybe you can't become a better
filmmaker than you already are.
Well, I don't know about that.
But I've always considered working
in the middle of the night...
to be my secret weapon.
That's a real problem
with creative people...
is that a lot of them actually
do a lot of their best work...
when they should be sleeping.
That was "Night in Tunisia"
featuring...
the late great Charlie Parker
on alto saxophone.
There are certain situations
where we can quantify...
get better sleep,
get better score on that test.
In the creative realm,
it's hard to know.
Charlie Parker was such
a damn good musician...
because he never slept
and used drugs.
He would've been 10 times
the musician he was...
had he slept better.
He was already a great musician.
You take a great person...
give them the sleep they need
and they become even greater.
But part of what made him
a great musician's that...
he didn't sleep,
and that was his story.
And if you took that away
he'd be a totally different person.
Einstein slept ten hours a night.
Now, I don't know if he really did...
but that's the mythology...
and you know we think of Einstein
as the most brilliant mind ever.
Right, but then again Edison...
didn't sleep more than four hours
a night is the mythology...
But he bragged about being able
to nap instantly anytime of the day.
And only a very sleep
deprived person could do that.
My friend Spencer
suggested the other day that...
I try a news fast.
No newspapers, no radio,
no television, no internet.
Just shut it down
for a week or two.
Maybe even take Shari and Eli
and get out of the city for a while.
Maybe that would relax me.
Calm me down.
Help me sleep better at night.
No way.
I'm starting to think
I might be suffering...
from some kind of urban disease.
The need to feel connected,
plugged in.
All the time.
This is part of who you are.
And if we change this part...
like if we change
any other piece of you...
that you live in New York
or that you have a young child...
if we change any of that...
for someone who is creative,
it changes everything.
That doesn't mean you should not
pursue how do I sleep better...
because you can still be in love
with the night...
improve the sleep...
and get a different wakefulness
experience as well.
Alan.
Alan. Eli's up.
Alan, sweetie, Eli's up.
You said you'd go.
You said you'd go this morning.
- Shari, what time is it?
- It's 6:20.
Okay, I went to sleep really late.
But you said
you'd go this morning.
I can't,
I went to sleep really late...
just give me a break
this morning.
What? This morning?
You said this was...
the morning you'd go when he was
crying. Come on, it's not fair.
Don't wake me up.
Alan, sweetie.
It's not fair. He's crying.
I'm going to figure it out,
I can't do it now.
Figure it out.
Figure it out when?
What are you talking about?
Please?
- Don't wake me up please?
- You promised me.
Shari, I'm like on three hours sleep.
- What is this?
- Three hours.
- Don't wake me up.
- Okay.
The good news is that Eli sleeps
through the night now.
Eli, good morning sweetie.
- He goes to sleep around 8 o'clock.
- Hello.
Actually I should say...
he goes to sleep exactly
at eight o'clock. Every night.
And wakes up anywhere
between six, six-thirty...
sometimes quarter
to seven in the morning.
The bad news is that because...
I go to sleep
at three-thirty or four...
when he starts crying at six-thirty
I've gotten two, three hours sleep.
You know I miss seeing him
in the morning.
And Eli misses seeing you
in the morning.
In the morning he comes
knocking on the door...
and he goes, "Daddy."
And I have to pull him away
and go, "Daddy's sleeping."
Are you mad at me?
Do you hate me?
Do I hate you? No.
Because I have to tell you something.
I feel guilty.
Well, you should feel guilty.
It's like you're living in different
time zone from me and Eli.
It's going to have to change...
because I can't go on
like this anymore.
- Well, what should we do?
- You tell me.
We have to reset your clock.
Since you're such a night owl...
I'd like to move
your sleep cycle earlier...
by having you get light
exposure in the morning.
When you wake up...
throw on some clothes
and go outdoors for an hour.
I really want light
to get into your eyes...
because that's what's going
to move your rhythm...
so you can fall asleep earlier.
Light is one
of the most powerful cues...
for your internal clock
to know what time it is.
You see light...
and it tells you be active
during the day...
sleep at night.
People who are night owls,
don't like the light...
avoid the light in the morning...
and in fact that's the important cue
that keeps their clocks in trim.
I'd like you to spend just six
and a half hours in bed.
Give you less time in bed
than you want.
It seems to me that...
two thirty to nine in the morning
would be a reasonable way to go.
Reducing the amount of sleep
that people have...
until they're extremely efficient...
There going to make you absolutely
exhausted in the daytime.
Zombie time.
And that's the problem
with this therapy is...
that you will be a zombie.
But what will happen is...
eventually we will build
a sleep debt up so high...
that you will start sleeping.
And if we can squeeze out
some of these awakenings...
or make them shorter...
that may start the ball rolling
in the right direction.
Let's try this for a month or two...
A month or two?
You're going to hate it
the first week.
I just guarantee you that.
So I want you to pick a time
when this is convenient to do...
where you don't have
lots of deadlines...
because you are going
to be dysfunctional.
Try it. It could take months!
It might not even work!
Let's try it.
How can I make a decision like that
when I'm in the middle of a film?
That's bullshit.
Everybody has to make tough choices.
It's not fair to Shari.
She knew I had a sleeping problem
when she married me.
That doesn't make it right.
What are you going to do...
take sleeping pills
for the rest of your life?
Don't you see how hard
this is for me?
Stop being so damn stubborn
all the time.
You should stop telling people
you are tired all the time.
You are such a schmuck.
- You don't want to be helped Alan.
- Who are you calling a schmuck?
You don't.
- Finish this film and...
- And then move on!
get to another subject, Alan.
Because this film is ruined you
in a way, not Eli. This film...
- It took the obsession to like...
- Greater heights.
I turned on the television
and saw that Eli was playing...
with the president
of the United States.
And a part of me is jealous.
I should be playing with Eli.
So I get in a car and I drive
as fast as I can to Washington, DC.
And I'm on the highway looking
for an exit called ODay Street.
But the breaks don't work
and I can't stop the car...
and so I miss the exit
called ODay Street.
Now, because I made a film
about names a few years ago...
I know that the letter "O"
put in front of a word...
is what's called a patronymic,
it means son of.
So when the sign said, ODay
that means son of day.
It means I'm missing the light,
I'm missing the sun.
I'm missing the light of day.
But more importantly, "S-O-N".
Eli.
He's my son of day.
I miss my son.
I'm a night person,
and you're a morning person.
What are we going to do?
You want me
to become a morning person...
or you should become
a night person?
Do you want to become
a night person too?
Eli, I don't think your daddy
would let you become a night person.
- He makes you to go to bed early.
- That's true.
What am I going to do, Shari?
You're going to come to bed
earlier with me...
which will be really nice.
That we'll be going to bed together.
And then you're going
to be able to wake up earlier.
What about my life as a filmmaker?
You're going
to have to figure out a way...
how to make films
like a normal human being.
Not at 4 or 5 in the morning.
Well, right now, I can't give it up.
Do you think you can after this film?
It's just we're going against
forty plus years of pattern...
repetition, habit and biology.
I've always accepted
my groggy mornings...
because they come
with my glorious nights.
Three hours of sleep.
It's the price
I've been willing to pay.
That's part of a commitment
I made to myself...
a long, long time ago.
- I am what I am.
- It's going to have to change.
Of course I also made
a life long commitment...
to be a great partner to Shari.
And I love Eli so much it hurts.
Now, that the film is over,
I know what I have to do.
The question is...
Can I do it?
Let's do a take of me
thanking everyone on camera...
in case I don't use lower thirds
inside the film.
I'd like to thank all of
my very special guests...
Dr. William Dement,
Dr. Leonid Kayumov...
Dr. Mark Rosekind
Dr. Richard Simon...
Dr. Art Spielman,
and of course my mother, Regina...
my sister Lynn,
and especially Shari...
for being so generous, so patient
and so understanding.
This is for all you
insomniacs out there...
Roll credit.
I forgot the thing about Eli.
Thank you Eli.
Our collaborations
have only just begun.
Einstein dream, take one.
There was a global campaign
to find a cure for jet lag...
and all of history's greatest...
No, wait. Stop. I lost my place.
These morning shoots are killing me.
Killing me. Alright.
One more time.
Einstein dream, take two.
There was a global campaign
to find a cure for jet lag...
and all of history's greatest
scientists were working on it.
Newton, Einstein, Copernicus...
Edison, Alexander Graham Bell...
even Jonas Salk.
And they were gathered at
a convention in Alexandria, Egypt.
There were lots of cameras
and reporters around...
from all over the world.
And everyone was especially excited
to hear from Einstein...
who was scheduled to speak last.
Now, somehow I was in
the audience too.
My grandfather,
my mother's father...
somehow used his connections
to get me in, at least I think so.
Finally, Einstein got up
on the stage and said...
"There is no cure for jet lag.
You just suffer."
Now, I don't know
what got into me...
but I stood up from the back row
and screamed...
But, professor Einstein...
what about someone who feels
jet lagged in their own time zone?
And he said, "Alan."
And I was shocked."
How he did he know my name?
He said, "Alan...
science doesn't even know
why we sleep.
Now get out of here,
go home and work on your film."
"I don't want to go to bed yet!"
"It's bedtime and sleep time.
Now put these things down.
Now, get under the covers
and out with the lights."
"Mom, I'm always awake for ages
after the light are out."
"Don't worry,
you'll fall asleep right away.
You'll be asleep
before you know it."
"Before you know it."
"Good night, son."
Inhale. Exhale.
I can't take it anymore.
Go to sleep. Forget it.
Think pleasant thoughts.
Inhale. Exhale.
The baby's coming in two months.
I've never changed a diaper
in my life.
Do I watch the birth
or film the birth?
Shooting it would be better
for the film.
But how can I watch the birth
of my child through a lens?
Just relax.
I'm too tired to relax.
I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow.
I feel like a zombie right now.
What was I saying?
What if he wants to be
an economist like Shari?
What if he becomes a doctor?
That would be okay.
He could get me
latest sleeping pills.
Stop it. Just relax.
He's not even born yet.
He's got to go
to nursery school first.
That reminds me.
We have to get
the applications early.
New York City nursery schools
are really competitive.
Inhale. Exhale.
Okay, everybody, rise and shine.
Up and at them, tiger.
Early bird gets the worm.
Early to bed, early to rise...
makes each of us healthy,
wealthy and wise.
That's a bunch of crap.
This is W-T-I-R-E-D,
radio in New York.
You talk to me in the morning,
I'll tell you how tired I am.
The sound of my voice in
the morning usually gives it away.
I'm a terrible sleeper.
Either I have trouble
falling asleep or...
I wake up too early
and can't get back to sleep.
The end result is that
I walk around tired all day.
It's like having a permanent cold,
only without the coughing...
the sneezing and the runny nose.
"Give you everything I've got
for a little piece of mind"
Until the night comes that is.
That's when I come alive.
When I do my best work.
To tell you the truth,
every film I've ever made...
I made at night.
You might say I'm trapped...
between the part of me
that doesn't get enough sleep.
And a part of me that's
too busy to worry about it.
How many hours of sleep
did you get last night?
Eight? Seven? Six? Five?
Four? Three?
Two? One? None?
The doctor will see you now.
How old are you?
I'm forty seven... forty eight,
I'm forty-eight, I'm sorry.
I forgot. I'm forty-eight.
I just turned forty-eight
two months ago.
And you're married and you're
expecting your first child?
- In April.
- And how's your wife doing?
- Knock on wood, she's doing fine.
- Great.
The birth of your child will be
a life changing experience.
- Smoking?
- Never bought...
a pack of cigarettes
in my whole life.
How about alcohol?
One or two glasses,
three or four times a week.
- Do you exercise?
- I jump rope actually.
For how long?
That's hard to do.
Minimum a half hour
every time I go.
- What is your best time of the day?
- The night.
And do you and your wife,
are you on the same schedule...
- or is she go to bed earlier?
- I put her to bed.
I tuck her in,
kiss her goodnight.
You don't work in your bedroom,
you don't eat in your bedroom...
No.
I hope you don't have TV
in your bedroom.
I do but I hardly ever watch it.
Your bedroom should be
just for sleep and sex.
Nothing else.
Do you awaken much
at night to urinate?
I've learned not to drink anything
a few hours before I go to sleep.
Do you have nightmares?
Haven't had a nightmare
in a long time.
Does anybody ever tell you
you look tired?
Everybody tells me all the time.
Back pain, or neck pain, or shoulder
or any other medical condition...
- which might be account for this?
- No.
Have you ever injured yourself
or others in your sleep?
- Acted out a dream that you know of?
- Never that I know of.
And never been hospitalized
and never had a suicidal...
Never.
Do you ever fall asleep
in the daytime without wanting to?
Only maybe in movie theaters.
- Do you walk in your sleep?
- No.
- Do you snore?
- Yes.
Do you ever awaken yourself
at night, gasping for air?
No.
But I have woken up suddenly...
Would you characterize
yourself as a worrier?
Definitely.
Stand close to the chair.
So is there something
I haven't asked...
that would be illuminating...
that would be important
for me to know?
If you said I can turn you...
from a night person
into a morning person...
I'm not sure that
I would want to do it.
I'm not sure
I'd be able to do it.
I wonder if I'm too far gone...
if I'm wired this way...
So you're a hopeless case?
- I don't know.
- You're wondering.
I'm wondering.
"Those electrodes
are monitoring my brainwaves...
my eye movement,
my heartbeat, my breathing...
the oxygen in my blood,
the muscle tone in my chin...
my leg movement."
Not only that but there's
a camera on the wall...
and a microphone hanging
from the ceiling.
The only thing they can't record
is what's going on inside my head.
Every night...
when I put my head to the pillow,
is like an adventure.
I never know how long
it's going to take me to sleep...
if I can fall asleep.
But what always happens is that
my mind starts to race...
uncontrollably.
I don't shut off.
My brain doesn't shut off.
And I can't control where it goes,
or for how long.
Sometimes, as soon as my head
hits the pillow...
I start hearing music.
In some cases, it's a song
I heard that day on the radio.
In some cases, a song
I heard a month ago.
In other cases, it's a song
I heard a year ago.
And in some cases, it's a song
I never even thought I knew.
And things just start
looping and looping...
and the song just
keeps going in my head.
Over and over and over again.
And I can't get it out of my head.
In fact, there are some songs...
even some albums
that I'm actually afraid of.
Because I know,
if I listen to them during the day...
they're going to come back
at night to haunt me.
There's a song for, instance, by
Leonard Cohen, "In My Secret Life.
In the middle of the night, all I
keep thinking in the same rhythm...
in the same melody.
"In my sleepless night..."
It just repeats over and over again.
"In my sleepless night...
What is... what's going on?"
That's a rumination.
Chewing on something
and being unable to let it go.
How do I,
how do I shut all that off?
What you're describing's basically
a routine that you've learned...
and it's probably taken a long time
to develop to this particular state.
And so what's really
important about that is that...
there can be an off switch, but you
got to learn how to turn it off.
"It's not like we can just
give you one and say...
up, there it is on the wall,
flip the switch, you're off tonight."
Over the years I've tried
to cry myself to sleep...
to drink myself to sleep...
aromatherapy, changing mattresses,
changing pillows. lavender beads...
massage therapy, white noise,
meditation, counting sheep.
- Did the sheep work?
- No.
No, I lose interest
after a couple of hundred.
A couple of hundred?
"Melatonin, valerian root,
acupuncture, acupressure...
chamomile tea, warm milk,
hypnosis even, yoga...
homeopathic medicines, marijuana...
- lots of sex before go to sleep...
- Have you mentioned hot bath?
- Hot baths...
- Wake me when he's done.
- Herbal teas, biofeedback.
- So nothing worked, nothing worked.
- I've been tired my whole life.
- Right.
Maybe some
of my insomnia's related to...
bad sleep habits from infancy?
- Or maybe it's...
- There are so many people...
who've bad sleep habits in infancy
and end up sleeping well.
I think so much of it
has to do with...
how long he's been making films...
and making them
at funky hours of the night.
I remember Alan,
four o'clock in the morning...
- used to go upstairs to go to sleep.
- It's over twenty years.
and then we couldn't...
we couldn't call him
until eleven, twelve o'clock.
So what is that?
Do you think that's normal?
Even by your standards
of normal?
So, I just wanted to ask you...
what kind of sleeper
was I as a baby?
- Would you say I was a good sleeper?
- Can you remember?
I'm not that old, Lynn.
- Of course I can remember.
- Did you read books about sleep?
No. I didn't think I had...
- a problem with you.
- Most people don't think about it.
It's one of the most important
things.
I used to come and sing you
a lullaby, a French song...
rub your back and the next thing
I know you were sleeping.
What was the lullaby
you sang me?
- That's the one.
- That's only two lines.
Alan, you didn't bring me
here for singing...
By the way, I have a question.
Do you count sheep?
- No. Never.
- You've never counted sheep...
- in your whole life?
- No.
I did, but you told me
I was doing something wrong.
- What do you mean?
- You said I should say...
sheep after each one.
- One sheep, two sheep, and I...
- That's how I do it.
No, and I just count it
and I see them going up a prairie.
- You know, jumping.
- So, you say, one...
- and then imagine the sheep jumping.
- Right.
- Then you say two and visualize...
- But you told her that...
- she was doing it incorrectly.
- Yes.
How could you could you
count sheep incorrectly?
- Could just be counting anything.
- No, but she visualizes it...
- what difference does it make?
- I visualize it...
- Which is the right way to do it?
- Both.
It works because it gets you
focused on something mentally...
besides the worry
or the other stuff.
So, whether it's just the numbers...
or where there's an image
associated with it...
you're focusing
on something particular.
Why sheep?
I don't know where the sheep
came from, but you know what?
If something else works for you,
that's good too.
"142. 143. 144."
"173. 174. 175. 176."
"225. 226. 227."
"Some nights when I hit the pillow,
all I hear is pounding."
Pounding, sure.
Sometimes it feels like there's
a woodpecker under my pillow.
- Well, that's cool!
- It's not so cool, drives me crazy.
You know what that is?
The carotid artery...
has a, is... is just
real near the ear there.
And that's all you're doing,
is you're hearing your own pulse.
It's very, very normal,
it's not abnormal.
Well, why don't you hear
your carotid artery?
I do.
I just don't pay attention to it.
How long should it take me
to fall asleep ideally?
Most people fall asleep
in fifteen minutes or less.
And what should be
going through my mind...
when my head hits the pillow?
That you love the way
that pillow feels.
That you love the way
that bed feels.
That you've never felt more
comfortable in your life...
and the next thing is... nothing.
You just lie there...
enjoying how wonderful it feels
just to be in this bed.
- That sounds like science fiction.
- No. That's...
you asked me what you should feel.
That's it.
If every night...
night after night after night
you don't sleep well...
then what happens is,
the bedroom itself...
the sleeping environment,
the whole idea of sleep...
For me becomes a battlefield.
Good sleepers don't view sleep
as a battlefield at all.
Good sleepers...
that's the escape
from the battlefield.
You don't have to learn
how to sleep.
It's built in to the brain
to every 24 hours go to sleep.
It's natural and easy and...
- And I can't do it.
- And you can't do it.
Why can't I go to sleep?
"Our subject this evening is sleep,
going to sleep."
"You're all tied up in knots.
don't fight so hard."
"I'll begin by asking you to find...
as comfortable a position
as you can."
"Breathe out the clocks
and the calendars...
breathe out the tensions
and breathe in the cool comfort."
"Breathe in. Breathe out."
"Now...
walk with me down a stairs...
going to walk out
into a beautiful garden."
"Take one step down,
and then two, then four...
half way five, six, seven...
we can almost see that door,
eight, nine, and then...
stepping down, turning a little,
do we see the door."
"When you can't sleep
because tension has you...
all wound up."
"Your active mind
remembers the pressures...
and the problems of the day."
"You see, active minds bring
on nagging sleep-robbing thoughts...
that create sleep static."
When is your usual time
return to bed?
As early as two,
as late as five. It depends.
Do you work right up
to the time you go to sleep?
All the time.
"Find out what the world record is
for staying awake?"
"Make a list of all idioms and..."
"Find out how much people slept
in the Victorian era."
"Find as many alarms clock sounds
as possible."
"Make a list of writers,
poets, painters and musicians...
who were insomniacs."
"Find out what time of the day...
The Three Mile Island
accident happened?"
"Search for outdoor clocks...
Find out if it's true that...
Leonardo Da Vinci slept
only 15 minutes every few hours."
"Research sleep deprivation
as a form of torture."
"See if there are any studies...
about the relationship
between sleep and cancer."
"Find out if some cultures
are better sleepers than others."
And what about plants?
You can't just go...
from this high intensity thinking
about everything...
and immediately think
that you can go to sleep.
Doesn't happen that way.
"The road to sleep
can be filled with detours."
"Nothing to worry about..."
"I can't believe I forgot
how to fall asleep.
"I forgot how to fucking
fall asleep."
"That's like
forgetting how to walk."
"Or breathe."
Nothing to worry about...
"It's like the clock is laughing
at me."
Get rid of the clock.
All it's doing is feeding
that rumination and worry...
Instituting a regular
wind-down period...
where you read
non work-related material...
that just allows you to relax...
and enjoy some other
part of life...
is going to be
an important part of this.
- Alan, you woke me up again.
- I'm sorry...
- I dropped a book.
- What are you doing?
Alan, you're filming me.
Go away.
- Shari, just go to... Sorry.
- Alan, stop filming me.
I can't stand being
woken up with a...
with a light in my eye.
You wake me up
with the camera in my face.
- It's not in your face. Please...
- Alan, please...
You're going to break the camera.
Stop it.
- Alan, turn the camera off.
- Go back to sleep.
Don't tell me to go back to sleep.
Who's going to go back to sleep
after I'm pissed off at you!
Waking up after just a few hours
of sleep drives me crazy.
Is the awakening abrupt?
Are you fully alert
or do you just slowly come to?
I would say I'm awake instantly.
My big problem is
getting back to sleep.
- Because once I'm up, I'm up.
- And what do you do?
I sigh, basically.
And then head
for the medicine cabinet.
The only way I can put
the dragon to sleep...
is with a sleeping pill.
That's the one thing
that works consistently.
The sleeping pill is
the sword for your dragon.
That's how you do it.
And what's interesting
about that of course, is...
your perception
that it is a dragon.
Not a puppy. It's a dragon.
It's part of this battle again.
The dragon is me, you know?
The dragon is me.
Yes, you said it. I didn't.
Insight doesn't always lead
to behavior change though.
What you need to be considering is...
how not to slay the dragon,
but tame the dragon.
I have a dirty little secret,
I might as well just tell you.
I have been taking a sleeping pill...
for a really long time.
You read the bottle it says...
don't take more than a week
or two or three.
It's a short-term thing.
I mean, I'm...
Don't be afraid, say it!
Year.
Years!
What exactly is happening to me
when I'm taking the sleeping pill?
What is it doing to me?
Nobody knows exactly what these
compounds are doing.
I'm taking something everyday
and no one knows what it's doing?
There are all kinds of medications...
they don't know exactly
what they're doing...
but it's more-so probably
with sleep medications.
"Medical science
introduces Shut-Eye...
a truly remarkable new
sleeping formula...
made especially for people
with active minds."
"Minds too busy to sleep."
They tend to be classes of drugs...
which have some effect
on a lot of brain cells.
It's stimulating a lot of places
in the brain that relax you.
Ones that shut the brain off.
And once you're brain is off...
then your real sleepiness
takes over...
and you can fall asleep.
- What are you doing?
- You're snoring again.
I was just trying
to move you because I can't...
I can't sleep.
- I was trying to...
- I'm not snoring that loud.
Yes, yes you are.
Well now you're not.
So, it worked.
That's what a loud snore looks like?
Yes and then you stop...
and you're slowing
your breathing down.
And then...
So, is snoring bad for me?
We're not sure
how benign snoring is.
It may increase blood pressure.
If I told you that...
the snoring's gotten worse
as the sleeping's gotten worse...
- would that make sense?
- Yes.
As people get sleep deprived...
the muscle strength of the throat
gets weaker.
Your snoring gets worse.
If you drink alcohol...
which weakens the muscles
in the throat...
your snoring gets worse.
It's one thing
to be told you snore.
It's something else entirely
to actually hear it.
Now I'm terrified
of falling asleep in public places.
I don't want to be the person sitting
next to you snoring loudly...
The one you just want to grab
by the throat and scream...
Wake up!
But if you are someone
who snores heavily...
you might have
a condition called sleep apnea...
which can be very serious
and you should go see a doctor.
What time do you get up
in the morning?
Depends what time I went to sleep.
Depends if I woke up
in a middle of a night.
Depends if I took a sleeping pill.
The number one rule
of sleep hygiene...
get out of bed
at the very same time.
Regardless whether you slept
the whole night...
whether you went to bed at four,
whether you didn't sleep at all.
When I wake up in a morning...
I never really have a feeling of...
Well, whatever,
I don't have the whatever...
The satisfaction
of feeling well rested.
"Boy, what a sleep!"
It is October 15th, 1989.
It's about 3:25 in the morning.
I'm always very tired.
There are people that tell me...
how are you, I say, "I'm tired".
And they say, "Alan, as long as
I've ever known you...
that's always what you say.
You're tired."
I get irritable.
I lose my appetite.
Cant concentrate.
I get listless.
I shy away from people.
I sense my mood shifts
can be more volatile.
I feel like shit.
Yawn all day.
I look like shit.
Tomorrow morning my eyes
will be blood shot...
my voice will be low.
My syntax will be awkward...
and my thought processes...
if there are and enough
to be plural...
will be sort of
in slow motion a little bit.
And while I'm at it...
I'd like to make a public apology.
For those people
who don't know me very well...
my insomnia's the reason...
that I've never returned
your phone call.
It's the reason...
There can't be
any moving around...
I got to just concentrate,
it's too distracting.
What is he getting that? What's?
Justus sit in a place,
just for this little bit...
I can't, it's, I'm having,
I'm having trouble concentrating.
If you have to get something,
just get it.
Every, sit down,
everybody sit down.
Just sit down.
Someone referred to...
sleep deprivation in a metaphor
that I thought was really creepy...
but very powerful, they said...
if you boil a frog slowly..."
"the frog doesn't know
anythings wrong.
That's a kind of...
interesting thought.
That's a great metaphor for
what sleep loss does to people.
You lose sleep,
you're in a fog...
and the worst person to say
how you're feeling is...
the person in the fog.
And until you come out
of the fog...
you don't realize how bad off
you really were.
Sometimes when I'm
on the street running errands...
I forget exactly what errands
it is I'm running.
Two months ago...
I forgot to bring
the videotape of my film...
to the screening of my film.
"In New York, witnesses say
it felt like an earthquake...
and sounded like
the world was coming to an end."
"Without warning, pedestrians
on 56th Street looked up...
to find themselves
under a downpour of rock...
glass and metal..."
I start to think
that this expression human error...
just means fatigue.
Sleepiness.
Someone was too tired
and did the wrong thing.
Said the wrong thing,
pushed the wrong button.
You just can't function well...
when our body's
not prepared to be awake.
So, ill slept leaders
and presidents...
could make very poor decisions...
like leading a country to war.
Absolutely.
President Clinton in interview
in US News and World Report...
actually acknowledged that every
major error he made in his life...
he made when he was tired.
Then it's not so far fetched
to think that something...
like the World Series could be
won or lost...
based on whether a key player
got a good night sleep?
In football,
baseball and basketball...
studies have shown
that just direction you fly...
and the jetlag can effect
who wins the game.
By the way...
this music that I keep playing
over and over again...
comes from a film called,
"That Uncertain Feeling"...
directed by Ernst Lubitsch in 1941.
It plays over the shot of
a woman who can't sleep...
pacing her bedroom
in the middle of the night.
Critics call it
Lubitschs worst film.
The score however,
was nominated for an Oscar.
I know it supposed
to make me feel stressful...
but for some reason
I find it oddly soothing.
Rapid eye movements.
Here's a big one,
here's a nice one.
You're in solid REM sleep.
- I'm dreaming.
- You're dreaming.
I find myself walking
around city all night...
looking to find
someone who can tell me...
why everyone else
knows how to sleep, except me.
When morning came I found myself...
in a police station
looking through mug shots.
And I go through all the mug shots
and the photograph that...
I pull out is a photograph of my
great-grandfather, Solomon Isaac.
Who I never met obviously,
who lived in Poland.
Somehow I needed to find him.
My father told me that...
the only way I could find him
was by wearing this helmet...
this scuba helmet.
The next thing I know...
I'm swimming
with a school of fish.
Which kind of made sense...
because I know that he had been
a teacher in Poland.
And it's really important that
I find him and ask him how he slept.
That's why I've come all this way
to ask him how he slept.
And when I finally found him,
he smiled at me...
and said in a really strong
yiddish accent...
you got the wrong guy...
I sleep with the moon
and wake with the sun.
Don't blame me, young man.
You did say that
there are some relatives...
with some insomnia-type problems...
Yeah. On both sides of my family.
In fact, one of the first things
I did when I started this film...
was to look through
all of my family home movies...
for some kind of evidence
of insomnia or sleeplessness.
All I found was everyone
acting for the camera...
as if they just had
three cups of coffee.
With one exception.
A shot of my Grandpa Joe
looking really, really tired.
Was his problem staying up late too?
My mother and my uncles
never figured out...
if he was a night owl
because he couldn't sleep...
or whether he couldn't sleep
because he was a night owl.
Heres a man whos taking pills
for twenty-thirty years.
And the size of
these sleeping pills every night...
My father took a lot of things
very personal.
The events of the world
on his shoulders.
Why there are wars.
Why there's fighting.
Why there's arguing.
Why can't people live in peace?
He just had so many things
on his mind.
He couldn't relax.
- And your father, is he living?
- No. He died in 2001.
- How old was he when he died?
- Just shy of 84. He was 83.
Do you remember
if he was a good sleeper?
How are you feeling?
- How you feeling?
- I didn't sleep last night.
Why not?
Shoot me in the head
I didn't sleep.
Almost all night I didn't sleep.
So, I have a little bit
of a headache.
At the most basic level...
the amount of sleep
an individual needs is...
probably genetically determined.
And I say that because you need
a certain amount of sleep...
and it's not like
you can change that.
So, the amount of sleep
my child will need...
- could be genetically...
- Genetically...
related to how much sleep I need.
Yes. And your grandfather.
But, as you know
about genetics...
it's how those genes
are expressed...
within the environment.
Remember I told you,
I used to...
listen to you and mommy fight
every night.
So, I knew you were going
to get divorced...
way before you ever did?
I thought you were asleep.
"Why aren't you in bed?
What's wrong Billy?
Is something the matter?"
My parents used to fight a lot.
"Well, let me tell you
something young lady..."
I would get out of bed...
and hide behind the wall
and listen to them.
I should've been sleeping.
I couldn't tell my sister...
she was too young,
I didn't want to upset her.
Couldn't tell family members.
But the night was the time
when I would listen.
I thought you were asleep.
Sneak around the house and listen.
And then lie in bed
and dwell on it.
Hearing things at night...
that are upsetting is
an activating kind of training.
Clearly, whatever's happened...
has had an effect on you
being a night owl.
On the mental ruminations
that go on at night.
We're getting a divorce!
It took a long time to develop
the pattern you now live.
"Mother!"
More than one of the doctors
said that there's a possibility...
that my association
with being up at night...
and not sleeping
and hearing you fight...
and listening to conversations
that you had...
is one of the reasons that
maybe I might be a...
not such a good sleeper.
That it's a deep memory set...
in which I associate the night
with that kind of pain.
Blame the mama.
Do you think that if they weren't
arguing that you would've slept?
- Maybe the two of you...
- Alan...
- we're fighting so much...
- We weren't fighting...
- when you were eight or nine.
- Really?
Mom what are you saying?
I know, you were fighting...
when we were two, three,
four, five, six, seven...
You just stayed married
when we were eight, nine, ten.
I mean, Ma,
how could you say that?
A little revising of history here,
I'd say.
But do you think
that's what kept you up?
- Can you analyze that?
- It could be.
As soon as I picked up...
on what was going on
between my parents...
I fixated on that.
That's why I'd stay up
in the middle of the night...
to watch you, to listen, to...
I watched everything.
That was my big fascination
in my whole life was...
- to watch you and Oscar...
- Battle it out.
Yeah, both privately...
and also to watch
how you functioned...
in family situations
or in parties to see...
I thought I was great...
- in family situations.
- You mean acting...
that you were
happily married to him.
- I had to.
- No, you didn't.
For seventeen years
I put on a great show.
Well, I watched the performance.
I'm your, I was your best...
- audience.
- Fan.
Well, I don't know about a fan,
but I was your best audience...
I was your most attentive audience.
And on some level that very well
may be the because of all this.
- I'm not blaming you.
- Okay, are we finished with me?
Let's go back to you Alan.
Tonight's the night.
Turn around. Keep turning around.
- Show the belly one more time.
- Not now. Bye.
- Show the belly one more time.
- No, go away.
- It's his belly, not even yours.
- No. Go away. Bye, Alan.
Sharon!
Alan, I said not to. Come on.
How's he going to know his mommy?
He'll know his mommy.
Alan, stop it!
Alan stop it!
I like this wipe that you are making.
It's very visual.
Alan, come on,
we don't have much time.
- One more time.
- What?
- Show the belly one more time.
- Alan, no.
- Can I shut the light?
- Yeah, please.
Let me get a little yellow,
if it's there.
My God.
These are the very first recorded
moments in life of Eli Oz Berliner.
Born 9:24 AM, April 6th, 2004.
He kept us waiting all night.
The best sleepless night
I've ever had.
Now, check out Elis first yawn.
There.
Not even five minutes old
and he is yawning.
Most people think yawning...
has to do with getting
a quick shot of oxygen.
Kind of gives you a wake up.
Studies show, maybe, maybe not.
But there's no question that...
it seems to be associated
with drowsiness...
and that it's infectious.
So, what would happen...
if I created a sequence in my film
of several people in a row yawning?
You're going to get...
probably 90 percent of
the audience yawning with you.
I've actually been so tired that...
I've yawned after
just reading the word yawn.
How about this little factoid?
Going without sleep for 24 hours
gives you the same reaction time...
as someone who would be
considered legally drunk.
Will there ever be
a so-called sleepalizer?
Like there's a breathalyzer?
Like we can take blood
and measure cholesterol.
I hope so.
People are searching for it,
they're working on it...
and it's application is enormous.
"The object is...
to note the position
of the clock hand...
at the instant the bell sounds."
Thirty.
"The more rest
and relaxation we get...
the greater
is our mental efficiency...
and the more quickly we react."
Fifty?
"You can try this test yourself."
"Remember, try to tell
where the hand of the clock is...
when the bell rings. Ready."
"Did you get it right?
Twenty?"
"Don't blame yourself
if you didn't make a good score."
"Maybe you were up
too late last night."
Now, in case you're asking,
in case you're wondering.
Why doesn't he just drink
a cup of coffee right now...
and put himself out of this misery?
I haven't had twenty cups
of coffee in my whole life.
- In your life?
- Life.
I learned a long time ago
that caffeine made me...
Hyper.
And I learned to stay away from it.
- "Coca-cola"? "Pepsi"? Soft drinks?
- Don't touch it.
- No caffeine at all.
- No caffeine.
If I drank coffee,
I wouldn't sleep for days.
For the last 30 years
that's been my mantra.
The way that I wake up,
is by taking a shower.
A hot shower
for five or ten minutes...
that jolts me into the real world.
Now, I've been getting
a lot of pressure...
from friends
and family members...
and even some people
on the crew I might add...
to try taking coffee. So...
Okay. I'm not going
to take a shower this morning.
I'm going to go out right now
and get a cup of coffee and...
I'll be back in 10 minutes.
- Yes sir, what can I do for you?
- Fill her up.
Why can't sleep be like
going to the gas station?
Why can't I stay up
for as long as I want...
until I get absolutely exhausted...
And then just start all over again.
That's a good analogy
if you were a city bus.
The brain doesn't work that way.
We have a group of cells
in our brain...
that sort of act like a clock...
and that's really what determines
our sleep wake schedule.
And that clock is programmed...
to have you be awake
during the day...
and asleep at night.
It controls everything
in your body actually...
when you get hungry,
when you go to the bathroom...
when your hormones are secreted,
body temperature...
when your performance
is up and down.
Controls all of that.
Including when you're awake...
and when you're asleep.
In the middle of the night
about 3 to 5 AM, 3 to 6 AM roughly.
These are times
when your clock has you...
at your lowest point
for your performance...
your alertness, your mood.
Many of your hormones...
your internal body temperature
at it's lowest point.
It's very powerful.
This is when you supposed
to be asleep.
You're programmed
to be asleep and in bed.
Well, if that's true...
then my biological clock
needs to go to the repair shop.
Because even at that time
of the morning...
I'm pretty much still cooking.
In the old days I'd sometimes...
go to sleep
after the sun had come up...
but it always made me feel weird.
Ever since then,
as long as it's still dark out...
even if it's just 5 or 10 minutes
before sunrise, it's okay.
Since I go to sleep so late...
I have most of
my family and friends...
trained not to call me
before 11 o'clock in the morning.
But there's always something
that wakes me up too early.
Either the UPS guy rings the bell.
Or the telephone rings.
Or there are hammers pounding...
from construction
in the apartment next door.
Or I have to wake up extra early
to do a shoot for my film.
- The day intrudes.
- Life intrudes.
And so that whole day...
I'm operating under the weight
of my fatigue.
By the time the late afternoon
rolls around...
I can barely keep my eyes open.
And in fact,
our biological clock...
is programmed to have us
sleepy during this time.
That's probably
why siesta was created.
People get sleepy
in that afternoon window.
In Great Britain,
when do you drink high tea?
4 PM you're drinking caffeine.
In the United States, what do we do?
We push through it,
we pretend it doesn't exist...
and just kind of keep going.
Actually our conversation is
reminding me of a film screening...
I had a few years ago.
I remember I had to wake up extra
early that day to catch a plane...
in order to be there
by four in the afternoon.
And I remember
I hadn't slept well for...
the few days prior to the screening
especially the night before.
And I was sort of nervous...
about speaking in front
of a large crowd of people.
Especially because I was so tired.
But when I got there, there were
hardly any people in the audience.
- And it was a big room.
- That's funny.
I don't know if that happens
when doctors give lectures but...
Anyway, that's a big part of the life
of an independent filmmaker.
By the way,
I have this little camera...
which I'll take from you now,
thanks a lot.
Does anyone mind if I stand in the
back of the room or on the side...
and take some shots of the audience
in the dark?
Does anyone
have any problem with that?
No? Okay. Thanks.
Louder.
But that's not
why I'm telling you the story.
For some reason
I decided to bring my camera...
a little camera that shoots
infrared so I could see in the dark.
It didn't take me long to see...
that five or six people
in the room had fallen asleep.
- "What's the matter?"
- "Nothing."
Were literally asleep.
What happens now?
The most sleep-deprived group
in our society are college kids.
They're getting so little sleep,
they are tired all the time.
So, they're sleepy to start with.
The other is,
four o'clock in the afternoon.
You're in that window siesta time.
And so, staying awakes
a pretty good effort...
because you got to override
that biology.
If you haven't had enough sleep...
and so there's a pressure
for sleep...
whatever you do that's
conducive to falling asleep...
like put the lights out,
make it warm, get comfy.
All that's going to do...
is let the sleepiness emerge
and you're going to nod off.
"Means nothing to me.
You're making one mistake."
"You're trying to put your head
on my shoulders and it won't work."
"There's an old saying, you can't
teach an old dog new tricks."
"And I'm that old dog."
A lot of times people say...
you know it's the boring film
that put me to sleep.
Thanks for not saying
that it was my film...
And it wasn't.
And that's what's critical
about this.
If people had enough sleep...
and you put them in a boring lecture
or a boring film...
they'll sit there and be bored.
And they'll be doing
a crossword puzzle...
or they'll say,
why did I come to this thing...
or God this is really horrible...
But they'll be awake.
Let the coffee experiment begin.
Cheers.
It feels like
the presence of something...
different in my bloodstream.
Just a little
something's going on.
It's a little different.
Starting to feel something
happening in my extremities.
My toes, especially.
I'm feeling it in my arms,
a little bit...
I'm feeling a sort of a tingling
in my arms.
I'm starting to feel
some sweat in my armpits...
Is coffee known
for making people sweat?
Yes.
My eyes feel...
more awake, more open.
My eyes feel more open.
It's official.
I have now had my first cup
of coffee in more than 31 years.
Feeling quite active,
activated I should say.
Now, are we in wide shot?
No? Head and shoulders shot.
Can we make it a wide shot?
Do what you have to do
to make it a wide shot.
Keep rolling.
While the cameras
resetting positions...
think back to what I looked like
this morning without coffee.
Testing 1, 2, 3.
This is what I look like
with coffee.
We have a wide shot now?
Okay.
Now, while I have this moment
and while I have the energy...
You see these boxes behind me?
Red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, violet.
The colors of the spectrum.
The red boxes,
they are black and white film.
Old newsreels, educational films...
things I got
from the national archives.
The orange boxes
are sound effects...
Footsteps on brush, cement,
dirt, grass, gravel...
ground, interior, snow water.
The yellow is color film.
Filmmakers actually
give me their outs...
because they know that I'll store
them and put then in the archive.
The green boxes are...
American family home movies
from the 1920's, 30's and 40's.
All anonymous.
In a way, sometimes I think of this
as sort of an orphanage...
for lost home movies.
This is some rare footage from
the Old Negro Baseball Leagues.
Looks like she's been drinking
some coffee too.
The blue boxes contain
my own family home movies.
Mostly stuff my father shot
when I was a kid.
Everything else is stuff
I've shot ever since.
The violet boxes,
remember ROY G BIV...
the violet...
these are photographs that
I've collected all over the world.
Again, anonymous.
Pick a box, any box.
Okay, this one, can you see here?
These are portraits.
I know none of these people.
If you recognize
anyone in this box...
let me know I'll give them
back their picture.
The black boxes contain
photographs...
I've been cutting out
of the newspaper.
The history of the world
over the last 25 years...
is somewhere in these boxes.
Did I mention everything's
alphabetical? Naturally.
When you surround yourself
with so much stuff...
you have to be extremely organized.
I need an image, I know where it is.
I need a sound...
That's the whole point.
To be able to act
at the speed of thought.
Every time I get an idea...
I write it down
on a small piece of paper.
After I act on it...
I put it on one of these things
you see in Chinese restaurants.
By the way,
I am really buzzing right now.
Okay. This shelf right here...
these are all
found family photo albums.
Orphaned family photo albums.
I mean, I don't even understand
how they come to be.
Can you imagine
if your family photo album...
somehow ended up at a garage sale
or a flea market?
Got lost somehow?
That's the phone.
The phone's ringing
during the coffee experiment.
Say something to the film.
Okay, hold on, go.
"Did you fall asleep last night?"
Can't really talk
because I'm in the middle of this.
That was my mother.
This is a collection
of glass negatives.
People drink coffee every day.
I can't even imagine.
This cabinet right here contains
every photograph from my entire life.
My mother is pregnant with me here,
my sister is born here.
It's our entire family...
all the way through my life up
to here.
My mother's side of the family.
My father's side of the family,
my father's army pictures.
My parents wedding pictures.
For both sides of my family
I am the keeper of the memory.
I don't think anyone really knows.
I don't think anyone really cares.
Okay. I also collect objects,
different objects.
Here's a drawer called spheres.
Pyramids. Alphabet. Bells.
Here's a drawer called Flip Books.
Time.
This is one of my favorite things
in the whole world...
miniature watch parts.
This is a sound sculpture
that I once made called Audiofile.
Here's a drawer called,
No Trespassing.
Good morning.
If you'd like
to set your clocks...
WINS news time at the tone
will be exactly 11:30.
Sleepless Night.
Can you go and soothe him,
please, I am so tired.
Go to sleep.
- Go with the flow, Alan.
- How do you go with the flow...
when he wakes up at three o'clock
in the morning every day?
He doesn't anymore...
So, it's his first few months!
- Four o'clock in the morning.
- His first few months.
- That's normal.
- Crying.
So you know, you wake up,
you bum out and you let him cry...
You don't want Eli to grow up...
like how you grew up
always asking your father...
How are you?
I'm tired and I have a headache.
You don't want to be like that.
Well, the truth is that
he is very irritable these days...
because he's not sleeping
and because of that...
he's being arguing with me
all the time.
- But you're tired too.
- But I'm not as irritable...
- when I get tired.
- How do you know?
I know. I see how I react,
I see how you react.
When you get tired you get
very irritable.
- I know. That's terrible.
- And you get more critical...
When Eli was age 0 to 3 months...
I was the only one
in our entire world...
that knew, that he had to sleep...
between 16 and 18 hours a day
and I knew why.
- You showed to me 15 million times.
- Fine. Okay, I understand.
- You know what's interesting...
- Because his brain was growing!
Okay!
Everybody's brain is growing.
- Everybody's brain grows.
- When they're sleeping!
A new baby is going to sleep...
- even if you weren't controlling it.
- Even if it's not 16 hours...
- his brain will grow.
- Most parents aren't...
controlling their sleep.
I think Alan judges his day
by how many naps Eli had.
Did you have a good day?
Well, Eli napped three times,
I had a great day.
No. That's his scale of life.
I mean, really,
it's becoming ad nauseum, really.
It is.
And a mother can tell you that.
- A sister can tell you that.
- A wife can tell you that.
- Exactly.
- Because you know what?
- People will lie to you. No problem.
- What do you mean will lie to me?
Did he sleep?
Yeah, he slept.
How long did he sleep?
So, wait. When I bring him
to your house to babysit...
- you are lying to me...
- No. But we might.
- But we could. We would.
- We could absolutely.
- We don't have to...
- To give you piece of mind.
Someone has to know
what the stakes are.
Alan, stop it! We all know
what the stakes are.
What are the stakes,
where you are today?
I have become the protector
of his sleep.
I want him to go to sleep
at the same time every night...
I want to make sure
that he takes naps...
two or three times a day.
I want to make sure that
this little boy sleeps...
as much as possible.
When he is sleeping,
I am at peace.
I filmed Eli sleeping
when he was about 2 months old.
And very shortly
after I put him to sleep...
his face went into a smile.
Babies actually smile in sleep
before they smile in wakefulness.
And he's actually in REM sleep
while this is happening.
He's dreaming.
Somehow his brain
is practicing what just might be...
the most important
survival skill of all.
A smile.
Something that's going
to strengthen the bonds of love...
and attachment with his parents.
And it works!
And it's also not a bad skill
for him to learn...
for later in life as well.
It's almost as if Eli has become like
Alan's science project, and...
Does it bother you
that he's eating a lot?
- No.
- Thank God.
As long as it doesn't interfere
with his napping.
I actually think that sleep
could be the X factor.
He will be more responsive
in terms of alertness...
learning and development,
if he's well slept.
I can see his disposition is better,
he's not as cranky.
He eats better.
When he's had his naps...
and when he's in a groove
with sleep...
he's better.
I think in Alan's next life...
he should be a pediatrician
and specialize in sleep.
Because you sound
like a text book.
- When he's tired he's fussy.
- He's a bore.
That's what he's come down to,
worrying about these things.
I'm upset with your obsession,
exactly. I'm upset.
Is there any chance
of changing any aspect of you?
I'm upset
that you are like that, Alan.
You are possibly giving your child...
the best gift you could
ever give him for his life.
In our society today,
nobody protects sleep.
And for you to do
that with your child...
- from the beginning of his life.
- Hold that for one second.
You see Shari, you see mom,
you see Lynn? See!
There have got to be limits...
because you got to be careful
not to get too crazy about it.
Older fathers
are the most neurotics.
You are revving at a higher rate
than other people.
You get activated at night...
you're alert
before you go to sleep...
and really the time
you should be sleeping...
if you follow your own
biological clock is quite late.
So your clock is off.
That is
a particular condition...
and it's called
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.
What was that?
Say that again.
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.
Which is our fancy word
for night owl.
You are a night owl.
Anything that I have to do...
That's really important...
I do it...
At night.
I'm Cinderella...
In reverse.
The night for me
has become a total haven.
There's a sense
of being outside of time.
The darkness, the silence.
The peacefulness of it.
Food tastes better.
Music sounds better,
I'm sharper.
It sounds to me like you actually
enjoy being awake...
more than you enjoy sleep.
Sometimes I think
I'm addicted to being awake.
Does that also mean
that I'm addicted to being tired?
If I'm not going to sleep anyway...
why toss and turn in bed
and make myself crazy.
If my curse here is to have
three extra hours a night...
Hey, I'll take it.
That's 21 hours a week.
That's 90 hours a month,
that's 45 days a year.
Over a 40-year period,
that's 1800 days.
5 years of alert,
waking, productive creative time...
that I'm adding to my life.
Is there a drug
or a magic potion or something...
where I could still be a night owl...
get five or six hours sleep,
and feel great?
No.
I've heard insomnia described as
the last frontier of imagination...
and individual freedom
by a philosopher named Blanchot...
whose point was
that to go to sleep...
when everyone else goes to sleep
is sort of conformity.
That to work
and embrace the night...
and stay awake while
the rest of the world is sleeping...
it's a kind of rebellion.
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep after I die.
Now, I need to say this really
in a devilish kind of way.
Am I enough,
not enough, too much?
No, after I die is,
once I'm dead is a little too...
like the word dead is too harsh.
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep after I die.
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep.
After I die that is.
No, that doesn't...
One more time...
They'll be plenty of time
to sleep after I die.
It's hard to get the...
Do you think I said it
the right way one of them?
It's not that I'm racing
against time you know...
like trying to outrun
death or something.
Although sometimes
it feels that way.
You know in some mythologies...
the God of sleep
and a God of death are brothers.
Sleep is as close as you get to death
in your current life...
as you probably ever will.
So when you think
about being taunted everyday...
with I don't want that,
I want being awake...
I want life.
The joy, the passion,
the productivity...
And anything that
detracts from that, like sleep...
Which is boring, monotonous
and a waste of time.
That's the battle that's going on.
You don't know how much more
creative you might be...
if you slept a little more.
You may not care
about an extra film or two...
but you'd be living
your life better.
Maybe you can't become a better
filmmaker than you already are.
Well, I don't know about that.
But I've always considered working
in the middle of the night...
to be my secret weapon.
That's a real problem
with creative people...
is that a lot of them actually
do a lot of their best work...
when they should be sleeping.
That was "Night in Tunisia"
featuring...
the late great Charlie Parker
on alto saxophone.
There are certain situations
where we can quantify...
get better sleep,
get better score on that test.
In the creative realm,
it's hard to know.
Charlie Parker was such
a damn good musician...
because he never slept
and used drugs.
He would've been 10 times
the musician he was...
had he slept better.
He was already a great musician.
You take a great person...
give them the sleep they need
and they become even greater.
But part of what made him
a great musician's that...
he didn't sleep,
and that was his story.
And if you took that away
he'd be a totally different person.
Einstein slept ten hours a night.
Now, I don't know if he really did...
but that's the mythology...
and you know we think of Einstein
as the most brilliant mind ever.
Right, but then again Edison...
didn't sleep more than four hours
a night is the mythology...
But he bragged about being able
to nap instantly anytime of the day.
And only a very sleep
deprived person could do that.
My friend Spencer
suggested the other day that...
I try a news fast.
No newspapers, no radio,
no television, no internet.
Just shut it down
for a week or two.
Maybe even take Shari and Eli
and get out of the city for a while.
Maybe that would relax me.
Calm me down.
Help me sleep better at night.
No way.
I'm starting to think
I might be suffering...
from some kind of urban disease.
The need to feel connected,
plugged in.
All the time.
This is part of who you are.
And if we change this part...
like if we change
any other piece of you...
that you live in New York
or that you have a young child...
if we change any of that...
for someone who is creative,
it changes everything.
That doesn't mean you should not
pursue how do I sleep better...
because you can still be in love
with the night...
improve the sleep...
and get a different wakefulness
experience as well.
Alan.
Alan. Eli's up.
Alan, sweetie, Eli's up.
You said you'd go.
You said you'd go this morning.
- Shari, what time is it?
- It's 6:20.
Okay, I went to sleep really late.
But you said
you'd go this morning.
I can't,
I went to sleep really late...
just give me a break
this morning.
What? This morning?
You said this was...
the morning you'd go when he was
crying. Come on, it's not fair.
Don't wake me up.
Alan, sweetie.
It's not fair. He's crying.
I'm going to figure it out,
I can't do it now.
Figure it out.
Figure it out when?
What are you talking about?
Please?
- Don't wake me up please?
- You promised me.
Shari, I'm like on three hours sleep.
- What is this?
- Three hours.
- Don't wake me up.
- Okay.
The good news is that Eli sleeps
through the night now.
Eli, good morning sweetie.
- He goes to sleep around 8 o'clock.
- Hello.
Actually I should say...
he goes to sleep exactly
at eight o'clock. Every night.
And wakes up anywhere
between six, six-thirty...
sometimes quarter
to seven in the morning.
The bad news is that because...
I go to sleep
at three-thirty or four...
when he starts crying at six-thirty
I've gotten two, three hours sleep.
You know I miss seeing him
in the morning.
And Eli misses seeing you
in the morning.
In the morning he comes
knocking on the door...
and he goes, "Daddy."
And I have to pull him away
and go, "Daddy's sleeping."
Are you mad at me?
Do you hate me?
Do I hate you? No.
Because I have to tell you something.
I feel guilty.
Well, you should feel guilty.
It's like you're living in different
time zone from me and Eli.
It's going to have to change...
because I can't go on
like this anymore.
- Well, what should we do?
- You tell me.
We have to reset your clock.
Since you're such a night owl...
I'd like to move
your sleep cycle earlier...
by having you get light
exposure in the morning.
When you wake up...
throw on some clothes
and go outdoors for an hour.
I really want light
to get into your eyes...
because that's what's going
to move your rhythm...
so you can fall asleep earlier.
Light is one
of the most powerful cues...
for your internal clock
to know what time it is.
You see light...
and it tells you be active
during the day...
sleep at night.
People who are night owls,
don't like the light...
avoid the light in the morning...
and in fact that's the important cue
that keeps their clocks in trim.
I'd like you to spend just six
and a half hours in bed.
Give you less time in bed
than you want.
It seems to me that...
two thirty to nine in the morning
would be a reasonable way to go.
Reducing the amount of sleep
that people have...
until they're extremely efficient...
There going to make you absolutely
exhausted in the daytime.
Zombie time.
And that's the problem
with this therapy is...
that you will be a zombie.
But what will happen is...
eventually we will build
a sleep debt up so high...
that you will start sleeping.
And if we can squeeze out
some of these awakenings...
or make them shorter...
that may start the ball rolling
in the right direction.
Let's try this for a month or two...
A month or two?
You're going to hate it
the first week.
I just guarantee you that.
So I want you to pick a time
when this is convenient to do...
where you don't have
lots of deadlines...
because you are going
to be dysfunctional.
Try it. It could take months!
It might not even work!
Let's try it.
How can I make a decision like that
when I'm in the middle of a film?
That's bullshit.
Everybody has to make tough choices.
It's not fair to Shari.
She knew I had a sleeping problem
when she married me.
That doesn't make it right.
What are you going to do...
take sleeping pills
for the rest of your life?
Don't you see how hard
this is for me?
Stop being so damn stubborn
all the time.
You should stop telling people
you are tired all the time.
You are such a schmuck.
- You don't want to be helped Alan.
- Who are you calling a schmuck?
You don't.
- Finish this film and...
- And then move on!
get to another subject, Alan.
Because this film is ruined you
in a way, not Eli. This film...
- It took the obsession to like...
- Greater heights.
I turned on the television
and saw that Eli was playing...
with the president
of the United States.
And a part of me is jealous.
I should be playing with Eli.
So I get in a car and I drive
as fast as I can to Washington, DC.
And I'm on the highway looking
for an exit called ODay Street.
But the breaks don't work
and I can't stop the car...
and so I miss the exit
called ODay Street.
Now, because I made a film
about names a few years ago...
I know that the letter "O"
put in front of a word...
is what's called a patronymic,
it means son of.
So when the sign said, ODay
that means son of day.
It means I'm missing the light,
I'm missing the sun.
I'm missing the light of day.
But more importantly, "S-O-N".
Eli.
He's my son of day.
I miss my son.
I'm a night person,
and you're a morning person.
What are we going to do?
You want me
to become a morning person...
or you should become
a night person?
Do you want to become
a night person too?
Eli, I don't think your daddy
would let you become a night person.
- He makes you to go to bed early.
- That's true.
What am I going to do, Shari?
You're going to come to bed
earlier with me...
which will be really nice.
That we'll be going to bed together.
And then you're going
to be able to wake up earlier.
What about my life as a filmmaker?
You're going
to have to figure out a way...
how to make films
like a normal human being.
Not at 4 or 5 in the morning.
Well, right now, I can't give it up.
Do you think you can after this film?
It's just we're going against
forty plus years of pattern...
repetition, habit and biology.
I've always accepted
my groggy mornings...
because they come
with my glorious nights.
Three hours of sleep.
It's the price
I've been willing to pay.
That's part of a commitment
I made to myself...
a long, long time ago.
- I am what I am.
- It's going to have to change.
Of course I also made
a life long commitment...
to be a great partner to Shari.
And I love Eli so much it hurts.
Now, that the film is over,
I know what I have to do.
The question is...
Can I do it?
Let's do a take of me
thanking everyone on camera...
in case I don't use lower thirds
inside the film.
I'd like to thank all of
my very special guests...
Dr. William Dement,
Dr. Leonid Kayumov...
Dr. Mark Rosekind
Dr. Richard Simon...
Dr. Art Spielman,
and of course my mother, Regina...
my sister Lynn,
and especially Shari...
for being so generous, so patient
and so understanding.
This is for all you
insomniacs out there...
Roll credit.
I forgot the thing about Eli.
Thank you Eli.
Our collaborations
have only just begun.