Psychology Today | 04.11.2026 18:30
For the better part of this decade, I suffered from a severe case of insomnia. Initially, it had biological origins. After coming down with COVID early in the pandemic, the virus triggered a rare autoimmune condition in me called Morvan syndrome. Morvan’s gift to its victims is profound, treatment-resistant insomnia (agrypnia excitata), and the syndrome can be fatal in up to 20 percent of reported cases. Fortunately (though it’s hard to diagnose), once it’s identified, it’s quite treatable. Unfortunately, prolonged insomnia can develop a learned psychological component, even after the original biological problem improves, so my sleepless nights continued even after IVIG immunotherapy resolved most of the other consequences of the condition.
