Gregg Jacobs

Gregg Jacobs offers a very practical guide, actually a program, to combating insomnia with cognitive behavioral therapy, basically training the reader to relax their body and mind and reduce stress stemming from living and also insomnia itself. Unlike Huffington's Sleep Revolution and some other books about the importance of sleep, Jacob's book focuses narrowly on specific tips and techniques to get a better night of it. While never downplaying sleep's importance, he wants readers to lighten up about it. For example while some scientific research says that anything less than 8 hours a night is sub-optimal and harmful, Jacobs cites a study saying that 7 hours is ideal and associated with the lowest mortality rates. Jacobs book is helpful in putting sleep in some perspective. However, his program requires keeping daily sleep diaries for a week to develop a baseline and 6 weeks of sleep tracking during the length of the program. But even if readers chose not to faithfully follow the program, just reading the book itself may reduce some anxiety around insomnia and that in itself is helpful.… (mer)

I am rating this book and writing this review based on the first half of the book I have read. I give it 5 stars because this book has already helped me with my insomnia.

I started having trouble sleeping when I was about 11. I have clear memories of being that young and staying up to watch the late show (back in the days when TV shut down for the night). Forty years later, I still have trouble sleeping, often getting by for several nights in a row with less than 5 hours and occasionally as little as 3 hours.

At the halfway point in the book I started applying a few things the author talks about:

1) sometimes people are in light sleep when they believe they are not sleeping (don't get so upset when you are not sleeping because you may, in fact, be in a stage of light sleep).

2) don't go to bed early and do "wakeful" things like working, watching TV and talking on the phone. I have done this for years thinking that by going to bed very early I am readying myself for sleep - the opposite is true.

3) negative thinking about sleep can cause wakefulness as there is a physical response (wakefulness) to the negative thoughts. The last two nights, instead of my usual fretful and worried thoughts about sleep, I thought about how warm and comfortable and safe I was. I'm not going to say I fell asleep immediately but it was much faster than the 1 1/2 - 2 hours it had been taking recently.

This is the kind of book that reading it is not enough. You must absorb the information and find a way to apply it to your situation. I consider myself right up there when it comes to insomnia (I took OTC drugs every night for years and still take them about twice a week). I feel confident that I can get to the point where I am much more relaxed about my sleep.… (mer)