Welcome to the Emporium
Welcome to my website. I'm Matthew—a writer and book editor from New Zealand. My clash with insomnia became apparent in 2020 when I was stuck in Guatemala during Covid. Feeling helpless and tortured, I did what I always do when I have a major life problem: I wrote about it.
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I Can't Sleep: A Condensed Guide to Reclaiming Your Sleep was the result. The book I thought I could write in an afternoon took me over four years—proof that sleep wasn't as simple as I initially thought. As someone who loves to learn and understand things, my book reflected my approach, and I began to research anything and everything that could be holding me back from restful slumber.
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After filling my head with all things 'sleep', I realised I could do more with my acquired knowledge of techniques, products, and strategies. I decided I would create a website to accompany my book in the war against insomnia—seeking not just to inform my fellow sleep-sufferers, but helping to arm them with the best equipment possible. The goal was to level the playing field in this modern age of digitalisation, where all these supposed upgrades in technology and dietary efficiency are causing immense harm and disruption to human biology.
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Today, we fight back. Today, we reclaim the lost ground in the war on sleep. I ask you to not just help yourself with the information you'll find here, but to spread the word and help others in your family and community. A better-rested world will be a better place for all.
How the journey began...
In mid-2020, the effects of insomnia became unignorable for me. Isolated in the hills of Guatemala while the world grappled with Covid, it seemed that sleep was curiously eluding me. Apart from being completely alone during this time, I was living a super healthy life. I was eating well, exercising daily, getting plenty of sun, and yet something was wrong with my health. I was constantly sick, unable to sleep properly, and becoming more desperate for answers by the day. Even after returning home from Guatemala, my sleep was still in disrepair, and I was unable to find a solution.
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Being the writer I was, I decided I would articulate this issue to myself on paper—learning, and penning what I had learned, so that I could help others while I helped myself. I thought, “How complicated can sleep be? I’ll write this book in a day or two.”
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How wrong I was…
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Four and a half years later, after having continued my travels through Southeast Asia, South America, and New Zealand, burning through books, scientific articles, and podcasts, doing a number of self-experiments, nerding out on molecular biology and venturing to the deepest corners of nutrition, I have finally produced a document I feel is worthy of being presented to the greater insomniac community.
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“I Can’t Sleep: A Condensed Guide to Reclaiming Your Sleep” is the cure I wish I had had during my own battles with the beast. It’s been designed to pack as much relevant information in as possible that could help you improve your nights and win the war against insomnia once and for all. At just 35,000 words, it’s half the length of other books on sleep. Yet this book isn’t about sleep—it’s for sleep. It hasn’t been written like one of those dense, technical textbooks by some verbose neuroscientist; rather, it’s a layman's read—both the most direct and the most complete how-to book on sleep reclamation that has ever been produced. It doesn’t waste words; it delivers concise information that is simple, practical, and immediately useful.
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This book has been my own cure—a successful one. And now this ex-insomniac passes it on to you. In researching for this book, I came to understand just how destructive the effects of sleeplessness really are, contributing to heart problems, brain dysfunction, hormonal problems, suicide, depression, work and road accidents, marriage and relationship problems, and costing the global economy billions of dollars each year. Pills don’t fix this, nor does ignoring it. The only way for us to collectively overcome insomnia is to learn about it. For your own good and for that of your friends and family, put this book in your arsenal. For just a few dollars’ investment, you can radically change your life—improving not just your sleep, but everything that is affected by it: your health, your happiness, your energy levels and productivity. Shine brighter; become the success you were meant to be. It all starts with a good night’s rest.
About Matthew
Writer. Traveller. Philosopher. Science nerd. I'm Matthew, an information addict—passionately curious about life and all its mysteries. I've spent much of my adult life backpacking through Asia and Latin America, constantly scribbling down ideas and sipping on cappuccinos. My specialty, I would say, is bridging science and spirituality in my writing. At 33 years of age, I've spent over a decade poring over studies and articles in research for my books, dreaming up plausible theories and frameworks that—I believe—could just help humanity on its journey to the stars.
I'm naively ambitious, a little unorthodox, but dedicated to my passions of helping build a better world. If you'd like to see what else I've got brewing, I invite you to check out other projects I've been involved with—due to be released in the coming months and years. Some are purely my own; others are collaborations I've involved myself with through my career as an editor. Check them out here.
Why The Sleepy Emporium?
By the time I finished writing my book, I had come to understand a lot about sleep. I was finally aware of almost everything I could have been doing wrong in my life that was sabotaging my sleep, and I felt confident in my ability to help people who had been suffering with a similar situation. While I'd designed my book to be the shortest, simplest, most effective path to curing insomnia, I knew there was something more I could do with the endless hours of research and the goal of helping people sleep. I realised, without it being such a difficult next step, that I could curate some of the best sleep support products from around the world and bridge the gap for my readers so that they can benefit from and make a quick and easy choice when investing in their sleep.
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You'll find that nothing is directly for sale through this website. Everything is done through affiliate links, which means I'm only helping people find their way to the companies that have these products for sale on their own respective websites. Although I do get a commission for facilitating a purchase, I've picked these brands and products specifically—many of them because I've used the products personally and believe in them wholeheartedly. It's therefore with great pride and pleasure that I can help to funnel and fast-track insomniacs to a permanent cure—through both information and accessories, so that all aspects are covered. For anyone new to the site, I would recommend reading my book first and foremost, as it will help to guide you strategically through the world of sleep-aid products and most importantly arm you with knowledge so that you can overcome the psychological challenges as well as the physical.
What's next?
I Can't Sleep is the first in a self-help/self-development series. The negative "I Can't" mantra was chosen because it resonates with what people tell themselves at the worst of times, when they most need help. Everyday problems in people's everyday lives are what hold them back from happiness and self-actualisation, and I hope that my writing can help at least one person. Next, we'll be hoping to tackle issues like addiction, depression, and even some life skills like dancing and self-defence. Stay tuned for future updates.
Contact
I'm always open to new and exciting opportunities, book or business related. If you have a genuine enquiry, please use the form on the contact page.
