Description
If you want to fix your sleep problems, Internet tips and tricks aren’t going to do it for you. You need to really understand what’s going on with your sleep—both what your problems are and how to solve them.
The Sleep Solution is an exciting journey of sleep self-discovery and understanding that will help you custom design specific interventions to fit your lifestyle. Drawing on his twenty-four years of experience within the field, neurologist and sleep expert W. Chris Winter will help you…
• Understand how sleep works and the ways in which food, light, and other activities act to help or hurt the process
• Learn why sleeping pills are so often misunderstood and used incorrectly—and how you can achieve your best sleep without them
• Incorporate sleep and napping into your life—whether you are a shift worker, student, or overcommitted parent
• Think outside the box to better understand ways to treat a multitude of
conditions—from insomnia to sleep apnea to restless leg syndrome and circadian sleep disorders
• Wade through the ever-changing sea of sleep technology and understand its value as it relates to your own sleep struggles
Dubbed the “Sleep Whisperer” by Arianna Huffington, Dr. Winter is an international expert on sleep and has helped more than 10,000 patients rest better at night, including countless professional athletes. Now, he’s bringing his experiences out from under the covers—redefining what it means to have optimal sleep and get the ZZZs you really need…
INCLUDES TIPS, TRICKS, EXERCISES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
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Ara –
I found this book by accident. I had a couple of nights when I only slept few hours and I had to work early the next day. A friend told me to see a doctor to help,so I did. The doctor recommended a few websites where I could read about CBT. Then I went to a book store to see what they had in that area. They had lots of journals, and this book!
I learned a lot sleep, the possible causes of why I have a hard time sleeping sometimes, and lots of tips to help improve my sleep.
Mahadev –
I had severe sleeplessness for almost like 4 years. I was even on SSRIs But after reading this book and other self helpful book I have been sleeping like a baby and I am off of any medication don’t know it’s a coincidence or something else but I am in peace now.
Barry Parker –
I bought this book just a few days ago and have already reaped big results.
Dr. Winter’s book, in my opinion, is the only book you need on sleep. I bought two other highly recommended books on Amazon, and actually just threw them away (I won’t name them).
He gives tough love here, which I really needed. He’s like a wise and funny coach.
The book avoids what are for me the drawbacks of other books on sleep: they’re typically rambling, too scientific, and/or wishy-washy.
This is real-life advice from a doctor and human being who knows what he’s talking about. The book offers fresh perspectives on sleep that changed my attitude on sleep.
ivancpinto –
Easy to read and very practical. Will definetely help you sleep better with many practical tips and scientific explanations. I love it.
Matthew –
I had suffered from hard insomnia for a better half of a decade and by the time I came by this book I was at my wit’s end. I already tried everything – seeing doctors, reading a dozen other books on sleep, acupuncture, meditation, herbal concoctions, you name it – and still, even thinking of going to bed (and having another sleepless torture of a night) was enough to get an anxiety attack.
And after all hope of alleviating this condition was gone, I tried this book – and it changed everything. It’s been two months now, and I haven’t slept that well in years!
To me, it is superbly written, as it mixes cutting edge science, tons of clinical experience of the author, with heaps of irreverent humor. You read that right- this book is FUNNY! And to me, that was the crucial element. I was so tortured by the experience of constant sleeplessness that at first reading a book which told me it wasn’t such a big deal, felt odd, but that was exactly what I needed to hear!
The author convinced me to his arguments on an intellectual level, but then (and this was the hard part) made me live it on an emotional one, in large part thanks to the humorous approach. Nothing breaks through anxiety as good as a good laugh – and I was chuckling throughout most of this book.
As it turns out, I didn’t need any new ‘information’ per se. If you have troubles sleeping (and would you be reading this review if you didn’t?) you probably already read a dozen other books and articles on sleep and heard all the Jeopardy-ready tidbits elsewhere. What is unique here is an author who was able to build trust with me and then sort of ‘flip the switch’ inside my brain that allowed me to sleep again. It allowed me to embrace the message that was not such a big deal – and it made my insomnia a thing of the past.
When you go through sleepless hell, and you hear somebody say your insomnia is not a big deal you feel like driving up wherever the author is dwelling and dealing a hard on the head, but as it turns out – he was right. All my sleepless nightmare was self-made, and I had the power to let it go all that time, the only thing I needed was a trusted guide to get me through this, and to me, the author of this book was that guide.
I went through the book twice – first on an Audible audiobook and then on a Kindle e-book. I was listening to it by night (to avoid light) and then reread the same chapters by day (to make it stick). What I found significant is that I read it on holidays, so my hotel bedroom was clear of bad memories of sleepless nights, and I was not burdened by work stressors, and during that break, I was able to build enough sleep-confidence that upon returning home the good sleep pattern came back with me. (I was afraid the first couple of nights that the improved sleep was just thanks to the holidays, and it won’t last, but it did!)
Couldn’t be happier with this book!
E2 –
Great book. Easy read. My partner has significant sleep struggles and this book was helpful for us. It gave us some additional tools.
Melanie W –
This book has had such a profound impact on me that I own both the audio and physical book. Both have great delivery with compassion and humor. If you know you’ve had poor sleep for most of your life, sleep books can be scary because we KNOW sleep is important but it can feel out of our control whether we get that quality sleep or not. I thought I knew everything about sleep health by knowing the basics of sleep hygiene but this book reveals that there is so much more to sleep than that. It revealed things that were in my control to change that benefit sleep. Maybe I had heard similar sleep advice/information before but it fell on deaf ears. Something about how this book is delivered really helped me engage and absorb the information this time. I don’t tend to sit down and read for long, so I found listening to the audiobook version while at the gym to be effective. It’s narrated well so give that a try if you feel like you don’t have time to sit down to read a book. If you struggle with sleep, this is information you need to know.
David Dickenson –
For years my sleep has been “broken.” I turned to this book for some answers. Dr. Winter is a good writer and his book is engaging and easy to read.
He first helps you understand sleep, then moves on in the second part of the book to discuss various specifics (sleep maladies, pills, etc.). Many will want to skip to a chapter dealing with their issue(s), but as Dr. Winter explains, it is best to understand sleep in order to fix it.
His frequent comparison of sleeping to eating was helpful. In particular, his analogy about not being hungry at a certain time so deciding to go to a restaurant earlier to get more food hit me like a load of bricks. This is exactly what I have done so often and, as he explains, it is detrimental. Go to bed *when you are sleepy* and then set a consistent wake time. If you stick to that wake time, your body will tell you when it’s tired and you will begin down the road toward a good night’s sleep. I used to be so stressed about getting to bed on time. Now I don’t sweat it. I just go to bed when I’m tired, which is getting to be pretty predictable. Such a relief. Sleep should not cause stress.
There are, of course, many tips and tricks in the book. Some of these you have probably seen on the internet, but others you haven’t. The most important thing, however, is that his tips come alongside the irreplaceable education about sleep. Without that education, tips alone will likely not solve most people’s problem, because what we really need to do is understand our sleep.
I am already a better sleeper after a couple weeks with this book. Highly recommended.
Michael McClister –
Didn’t satisfactorily address my specific issue I bought the4 book for
Tom D –
A little background, I am a paramedic. I now work in a GP surgery doing normal daytime hours, but it wasn’t always this way. Between 2005-2015 I worked a bizarre and unpredictable shift pattern for the ambulance service, which I would not be able to concisely describe, but could consist of any seemingly random pattern of full nights, full days, early shifts, or late shifts. For years afterwards my sleep was completely broken, even after I left this hell. I would fall asleep easily, but then wake up in the early hours of the morning with a racing mind but an exhausted body (sound familiar yet?) and be unable to sleep again for anywhere from two to four hours, despite feeling physically exhausted. On top of this, I would often eventually get back to sleep at around 5 or 6am, and my alarm would then wake me during a deep sleep cycle, making me feel terrible all through the following day.
A couple of years ago I tried this book, and it completely fixed my ongoing sleep issues. Now that I work in primary care I speak to patients all the time who suffer with similar sleep problems. Their descriptions of the issue sound so similar to those that I had. I now routinely recommend this book to them.
It is written by a specialist neurologist, but fear not, it is totally accessible. The author writes in a straightforward and manner, and the book is easy to get into and easy to understand. He has a fairly lighthearted and jokey style, although a minor criticism is that at times I felt that he was throwing in a few too many jokes or lighthearted comments for my liking.
At 262 pages the book is not excessively long, but the author manages to pack a LOT of relevant information into its pages. Some of this information is revelatory, and some of it is stuff you have likely heard before (such as making your room as dark as possible, not using your mobile phone at bed time etc.), but he really manages to explain why these things are important and convinces you to take action on the things that are affecting your sleeping.
There are useful sections about how to re-frame things in your mind, and about how to move away from thinking about needing a certain number of hours sleep per night (many people wrongly obsess with an arbitrary figure of eight hours, as I used to).
The part of this book that really worked for me was the sleep CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). It sounded bizarre, but he explained very well why and how it would work. I committed to it and followed the plan religiously, and it completely worked. For me it is the main reason to buy this book.
There are reviews on Amazon which suggest that this book is not much help. I would venture to speculate that those reviewers may not have given their full commitment to the advice. I can attest to the fact that the information contained in this book will really help you to eliminate your sleep issues. You MUST commit to following the techniques and advice in the book, especially the sleep CBT. If so, I think the likelihood is that you will find your insomnia (which is a symptom NOT a condition) a thing of the past.
cuneyt –
Ik verwachte een nieuw boek, dit lijkt echter niet het geval te zijn.