Title: How to Sleep Well
Author: Dr. Neil Stanley
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Non-fiction
Dates read: 23rd January – 18th February 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Non-fictional text
Publisher: Capstone
Year: 2018
5th sentence, 74th page: It would seem that women sacrifice their sleep and their physical and emotional well-being because society has convinced them of the ‘normality’ of sleeping together.

It has never been more important to sleep well.

Stop sabotaging your own sleep and finally wake up energised and refreshed

How to Sleep Well is a guidebook that can change your sleep and help you live your life more fully. Whether you struggle to fall asleep, sleep too lightly, wake too often or simply cannot wake up, this book can help you get on track to sleeping well and living better. It all starts with the science of sleep: how much you really need, what your body does during sleep and the causes behind many common sleep problems. Next, you’ll identify the things in your life that are disrupting your sleep cycle and learn how to mitigate the impact; whether the pressure of workplace or you simply cannot quiet your own mind, these expert tips and tricks will help you get the sleep you need. Finally, you’ll learn how to support healthy sleep during the waking hours — what works with or against your sleep — and you’ll learn when the problem might be best dealt with by your GP.

Don’t spend another restless night waiting for a bleary, groggy morning and sleepy day. Take control of your sleep tonight!

Learn how sleep — or a lack thereof — affects every aspect of your life Identify the root causes of your sleep issues and cut them off at the source Discover the sleep advice that works, and the tips that are just plain daft.
Create a healthy, calming bedtime routine that will help you get the rest you need Sleep affects everything. Work and school performance, relationships, emotional outlook, your appearance and even your health. Sleeping poorly or not sleeping enough can dramatically impact your quality of life, but most sleep problems can be solved with a bit of self-adjustment. How to Sleep Well puts a sleep expert with over 36 years’ experience at your disposal to help you finally get the restful, restorative sleep you need to live better and be productive.

As a rule of thumb, I don’t really sleep. I’m not an insomniac, but neither am I the kind of person who tends to get enough sleep. Or find it easily. So, I figured that I may as well buy this book and see what it has to say on the subject. After all, I figured the worst thing that could go wrong is that it could be a total load of crock. It wasn’t. It was actually quite interesting.

This isn’t the kind of book that is miraculously going to cure your issues with sleep. Or even make you an expert on the topic. It is far too complex and individualistic a field for that to really ever happen. But it does highlight some interesting points about sleep patterns and ways to find out what really works for you. Yes, a lot of it is common sense, but we’re all lacking in that sometimes. And even the most logical person will probably still find something that they hadn’t thought of themselves. I know I certainly did.

Stanley certainly has a gender in this book. And one that he constantly delivers with a pithy sense of humour. Or at least, that’s how I read it. I loved the sass throughout and the inability to suffer fools that is so blatantly obvious. It made this quite a fun read (something I was surprised about in a how to book) and a good one to browse through at night before going to sleep.

Image source: Amazon UK