The Insomnia Answer: A Personalized Program for Identifying and Overcoming the Three Types of Insomnia

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The Insomnia Answer: A Personalized Program for Identifying and Overcoming the Three Types of Insomnia

List Price: $23.95
Amazon Price: $5.90

Average Customer Rating:

(5 reviews)

Editorial Review: The sleep solution that identifies the three types of insomnia.

In this revolutionary book, Dr. Paul Glovinsky and Dr. Art Speilman, two experts in the evaluation and cures of insomnia, offer a program designed to tackle the three most persistent sleep problems-getting to sleep, staying asleep, and broken sleep-drug-free and clinically proven.

Now, 50 million Americans who suffer from insomnia can discover:

- Why their sleep patterns are out of control
- Why sleep is so unreliable
- How insomnia can be learned or innate
- The predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors of insomnia
- How to clear their minds for the pleasure of sleep
- The benefits of sleep hygiene and bright light therapy
- How to calm dreams
- The simple tricks of muscle relaxation
- The important discovery of circadian rhythms and what it means
- How to build a wave of sleep and achieve a sleep drive
- Clearing the mind of stre...

Customer Reviews:

8 of 8 found this review helpful:

New research insights bring real results, 2007-11-19
I have struggled with insomnia for years. My case is not as severe as some, but it reached the point where I usually would not get a complete night's sleep without sleeping pills. This book has given me a new way to think about sleep and some tactics for sleeping better.

The authors are experienced clinicians who have studied sleep patterns for years, and use that information to treat patients. I will summarize the main points that directly relate to improving your sleep:

1. Understand how sleep and waking times are driven by two independent forces in your physiology. When these two forces get out of sync, insomnia is often the result. This model breaks away from the old - "you get tired then you get some sleep to get refreshed and start over" - view we all understand. Sleep and waking cycles are more subtly connected. Understanding the overlap and "waves" of these forces in our bodies is a helpful new way to think about sleeping problems. This is the model coming from the extensive clinical experience of the authors.
2. It is helpful to categorize your insomnia into 1) trouble getting to sleep 2) trouble staying asleep, and 3) broken sleep all night. This is not new, but the treatments coming from the sleep/wake cycles model combine with this categorization. There is also good information about how issues such as depression, shift work, breathing difficulties and others can bring about specific patterns.
3. There are some "sleep hygiene" practices you need to follow for better sleep. Most of these are pretty well known - avoiding caffeine, exercising at sensible hours (not too late), not depending on sleeping pills, avoiding excessive napping, etc. These are reviewed and shown how they can disrupt the sleep/wake cycle
4. Utilize less obvious practices such as sleep reduction/consolidation (this is the main one helping me), bright light therapy, worry lists, buffer relaxation before going to bed, how to monitor your readiness for sleep as you approach bedtime, etc. One of the more surprising approaches shows you how to shift your sleep clock ahead a full day (chronotherapy) - but this is not applicable in all cases.

The book is very helpful and I recommend it. I think it spends a bit too many pages (almost a third of the book) in the early chapters talking about how people get insomnia, night owls vs. morning larks, etc. However, one of the main points of the book is to literally change how you think about sleep so you can be more positive about it, so this information is useful - it just could be compressed a bit to save reading time. The sleep/wake "waves" model is the brilliant conceptual insight and the practical what-exactly-to-dos also really help.

15 of 17 found this review helpful:

The Insomnia Answer.......finally one that works, 2006-03-06
I have had insomnia for the past twelve years trying every med for insomnia on the market. After reading The Insomnia Answer I was motivated to try sleep restriction therapy and it works and I sleep better than I have in many years and don't wake-up drowsy or feel at all drug-dependent. A brilliant and very useful book for anyone suffering from sleep deprivation.

14 of 18 found this review helpful:

catching the wave works, 2006-01-21
These authors have found the right metaphor for me. Suffering from occasional bouts of sleeplessness after a stressful day at work, I have found that rereading the last chapter before bed, or in the middle of the night, eases me into a relaxed rhythmic state where I trust I'll slip into sleep--if not this wave, the next.

23 of 23 found this review helpful:

Breakthrough in Sleep Books!, 2006-01-17
Having read many many many of the sleep books, this one is completely different for 2 reasons. First it is remarkably well written. Helps you actually understand what sleep is and how it works for you in an easy to read style. Second, the sleep restriction therapy actually works. Not a bunch of babble, but a straightforward approach that forces you back to good sleep. I must say its not much fun, but if you do suffer from insomnia and want to get a life, this is the book.

17 of 19 found this review helpful:

A Must Read for Health Professionals and Persons suffering from Insomnia, 2006-01-04
This new book addresses the growing Insomnia epidemic facing Western cultures. Our 24/7 society encourages less sleep and more work, for all ages. The Insomnia Answer is well written and creatively addresses the many variations of sleeplessness. The authors offer detailed behavioral treatment techniques that can be used effectively, step by step.
Health professionals will no doubt rely on this book for helping their patients and will prescribe the: Insomnia Answer as the first line treatment, rather than immediately writing a prescription for medication.

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