You Are Getting Sleepy: Lifestyle-Based Solutions for Insomnia

by Paul Glovinsky, Arthur Spielman

For readers enticed by Arianna Huffington's The Sleep Revolution but looking for the medical evidence to support its claims, two doctors have incorporated the latest research into a guide designed to help insomniacs get sleepy.

"For insomniacs who don't want a cosmetic solution, this guide digs deeper, and is likely to get better, more permanent results." ― Kirkus Reviews on The Insomnia Answer

Good sleep is an elusive the harder you try to fall asleep, the less likely you are to be successful. Insomnia is stoked by different habits, schedules, stresses, beliefs, and even personality types―but there is no single pill or therapy to reverse it. Sleep cannot be forced―ultimately, it must come to you.

While insomnia treatments can set the stage, the best thing a person can do to ready themselves for sleep is “getting sleepy.” This practical, easy-to-follow guide written by two founding experts in behavioral sleep medicine will help you achieve one of the most important parts of staying a good night's rest. Taking into account the particular challenges that stand in your way to better sleep, Glovinsky and

- Discuss changes you can make to your daily routines to induce sleepiness
- Walk you through applying standard cognitive behavioral treatments
- Introduce new, promising interventions for managing anxiety, depression, an out-of-sync biological clock, dependence on medication, and more

True sleepiness is the only reliable portal to sleep. You Are Getting Sleepy will guide you there.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

237 pages, Paperback

Published July 18, 2017

Reviews

[kartik narayanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the full review at my blog https://wp.me/p89tYT-cZ

There is no treatment, behavioral or pharmacological, that will ensure that you will sleep well on a given night.

What is the book about?

“You Are Getting Sleepy: Lifestyle-Based Solutions for Insomnia” is written by Paul Glovinsky and Arthur Spielman, experts in Sleep Therapy and co-authors of the book “The Insomnia Answer”.

This book offers an individualized approach to getting better sleep, taking into account the particular challenges that stand in your way. In addition, the book also takes the approach that trying to sleep is counter-productive. Instead, it recommends we get to a state where we are sleepy, which will then lead to us falling asleep.

Read the full review at my blog https://wp.me/p89tYT-cZ

[Kate M]

I’ll come clean and tell you that I didn’t read this word for word. I did skim all of it, and read what I needed (for instance, I didn’t read the sleep aids section as closely as I did the section on neurology of sleep), but it was decent and I’m sure a helpful aid for anyone looking to make it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. A lot of ideas, just nothing that spoke to me (I know I need to cut back on the caffeine in the afternoons or evenings, and eat better/exercise more).

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the approach and tone of this book and it complemented my CBT-I course very well. I would recommend to anyone who is struggling with sleep and hesitant to start taking medication.

[Gemini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof. It's never easy trying to find different ways of sleeping. Some books are helpful some not so much. This is basically in between. There are some tools to use but obviously, things don't always work for people. Probably also depends on how hard you're working at it. What's funny or bizarre is the concept of getting sleepy vs. actual sleep. I guess that's where we go wrong. You think about not being able to sleep so then of course you can't sleep. The main focus the author goes through is to get rid of that sleep mindset & focus on getting sleepy. Most people aren't thinking about that so you definitely have to retrain your brain. Weird, I know. What works for you may not work for someone else. The only thing you can do is try it out to see if it works for you. Can't hurt, right?

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very useful book about insomnia and the various causes, what knowledge is provided by research, and different types of treatments and approaches to improve sleep. The authors go over the history of treatments, some of which are still used today and have benefit for some people. They also talk about people who have specific types of challenges, such as depression or staying up very late. There is discussion of different issues related to those challenges as well as practices that can help people sleep better and at a better time. At the end is a chapter about medications, their strengths and weaknesses, and the challenges of using them effectively.

While I've read other books and articles about insomnia, this book had information that was new to me. It was presented in a manner I found easy to understand, though the language is complex. If you don't have insomnia or a medical background, there may be many terms that are unfamiliar.

The book I read was a digital copy provided through NetGalley. The review was based solely on my own impressions of its content.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you suffer from insomnia, this book is worth a look. Some parts of it really helped me understand the way sleep works for me, and what I can do to get more sleep that is better quality. The book is broken into sections based on what keeps you up at night (anxiety, depression, hyper arousal, etc.), making it easy to skip around to the sections that are applicable to you. Also, the science they reference seems to align pretty well with what I've received from my health care provider.

[Nancy Seamons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice and suggestions on how to improve your sleep habits

[CJ Smith]

Seems reasonable but turns out not to be particularly applicable to me. (One minor frustration: early in the book the author describes "things good sleepers do" in order to ask the question of which came first, insomnia or pain/etc. However, he then goes right back to all the "sleep hygiene" recommendations that... news flash... good sleepers don't do.)