Sleepless in London: Insomnia at The Financial Times

No, it's not the bottom line that's keeping its columnists up at night — at least, I don't think that's the case.

But I must admit I was somewhat gobsmacked last weekend reading Susie Boyt's column, headlined "Perchance to sleep," in which she bemoaned her insomnia.

Its first paragraph: "Oh, the curse of insomnia! Once you lose the knack of dropping off to sleep it’s almost impossible to believe you’ll ever discover it again. At the moment the days of automatically shutting up shop for the night seem so distant and remarkable they take on an almost golden hue. Did that actually ever happen or is it merely nostalgia up to its old tricks again?"

This came only a few days after the FT's James Altucher's July 1, 2008 column which opened, "Insomnia has been the bane of my existence since 1995."

And just two weeks earlier there was "sleep-deprived" columnist Lucy Kellaway's June 20, 2008 lament in the BBC News Magazine headlined "No rest for the busy," in which she described her fruitless search for a remedy for her misery.

And those are just the ones who've gone public — who knows how many others are similarly afflicted?

I'm reminded of a former Coca-Cola CEO who, upon being told in an anonymous survey that all of his executives were feeling extremely stressed, remarked to his wife, "That's funny — I don't feel any stress at all."

She responded, "That's because you're the cause."

I'll bet Mrs. Scardino sleeps like a baby.

Great movie.