We’ve all been there – three o’clock in the morning, we’re wide awake, our brains are on overdrive and sleep seems a million miles away. What do you do? Take a sleeping pill, make a cup of tea and pick up a book, clean the house?

Playwright Rachel Creeger puts her insomnia-induced spare time to very good use – she’s written some of her best work in the wee hours, including her latest play, An Insomniac’s Guide to Ambulances, about an insomniac paramedic called Leo.

“He’s about to take on a new role, training student paramedics,“ explains Rachel, from Barnet, “and something about this has really reawakened his sleep disorder and it starts to feed in to all other areas of his life.“

Leo’s mind is never at rest – he’s preparing for his new job, and he’s terrified his wife will find him less than perfect. Through the course of the play we see him encounter patients on his shift, all of whom have a very personal lesson for him. Are his experiences real or are they figments of his sleep-deprived imagination? Will they stretch him to breaking point or lead him to release?

“All of the cast, except him, play multiple characters,“ says Rachel, 40, “and they’re all quite similar and say similar things, which makes us think ‘Is this person real or just in Leo’s unconscious?’“

The idea for Insomniac came from Rachel’s childhood friend, Aryeh Myers, a fellow insomniac and the writer of the award-winning blog InsomniacMedic.com.

“We’d be having these chats through Facebook at three o’clock in the morning,“ Rachel remembers, “talking about how we couldn’t sleep and what we were up to. He was a paramedic and I was working as an education social worker, so we often had quite similar experiences – people on the edge, people in trouble and, of course, our shared insomnia.

“Both of us are always up very late at night. I suppose we’re quite lucky – he’s got a job where that’s essential and if I didn’t have insomnia I wouldn’t fit all my work in, so it’s all worked out quite nicely!“

As well as Aryeh’s experience as a paramedic, Rachel spent some time at the Barnet depot of the London Ambulance Service, with operations manager Sean Brinicombe showing her the ambulances, the depot, and telling her of his experiences and procedures.

“Sean took me round for a whole morning and let me drive him mad with my questions,“ says Rachel, “he was amazing.

“London paramedics spent a day with us in rehearsals to make sure our terminology and actions were correct – checking that if someone’s had a particular injury they were lying or standing the right way, that our CPR looked accurate, what we’d be saying to the partner of the injured person.“ An Insomniac’s Guide is an interactive performance – if you want it to be.

“I really enjoy immersive theatre and stand-up comedy, where there isn’t a barrier between the actors and the audience,“ says Rachel, “and I like to take that into my plays – have the audience become the actors.“

The action takes place in various points around the room, not just on the stage, characters talk directly to members of the audience, one scene has the entire audience involved, and another has the audience providing the lighting by way of hand-held torches.

“Some people will want to respond, others will be horrified,“ Rachel laughs. “Either way, it’s fine.“ Lots of paramedics have got in touch to say they will be in the audience, so Rachel’s actors should have no shortage of volunteers – that’s one less thing to keep them up at night.

  • An Insomniac’s Guide to Ambulances, part of the Camden Fringe 2013, is Upstairs at the Gatehouse, Hampstead Lane, Highgate from Monday, August 5 to Thursday, August 9, and at the London Jewish Cultural Centre, North End Road, Golders Green from Sunday, August 11 to Thursday, August 15. Details: 020 8457 5000, ljcc.org.uk