Cure for Insomnia

Reading bedtime stories is found to be effective for insomniacs, says Indian-origin artist.

Artist and writer Madhu Kaza, 36, has been travelling to the homes of strangers in Manhattan and Brooklyn to lull them to sleep with a story since May.

She has read bedtime stories to eight adults in Brooklyn and Manhattan, including snippets of Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis,' Roald Dahl's children adventure story "Danny the Champion of the World" to John Fowles' novel "The French Lieutenant's Woman."

Kaza has titled her project "Here Is Where We Meet" after the John Berger novel.

"I just show up, and then they give me what they want me to read from and I read," the New York Daily News quoted her as saying.

A part-time writing teacher at New York University, Kaza is making the house calls as part of an artist-in-residence program at the Proteus Gowanus gallery in Brooklyn.

"Part of the project is about hospitality. It's about an encounter with someone who is not your best friend or not your lover or not your parents," she said.

Kaza only reads to adults one-on-one and requires that she can let herself out of the home once the person is asleep- and so far, she has only read to women.People often fall asleep pretty quickly. On average, I haven't been anywhere for more than an hour," she added.

Kaza said she makes audio recordings of the readings to use later in her art project.

Source: ANI