Let's Talk about Sleep
A Guide to Understanding and Improving Your Slumber
By (author) Daniel A. Barone With Lawrence A. Armour
Publication date:
15 January 2018Length of book:
188 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781538103982
News about sleep is everywhere we turn, and the statistics are numbing: Some 50-70 million Americans are affected by chronic sleep disorders and intermittent sleep problems; an estimated 30-35% of adults complain of insomnia; one in every 25 Americans takes a prescription sleep medication; more than a third of American adults don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis; sleep disorders account for an estimated $16 billion in medical costs each year, plus indirect costs due to missed days of work, decreased productivity and related factors.
And questions abound: why do we need to sleep at all? What happens when we sleep? What happens to the brain? We know the brain is active when we sleep, but what about the mind? And what are dreams?
An accessible and lively take on sleep, this book provides answers to those and other key questions. Along the way, it highlights the lessons a well-known neurologist has learned and what he shares with his patients on a daily basis. It discusses — in terms everyone can understand — what we know about sleep, what can go wrong with it, and what we can do to fix it. It also delves into what some of the great scientists and spiritual teachers have told us about sleep.
The book is packed with useful information and suggestions that will improve all aspects of readers’ lives.
And questions abound: why do we need to sleep at all? What happens when we sleep? What happens to the brain? We know the brain is active when we sleep, but what about the mind? And what are dreams?
An accessible and lively take on sleep, this book provides answers to those and other key questions. Along the way, it highlights the lessons a well-known neurologist has learned and what he shares with his patients on a daily basis. It discusses — in terms everyone can understand — what we know about sleep, what can go wrong with it, and what we can do to fix it. It also delves into what some of the great scientists and spiritual teachers have told us about sleep.
The book is packed with useful information and suggestions that will improve all aspects of readers’ lives.
Thorough and informative, Barone’s book invites readers to get a better night’s sleep by becoming more engaged with a seemingly passive process. Barone, a neurologist specializing in sleep disorders, addresses readers in a calm and helpful tone, asking them to consider their own situations and stressing that he does not intend the book to constitute a treatment plan or replacement for consulting a physician. Moreover, he emphasizes, everyone’s sleep is unique, and so possible solutions for sleep issues that he discusses include apps, 'natural' remedies, devices like CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines, and medications, but he says that there’s no single answer that will work for everyone. His most consistent suggestion is to improve sleep hygiene, meaning a person’s habits around going to sleep. His tips for achieving improved sleep hygiene include not using electronics for at least 30 minutes before bedtime and going to sleep at the same time every night. Testimonies from Barone’s former patients appear in each chapter and cover an array of issues, among them apnea, insomnia, and even restless-leg syndrome. The variety of options for improving sleep that are discussed, along with Barone’s considerate tone, will put many readers’ minds to rest.