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Mastering Sleep
Sleep is the ultimate mystery, and mastery of sleep is the holy grail of health.
In the inky blackness of a moonless night, two ships collide off the Coromandel Coast, spilling 280 tonnes of oil.
A drowsy truck driver veers off a highway and crashes into oncoming traffic.
The night-shift operators at a nuclear power plant trigger a meltdown after responding inappropriately to a fire alarm.
A single factor lies behind these accidents – sleep deprivation! Apart from leading to accidents and disasters, it also drives the spiralling growth of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and dementia.
Despite these serious consequences of sleep deprivation, most of us do not get enough sleep.
In an engaging and accessible format, Swami Subramaniam deftly navigates the thickets of neuroscience and medicine to uncover the mysteries of sleep – why we sleep; what happens when we do not; and how we should use sleep as a tool to improve our health and performance.
Serious, informative and entertaining, this book will help you take charge of your sleep.
255 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 14, 2019
This book is a breath of fresh air especially in a society largely reliant on Buzzfeed listicles and semi-informative Google searches to improve their health and well-being.
Mastering Sleep is a first-in-its-class book about understanding, losing, managing, and mastering sleep. Along the lines of Sid Mukherjee's Gene, it is a sort of biography of sleep. It is written for all audiences alike, with entertaining analogies (no matter if you are religious, an athlete, an airplane-enthusiast, a coffee aficionado, a cab driver, or a spelunker – there is something in it for you!), impressive findings, and comprehensive explanations of all aspects of our brain pertaining to sleep, garnished with Dr. Subramaniam's ingenious humor.
The layout is fantastic, and I loved reading the Divertimento (my favorites were the ones about the London cab drivers and the House of Sleep) and Nuts and Bolts sections. Who would have thought that roundworms sleep when they're stressed or that dolphins and seals sleep with only one side of the brain!
Could the advent of mattress-making have been as important in the history of human evolution and civilization as the use of wheels and iron tools was? And are we, in the author’s words, “sleeplessly sliding into ill health”?
For all of you who have been subjected to “performance enhancement” by self-help gurus or your workplace bosses which are largely pertaining to your productivity during wake-times, grab this book right away because you have missed precious information on how sleep-times are imperative in this context! There is just the right amount of science, a whole lot of revelations, and tons of opportunities for you to think more wholly about your well-being.
Albus Dumbledore once said “Tuck in!”, and Swami Subramaniam says “Dors bien!”
Mastering Sleep is a first-in-its-class book about understanding, losing, managing, and mastering sleep. Along the lines of Sid Mukherjee's Gene, it is a sort of biography of sleep. It is written for all audiences alike, with entertaining analogies (no matter if you are religious, an athlete, an airplane-enthusiast, a coffee aficionado, a cab driver, or a spelunker – there is something in it for you!), impressive findings, and comprehensive explanations of all aspects of our brain pertaining to sleep, garnished with Dr. Subramaniam's ingenious humor.
The layout is fantastic, and I loved reading the Divertimento (my favorites were the ones about the London cab drivers and the House of Sleep) and Nuts and Bolts sections. Who would have thought that roundworms sleep when they're stressed or that dolphins and seals sleep with only one side of the brain!
Could the advent of mattress-making have been as important in the history of human evolution and civilization as the use of wheels and iron tools was? And are we, in the author’s words, “sleeplessly sliding into ill health”?
For all of you who have been subjected to “performance enhancement” by self-help gurus or your workplace bosses which are largely pertaining to your productivity during wake-times, grab this book right away because you have missed precious information on how sleep-times are imperative in this context! There is just the right amount of science, a whole lot of revelations, and tons of opportunities for you to think more wholly about your well-being.
Albus Dumbledore once said “Tuck in!”, and Swami Subramaniam says “Dors bien!”
July 7, 2021
A very detailed book about sleep and its effect on our body. Very scientific book. A good read
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews