Reddit reviews The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night's Sleep

I don’t want to be a negative nelly, but I'm a bit skeptical to claims like this. From what i learned in introductory medicine – sleep needs to be one continuous processes for all the chemistry not to get fucked up. For instance, Growth hormone takes a while to start releasing once you start sleeping, and if you don’t sleep for many hours you are not going to get the hormonal induced regrowth og body.


That's not even touching on the topic of REM sleep, winch we are putty sure is needed for memory, creativity and integration of experience. REM sleep doesn’t really ramp up until very late in a 8 hours sleep cycle. And the claim that lack of long, continuous, sleep cycles are detrimental to mental acuity are confirmed by many studies.


The overall impression I have from reading about sleep is as following: Sleep is a carefully orchestrated sequence of MANY processes that needs to unfold in a particular pattern for everything to be done correctly. There are many studies that find ANY kind of interruption to a normal daily sleep-cycle to be detrimental.


That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if something come along and overturned all of this, that is the nature of science. But given the amount of evidence for the opposite, I'm gonna stand back and wait for more evidence before i change my mind. For instance, one study that says evolution doesn’t exists wont convince me, but a 1000 such studies would.


My claims can be are based on the following books:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/why-zebras-dont-get-ulcers-robert-m-sapolsky/1100623124
http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happiness/dp/0440509017


TL;DR: This studies is contrary to alot of studies that show we need the whole uninterrupted night of sleep, or suffer the consequences of reduced cognitive ability. I'm still open to new finding, but one completely out-of-sync-with-the-rest studies is suspicious. Cool if true tho.

William Dement has a very readable book that is neither dumbed-down nor fluff; "The Promise of Sleep". It is frankly out of date, and contains some controversial and speculative bits, but it is much better than a lot of the things I've seen in recent askscience comments.

Ah, well best of luck. I definitely know how miserable that can be. A couple of words of wisdom if you've never meditated before:

1. It can suck. I equate it to working out. The first time you go for a run or lift weights, it's painful. It's the same with meditating. Take it slow. What's really worked for me is starting at 5-10 minutes twice a day. On weekends, I add an extra 5 minutes to the end of each session to push myself a little more. Every month, I increase my duration by 5 minutes. It was a slow process but now 45 minutes is a breeze.
   
   
2. It will be boring and frustrating. In the beginning, it will seem like all you're doing is having thought after thought. Remember that meditation isn't just about having a quiet mind. This was a mistake I made early on. You're making progress as long as you're recognizing your mind wandering and bringing it back to the breath.
   
   
3. Consistency is key. You have to prioritize meditation, even if you really don't feel like doing it. Doing 5 minutes every day is better than 35 minutes once a week.
   
   
   Deciding to start meditating was one of the most life-changing decisions I've ever made, so I'm excited for you and hope you feel the same down the road. There are plenty of books to read, but for new mediators, 10% Happier is a good place to start. I wasn't a fan of the style of writing but the information is worth it. He has a couple of good book recommendations in there there that you can continue with afterwards, too.
   
   One last suggestion regarding your sleep problems is the book The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night's Sleep https://www.amazon.com/dp/0440509017/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_J9z0Bb2APF2YG
   
   This book really helped me understand sleep on a new level and helped me identify new strategies for tackling sleep issues. It sounds like you're already on top of those strategies, but I remember how desperate I was when I was suffering from insomnia and was ready to try anything to get a good night's sleep, so there you go.

So you have a key insight here that you can test out. Focus on getting quality sleep for the next thirty days, and test the results. Nick Littlehales is a good writer on this subject: https://www.sportsleepcoach.com/, and this is my favorite book on the topic: https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happiness/dp/0440509017.

But basically, keep a dark, quiet and cool place to sleep in - avoid drinking liquids and alcohol in particular right before bed. You have a sleep DEBT you'll have to pay off with consistent sleep for a while. Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happiness/dp/0440509017/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373223701&sr=1-9&keywords=sleep

It might not be the food, but certain habits that are affecting your sleep.

I totally recommed this book called

The Promise of Sleep by William C. Dennet.

https://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happiness/dp/0440509017/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=the+promise+of+sleep&qid=1554076877&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I struggled with fixing my sleep routine for years. This book taught me why and how i could fix it.

The drowsiness midday is natural and happens to all humans. It has to do with the circadian rhythm.

I wish you the best in finding a solution!

But for most people, sleeping 6 hours a night will leave them sleepy at points during the day, especially when they aren't doing much and especially when they are at a time of day when their body isn't keeping them awake. Early afternoon is often a lull in alertness.

Many people will find that dramatically increasing the amount of sleep they get for a sustained period (not just a night or two) will help a great deal with daytime sleepiness.

I've done a number of degrees (not a doctor, but more years of formal education!) and in my first degree I was just like OP - crashing waves of sleepiness that led to me falling asleep in lectures, often for a few seconds, sometimes for minutes at a time. This led to more caffeine, which led to going to bed later. Combine that with six 9am lectures per week (yep, Saturday lectures) and I was sleep deprived and miserable. By the time I got to the final degree I'd worked my body out a lot better. I had given up caffeine and I prioritised sleep. In this period I didn't sleep once during lectures. Same person, same level of motivation, different amount of sleep.

Of course it won't work for everyone, but it's a very cheap thing to try before you start looking at other potential problems.

This book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Promise-Sleep-Connection-Happiness/dp/0440509017

was fabulous in explaining the basics of sleep science and looking at how to understand my sleep patterns. It's a bit old now and there may be more recent research, but I think it's a great starter.

I don't have a good treatment book to recommend. Sitting on my desk next to read is Why we Sleep by Matthew Walker. We overlapped in training and he is brilliant so I look forward to reading this. I enjoyed Dreamland by Randall as an easier to read lay book. Bill Dement is the father of sleep medicine and his last book, The Promise of Sleep, is a nice call to arms for better sleep, though it is almost 20 years old now. I'm a sleep researcher, not a clinician, so the books I'm reading are not really clinical guides, though they contain good information.

As for insomnia, it is best treated by behavioral interventions. The research clearly shows that sleep medicines are only good for acute insomnia (maybe you just had a surgery and the pain is keeping you up at night) and not chronic insomnia. One place to start looking for someone to help would be to check out the Society for Behavioral Sleep Medicine provider list. Most sleep disorders clinics should either have a psychologist on staff or a referral to one.

This is what they will basically have you do. First, you should only go to bed if you are sleepy. If you do not fall asleep within 15-20 minutes, you need to get out of bed, and do something boring under low lights. Do not get on the computer or watch TV, turn on a lamp and read a boring book until you are falling asleep. Then go to bed and if you are not asleep within 15-20 minutes, do it all over again. It may be that you stay awake all night or until 4am the first few times you do it. That is fine, it will actually help you. Do not take a nap, be dead tired because that will help you fall asleep normally after a few days. Also, you need a consistent wake time, no matter your job or school or whatever. Pick a time and wake up everyday (even weekends) at that time.

You also need to look up best practices for sleep hygiene. Most importantly, do not use your bed for anything other than sleep or sex. Do not read, watch TV, play on your tablet, etc. in bed. You want to train your body so that it knows when your head hits the pillow, it is sleep time not thinking or doing time. If you have problems with intrusive thoughts as you are trying to go to sleep, download a guided meditation or progressive muscle relaxation and listen to it while trying to go to sleep (if you are concentrating on the meditation, you can't think about all of the things you were supposed to do that day). Also make sure you can't see the time. You do not need to know what time it is in the middle of the night. Seeing that it is 3am and knowing you have to be at work at 7am causes anxiety which makes it harder to go to sleep.

Do the routine where you get up if you can't fall asleep within 15-20 minutes for week and see if that does not help. The information I gave you are two components of CBT treatment for insomnia (Stimulus control therapy and relaxation). Now going to a sleep disorders clinic can be good because they will rule out other possible causes of your sleep problem other than regular insomnia. You can also try something like melatonin. The clinical evidence really says that it is only good for circadian rhythm issues like jet lag (there is some limited evidence that it can help with insomnia), but many people swear by it and it will most likely not hurt anything. Once again, do not get on ambien, lunesta, etc. for long-term insomnia. They will make it worse.

As I said before, I am a sleep researcher, not a clinician. Everything I told you can be googled so please read up on behavioral treatments of insomnia.

Try The Promise of Sleep by William Dement. He's a sleep research pioneer and a leading proponent of the idea of sleep debt.

Amazon Link

EDIT: Corrected spelling of author's name

You should read [this book](The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vita... http://www.amazon.com/dp/0440509017/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_bPdZtb0Y1S4DN)

It really is among my favorite books and I think it may help you :)