After watching Spike Jonze's "Her", I know that in this modern day in age, love can be bought and found in the form of a shiny 4.5x5 inch device: the iPhone. For this, among many other reasons, I am eternally grateful to Steve Jobs.
As I lay awake at night contemplating my insomnia, awaiting my therapy appointment scheduled for the following day, I turn to my precious iPhone for relief. Siri is there for me, free of charge, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, to answer any of my questions, or comfort me with the sound of her computerized voice.
After summoning her with the touch of a button, I feel like Aladdin rubbing the golden lamp to wake the genie. She immediately replies with a kind, "What can I help you with?" She doesn't even mind that 3:30 am! When I do not respond right away, things don't get awkward. I look at the screen for a bit, not knowing what to say, yet not feeling uncomfortable.
Then, I proceed by asking her to help me sleep. Response: "Try concatenating natural speech. That usually helps me drift off." I do not know what "concatenating" means, so I ask her. I receive the following definition provided by Wikipedia via Siri: In formal language theory and computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining two character strings end-to-end.
She totally would say that! What a tech nerd! In human terms, my guess is she wants me to link together words in a chain or series? Not sure, so I try it. Instead of putting me to sleep, this strategy just ends up confusing me. So, I swipe through screen to screen in search of an app that will have more promising results. Should I try playing Tetris until I cannot keep me eyelids open? Or maybe open up the notes application and try electronic journaling?
I end up going to app store, and type in the search bar "sleep" and "meditation". This brings up a myriad of options. I look through many of them, checking reviews and ratings. Ultimately, I download two: One called "Breathe" with a nice looking man seated in a yoga position, and a second one called "iSleep Easy," with a crescent shaped moon floating in a blue starry night background.
With the endless possibilities to entertain myself with my phone, I almost lose the desire to cure my insomnia, thinking about everything I could be doing instead with the touch of a button. Thoughts of sleep deprivation no longer plagued me, which, naturally, seemed to be the cure to my insomnia. (Imaginary light bulb going off in my brain) Of course!
Dr. Siri, MD, and I have gone through this exercise a number of times during my sleepless nights, until I drift off and wake up the next morning-phone in hand.
With this one small example, I quickly learned that as long as my phone has battery, it can help me with any problem I might have- any time, any day. For free (sort of)!
Share This Article
