Sleep: Home

A renowned neurologist shares the true stories of people unable to get a good night's rest in The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep, a fascinating exploration of the symptoms and syndromes behind sleep disorders. For Dr. Guy Leschziner's patients, there is no rest for the weary in mind and body. Insomnia, narcolepsy, night terrors, apnea, and sleepwalking are just a sampling of conditions afflicting sufferers who cannot sleep--and their experiences in trying are the stuff of nightmares. Demoniac hallucinations frighten people into paralysis. Restless legs rock both the sleepless and their sleeping partners with unpredictable and uncontrollable kicking. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms confuse the natural body clock's days and nights. Then there are the extreme cases. A woman in a state of deep sleep who gets dressed, unlocks her car, and drives for several miles before returning to bed. The man who has spent decades cleaning out kitchens while "sleep-eating." The teenager prone to the serious, yet unfortunately nicknamed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome stuck in a cycle of excessive unconsciousness, binge eating, and uncharacteristic displays of aggression and hypersexuality while awake. With compassionate stories of his patients and their conditions, Dr. Leschziner illustrates the neuroscience behind our sleeping minds, revealing the many biological and psychological factors necessary in getting the rest that will not only maintain our physical and mental health, but improve our cognitive abilities and overall happiness.

Sleep is vital to the way we learn, remember and forget, to how we feel about family and partners, our wellbeing, and our mental and physical health. It is essential for life itself. InNodding Off, renowned sleep researcher Alice Gregory explores every aspect of sleep, from the different stages of sleep and how our sleeping patterns change throughout our lives, to what happens when things go wrong and getting some shut-eye becomes more of a trial than a pleasure. Using cutting-edge findings in the field, Gregory tackles the big questions, such as: - How do things that happen before we are even born affect our sleep? - What sleep problems should raise a red flag in children? - How do genes influence the way we sleep? - What are the consequences of sleep problems in the elderly? - Why are scientists turning to sleep disorders such as sleep paralysis to try to understand paranormal experiences? Most of us spend a large portion of our lives asleep without ever thinking about why we do this.Nodding Off lifts the lid on this mysterious and universal past time. It examines all of the biggest sleep secrets, and Professor Gregory provides solutions to some of the common sleep problems that people suffer throughout their lives.

"Vastly knowledgeable and genuinely brilliant . . . An easy yet most effective how-to guide on sleep." --Dr. Matthew Walker, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Sleep From renowned sleep scientist Dr. Aric Prather, a book that offers a simple yet powerful plan to improve your sleep in seven days We need sleep to survive. Sleep is as essential as food, water, and oxygen. So how can something that should be so instinctual and automatic be so hard? Dr. Prather runs one of the world's most successful sleep clinics and has cracked the code to help even the most restless of sleepers get a good night's rest.   In The Sleep Prescription, Dr. Prather shares the powerful solutions that he uses to help his patients at the clinic achieve healing and restorative sleep. Going beyond the obvious solutions, Dr. Prather shares surprisingly simple yet deeply effective techniques that will help you lie back and let sleep work its magic. The seven-day prescription will lead you through these exercises: Day 1: Set Your (Internal) Clock Day 2: Ease Off the Gas Day 3: Energize--But Do It Right Day 4: Worry Early Day 5: You Are Not a Computer; You Can't Just Shut Down Day 6: (Re)Train Your Brain Day 7: Stay Up Late Over the course of seven days, this book will teach you how to get out of your own way, so that your body can do effortlessly what it was built to do: sleep well.

This book provides readers with the information they need to know about sleep disorders: the process and purpose of sleep, the importance of good sleep hygiene, and the impact of modern life on our quality of sleep. Good sleep is essential for optimal health, yet a number of sleep disorders can interfere with consistent, restful sleep. From insomnia to sleep apnea and from narcolepsy to restless legs syndrome, these conditions can have an enormous impact on both the quantity and quality of an individual's sleep. What You Need to Know about Sleep Disorders is part of Greenwood's Inside Diseases and Disorders series. This series profiles a variety of physical and psychological conditions, distilling and consolidating vast collections of scientific knowledge into concise, readable volumes. A list of "Top 10" essential questions begins each book, providing quick-access answers to readers' most pressing concerns. The text follows a standardized, easily navigable structure, with each chapter exploring a particular facet of the topic. In addition to covering such basics as causes, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options, books in this series delve into issues that are less commonly addressed but still critically important, such as effects on loved ones and caregivers. Case illustrations highlight key themes discussed in the book and are accompanied by insightful analyses and recommendations. A holistic approach to the subject covers often-overlooked areas, such as societal perceptions and the impact on family and friends An Essential Questions section provides quick-access answers to the questions that readers are most likely to have Case Illustrations provide relatable, real-world examples of concepts discussed in the text An annotated Directory of Resources points readers toward useful books, organizations, and websites, acting as a gateway to further research

The first sleep book by a leading scientific expert--Professor Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab--reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better. Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when we don't sleep. Compared to the other basic drives in life--eating, drinking, and reproducing--the purpose of sleep remained elusive. An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. Within the brain, sleep enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming mollifies painful memories and creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge to inspire creativity. Walker answers important questions about sleep: how do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses.