From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is a program of radio stories and documentaries made by independent producers from all over,

including old stories we'd like to listen to again.

And today we've got a handful of that refried gold,

and I'm stealing the idea for today's program

from a film I really like. It's the Jim Jarmush film Night on Earth.

That film is really five short films, each set in a different city on Earth at night,

Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki.

So it just so happens that this unfictional night on Earth is starting in Los Angeles too.

It's where I'm speaking to you right now.

I'm out in my neighborhood.

It's after midnight. It's an urban neighborhood as you can hear so it never really goes to sleep completely.

The hum of the city never goes away. And if you look down the street right here where I live, you don't have to look very far to see a house with a light on inside,

someone who's up late, working on something, watching TV.

But maybe they can't sleep.

Maybe they're lying in bed worrying about money or their jobs,

or maybe they could swear they could hear someone right outside their house.

Well, that would be me.

Everybody has trouble falling asleep, but insomnia, real insomnia, is scary,

because without sleep, your mind starts to go.

Producer Matt Swenson has a story about someone like that.

Hi, this is Mike White, 54 year old male Caucasian with insomnia. It's bothered me all of my life.

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