Why must we sleep? Why do some individuals lose the knack for sleeping? Why is sleep necessary for practically all aspects of our physical and mental well-being? Instead of answering these questions, this novel poses many additional ones. Is there a need to fix everything? Are we becoming a society dependent upon antidepressant and hypnotic medications just to cope with life? Does psychopharmacology provide drugs to help people find themselves or escape from themselves? What are the limits of what people will do to succeed? Do individuals fail more from lack of energy or lack of willpower?

Inspired Sleep tackles the pharmaceutical industry, medical ethics, and drug therapy but seems most genuinely inspired when it probes the nature of human relationships, fate, dreams (both the nocturnal kind as well as the great American type), loss, and the quest for happiness. The "lust to know" is counter-balanced by the "sadness of science." Misery is portrayed as infectious. Uncertainty appears rampant throughout society. At the end of the novel, Bonnie does not seem to care whether her enhanced sleep is the result of the experimental drug, the placebo effect, or heightened levels of hormones like prolactin due to her pregnancy.