“The Great Awake” explores the idea of anxiety through their Sleeps. Sleeps are shadow-like figures who escape from the characters’ bodies, allowing them to remain awake without needing to go to sleep. The Sleeps remain only a few steps behind their bodies. Some characters who no longer need to sleep come across a new privilege, while those who experience consistent sleep begin to grow more resentful. Armfield creates an alternate reality where the Sleeps control the characters’ reality. The narrator’s mother warns her of the instability of moving into the city, claiming that “cities could not be lived in but only haunted.” Armfield is stating that it is a city problem, and very few people living on the outskirts of the city have them. Do people who live in the city have a form of anxiety?
The narrator’s neighbor Leonie’s Sleep has never left her, leaving her feeling the side-effects. Armfield associates the fear of missing out: unease that there is something more beneficial she could be experiencing. Leonie, who writes a newspaper column about pain and suffering, reads out loud some of the humorous letter she has received. People write to her complaining about their Sleeps.She begins to establish a routine of visiting the narrator at night. They stay awake with their Sleeps roaming around with each other finding themselves wanting to have sex with one another. She explains how she feels guilty writing them back because she does not want to get rid of her Sleep. She feels left out when she does sleep. Everyone who writes to Leonie wants to find a solution to their Sleeps except her. Leonie’s anxiety about missing out is what keeps her awake at night. Eventually, Leonie leaves with the narrator’s Sleep.
Throughout the story Armfield unpacks the idea of being restless. She recounts the things that keep people up at night such as: the woman, who lived on the first floor, who walked her Sleep around the park at night trying to cause it to go to sleep and the cellist who lived above her who put together a chamber group with a viola player who resided on the second floor, along with a couple of amateur violinists. The people came together to help try to fall asleep knowing that their Sleeps have their own lives. I believe Sleeps are our conscience. Our conscience keeps us awake at night with regrets and memories that either bring us happiness or sorrow. The Sleeps complete things we are afraid of achieving while being awake. My question to you is: what keeps you up at night?