TL:DR Spend 8hrs in bed every night and don't take sleeping pills. If you're looking for tips on getting a better nights sleep, save yourself from reading the book see page 22 of this magazine (as referenced in the appendix of the book): https://magazine.medlineplus.gov/pdf/...
I was nervous about reading this book, I have trouble falling asleep - I'm a night owl, and struggle with getting going in the mornings, so I was grateful for the intro of the book that acknowledged it might be an uncomfortable read. I was also glad to have read early on how the industrialised world is set up to fail us night owls - forcing us to conform to an unnatural sleep pattern & painted as lazy by larks for not being up with the dawn.
That said, I found so much about this book infuriating! Never have I read a non-fiction book that I wanted to label as having an unreliable narrator more than anything. His style seemed to flip from 2 page long expositions about a graph that was pretty self explanatory to using obscure analogies that in no way helped to explain a concept at all. For example, at least a page explaining that light bulbs have a side product of producing heat, but then a flippant one line comparison about how neurons fire by comparing it to how protein affects metabolism. I am none the wiser.
Through out he is obsessed with telling you to get 8hrs sleep every night, but every single time he references an actual study it clearly states its 8hrs of sleep opportunity. Not actually 8hrs sleep - but not only does he constantly use this shorthand, he also has a chapter later in the book where he scoffs headlines about research into a tribe, unaffected by industrialisation, that showed they only got 6-7hrs sleep and how ridiculous it is for people to not understand that its 8hrs sleep opportunity... WHICH HE HAD BEEN DOING THE ENTIRE BOOK!
There is also zero hope offered - basically, if you haven't always had 8hrs in bed, then there is now catching up or fixing the terrible effects it will have had on your physical & mental health and you will die earlier than if you had always slept! He fails to acknowledge the privilege within this - he does mention sleep deprived parents and professions which "force you to get less sleep" (he quotes army, doctors, nurses, police... although later in the book acknowledges that we need to change all these professions with long shifts), and he pushes for schools start times to be later and work places to offer more flexibility so that employers get the best out of employees, but then will wipe out any good will and thoughts with some sweeping statements, such as referring to PTSD sufferers getting triggered as "emotion had not been properly stripped away from the traumatic memory during sleep" or the absolutely unnecessary statement that "accurately reading expressions and emotions is a prerequisite of being a functional human being". I apologies to Caroline who had me ranting over whatsapp, calling the author a smug, neurotypical twat!
There is zero reference to anything hormonal in things that might affect the brain & sleep - nothing when talking about teenagers, nothing on menopause and although he does make mention of sleep effecting fertility, he spends much more time talking about erectile disfunction than anything else.
There is also a lot of references to things as fact, that I don't think one study with 3 subjects can entirely justify, I just wish he was a little less bull in a china shop with his points and a bit more humble - we definitely do not yet have a full understanding of how the brain works and if I would find it easier to trust a scientist who acknowledges this more humbly.
And don't get me started on the pop culture references, it honestly felt like someone had told him that he need to get a mainstream audience, but, wow, he picked some absolute doozies. The first that sent me down a rabbit hole was a whole page worth of what an amazing analogy to sleep "darkness" is in The Sound of Silence (hello darkness my old friend...) which I personally related more to depression/sadness and actually googled to check I wasn't completely missing that it was about sleep! Thankfully, I was closer to the mark than he is on the official explanation. The one that made me laugh out loud was in the chapter talking about sleep paralysis and his thought that this phenomenon is probably what people who claim alien abduction are experiencing. Utterly bizarrely he then throws in that both ET and Close Encounters are set at night. Neither of which are alien abduction movies AND ARE FICTION, PROVING NOTHING!! I think the only good thing about these utterly bizarre asides is that it helped me take the entire book with a pinch of salt, and made me less worried about just how soon I'm going to die because of my insomnia!!
All of that said, I do think there is a kernel of some really useful and helpful info (probably a pamphlet) that we should all be aware of and how we should be treating sleep with more respect that we do in our daily lives, along side education on a good diet & exercise for instance. I was concerned with his frequent mention of how bad sleeping pills are, but actually he persuaded me he's not an anti vacs, but that the sleep you get with pills (similar to alcohol) is sedation rather than sleep, so you don't get the good restful and restorative REM & NREM - he is pro pharma companies finding a way to trigger more natural sleep.
So, I can get behind us all treating sleep with the respect it deserves and the admiration of all the stuff that is going on in our brains while we seemingly rest. Sweet dreams!
I was nervous about reading this book, I have trouble falling asleep - I'm a night owl, and struggle with getting going in the mornings, so I was grateful for the intro of the book that acknowledged it might be an uncomfortable read. I was also glad to have read early on how the industrialised world is set up to fail us night owls - forcing us to conform to an unnatural sleep pattern & painted as lazy by larks for not being up with the dawn.
That said, I found so much about this book infuriating! Never have I read a non-fiction book that I wanted to label as having an unreliable narrator more than anything. His style seemed to flip from 2 page long expositions about a graph that was pretty self explanatory to using obscure analogies that in no way helped to explain a concept at all. For example, at least a page explaining that light bulbs have a side product of producing heat, but then a flippant one line comparison about how neurons fire by comparing it to how protein affects metabolism. I am none the wiser.
Through out he is obsessed with telling you to get 8hrs sleep every night, but every single time he references an actual study it clearly states its 8hrs of sleep opportunity. Not actually 8hrs sleep - but not only does he constantly use this shorthand, he also has a chapter later in the book where he scoffs headlines about research into a tribe, unaffected by industrialisation, that showed they only got 6-7hrs sleep and how ridiculous it is for people to not understand that its 8hrs sleep opportunity... WHICH HE HAD BEEN DOING THE ENTIRE BOOK!
There is also zero hope offered - basically, if you haven't always had 8hrs in bed, then there is now catching up or fixing the terrible effects it will have had on your physical & mental health and you will die earlier than if you had always slept! He fails to acknowledge the privilege within this - he does mention sleep deprived parents and professions which "force you to get less sleep" (he quotes army, doctors, nurses, police... although later in the book acknowledges that we need to change all these professions with long shifts), and he pushes for schools start times to be later and work places to offer more flexibility so that employers get the best out of employees, but then will wipe out any good will and thoughts with some sweeping statements, such as referring to PTSD sufferers getting triggered as "emotion had not been properly stripped away from the traumatic memory during sleep" or the absolutely unnecessary statement that "accurately reading expressions and emotions is a prerequisite of being a functional human being". I apologies to Caroline who had me ranting over whatsapp, calling the author a smug, neurotypical twat!
There is zero reference to anything hormonal in things that might affect the brain & sleep - nothing when talking about teenagers, nothing on menopause and although he does make mention of sleep effecting fertility, he spends much more time talking about erectile disfunction than anything else.
There is also a lot of references to things as fact, that I don't think one study with 3 subjects can entirely justify, I just wish he was a little less bull in a china shop with his points and a bit more humble - we definitely do not yet have a full understanding of how the brain works and if I would find it easier to trust a scientist who acknowledges this more humbly.
And don't get me started on the pop culture references, it honestly felt like someone had told him that he need to get a mainstream audience, but, wow, he picked some absolute doozies. The first that sent me down a rabbit hole was a whole page worth of what an amazing analogy to sleep "darkness" is in The Sound of Silence (hello darkness my old friend...) which I personally related more to depression/sadness and actually googled to check I wasn't completely missing that it was about sleep! Thankfully, I was closer to the mark than he is on the official explanation. The one that made me laugh out loud was in the chapter talking about sleep paralysis and his thought that this phenomenon is probably what people who claim alien abduction are experiencing. Utterly bizarrely he then throws in that both ET and Close Encounters are set at night. Neither of which are alien abduction movies AND ARE FICTION, PROVING NOTHING!! I think the only good thing about these utterly bizarre asides is that it helped me take the entire book with a pinch of salt, and made me less worried about just how soon I'm going to die because of my insomnia!!
All of that said, I do think there is a kernel of some really useful and helpful info (probably a pamphlet) that we should all be aware of and how we should be treating sleep with more respect that we do in our daily lives, along side education on a good diet & exercise for instance. I was concerned with his frequent mention of how bad sleeping pills are, but actually he persuaded me he's not an anti vacs, but that the sleep you get with pills (similar to alcohol) is sedation rather than sleep, so you don't get the good restful and restorative REM & NREM - he is pro pharma companies finding a way to trigger more natural sleep.
So, I can get behind us all treating sleep with the respect it deserves and the admiration of all the stuff that is going on in our brains while we seemingly rest. Sweet dreams!