You know the feeling when you find a book that just clicks? That’s how I felt about Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep. It’s like a light bulb went on—finally, someone gets the battle I’ve been fighting since high school, the one against insomnia. Now, Dr. Walker isn’t your run-of-the-mill sleep doc. He’s got a PhD in neurophysiology and leads the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at UC Berkeley. The guy’s basically a sleep scientist superhero, so you can bet he knows his stuff. His book isn’t just about why sleep matters. It’s a gold mine on how it can sharpen your mind, brighten your mood, and even help keeping cancer and […]
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Forever Counting Sheep
Hi, my name is Amy, and I am an insomniac. Now, I’m not talking about occasional sleeplessness that can be overcome by an over-the counter or herbal remedy; mine is the chronic, never-sleep-a-wink-without-a-prescription kind of insomnia. For more than thirty years I have taken prescription medication to induce sleep, but insomnia was a problem long before that. My dad and I regularly stayed up until the wee hours watching TV together – mostly prizefights and Dirty Harry movies — because we both had trouble catching zzzz’s. Somehow I muddled through college, but by the time I married and settled down in the early 80’s I hit the proverbial wall and […]
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