Guilt Consequences in Brad Anderson’s Movie, The Machinist

Abstract

In the movie The Machinist, the character Trevor Reznik suffers from primary insomnia as a result of his guilt. In addition to his guilt, anxiety, stimulants, and irregular sleeping patterns also contribute to his inability to sleep. His insomnia causes him to have an inability to sleep, hallucinations, delusions, inability to focus, and accident prone behavior.

Insomnia is a recurring problem in falling asleep and staying asleep. There are two types of insomnia, primary insomnia that is associated with psychological factors and secondary insomnia that is associated with physiological factors. In the movie, The Machinist, the character Trevor Reznik suffers from primary insomnia due his guilt. Trevor’s insomnia debilitates him because it causes him to have hallucinations, delusions, inability to focus, and accident prone behavior.

Causes of Insomnia

Trevor feels extremely guilty about an accident that happened where he hit and killed a young boy with his car and drove off after. Although he does not remember this accident, it is the source of his insomnia. Trevor also has anxiety because of the guilt he feels due to the hit and run. Anxiety and guilt can cause insomnia because the “quiet and inactivity of the night often brings on stressful thoughts or even fears that keeps a person awake” (“What Causes Insomnia, n.d.).

Although Trevor insomnia is primarily due to psychological factors, there are also physiological factors that contributes to Trevor’s insomnia. Trevor is often smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. Caffeine in coffee and nicotine in cigarettes are stimulants that excite neural activity and speeds up body functions. While caffeine can temporarily increase alertness, too much caffeine causes insomnia and nicotine also causes insomnia with withdrawal symptoms similar to caffeine (Stewart, 2013).

Trevor stays awake every night because he cannot sleep. He employs his nights constantly cleaning. He also attempts to sleep during the day, but with no success. This is a disruption of his circadian rhythm. Symptoms of irregular sleep-wake cycles include excessive daytime sleepiness and insomnia (Cataletto, 2015).

Characteristics of Insomnia

Trevor is unable to fall asleep and stay asleep although is is always tired. For example, in the movie, when Trevor is seen falling asleep, he will always snap awake again. Since insomnia, is a problem with falling asleep or staying asleep, people with insomnia have sleep problems. People with insomnia have symptoms of difficulty falling asleep, waking up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep, waking up too early in the morning, and feeling tired upon waking (“An Overview of Insomnia”, n.d.).

Ivan is a hallucination that is a result of Trevor’s lack of sleep. He also has delusions because of his lack of sleep, such as his belief that his co workers were out to harm him when there was almost an accident at the factory that could have seriously injured him. When sleep deprivation becomes great enough, “the effects mimics those of psychosis”, with includes hallucinations and delusions (Coren, n.d.)

Trevor’s insomnia causes him to have an inability to focus and accident prone behavior. Trevor’s inability to focus caused an accident in the factory where his co-worker Miller’s arm was mutilated. He decides to throw himself in front of a car, which is an example of his accident prone behavior. A sleepy fatigued person is accident prone, judgement impaired and more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions (“Sleep Deprivation”, 2014).