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The Sleep Fix: Practical, Proven, and Surprising Solutions for Insomnia, Snoring, Shift Work, and More – A Journalist's Science-Backed, Counterintuitive Approach
From renowned ABC News anchor/correspondent and former insomniac Diane Macedo, comes a practical, user-friendly guide to getting better sleep. The Sleep Fix flips the switch on common advice, illuminating the reporter’s relentless search for how to get a good night’s sleep and the surprising, scientific, and practical solutions she found along the way.
Roughly thirty percent of the population is estimated to be living with insomnia, while many more unknowingly suffer from other sleep disorders. In The Sleep Fix, Macedo aims to change that with perspective-shifting research and easy-to-implement solutions based not just on science and experts, but also her own years-long struggle.
As an early-morning reporter and overnight news anchor, Macedo learned the hard way how valuable sleep is, and how it affects everything from our heart to our brain to our immune system. The longer Macedo struggled, the more her health deteriorated. Desperate, she tried standard sleep tip after standard sleep tip, but nothing worked - instead, it made her worse.
Finally, after developing a tolerance to sleeping pills, Macedo decided to attack the problem as a journalist, interviewing sleep experts from all over the world to get to the bottom of what really keeps us from sleeping—and the various ways to fix it.
As Macedo explains, the solution to catching zzz’s isn’t as simple as giving up caffeine, or putting away your phone before bed. With her down-to-earth explanations and humor, she instead teaches us how
• Understand sleep biology
• Identify sleep obstacles
• Flag sleep myths and separate fact from fiction
• Try counterintuitive approaches
• Shift our mindset
Most importantly, Macedo — a busy, working mom — teaches us how to adjust and fit these solutions into our everyday lives. Offering expert wisdom, cutting-edge research, intimate sleep stories from public figures, and actionable advice, The Sleep Fix is the tell-it-like-it-is guide this sleep-deprived world has been waiting for.
Roughly thirty percent of the population is estimated to be living with insomnia, while many more unknowingly suffer from other sleep disorders. In The Sleep Fix, Macedo aims to change that with perspective-shifting research and easy-to-implement solutions based not just on science and experts, but also her own years-long struggle.
As an early-morning reporter and overnight news anchor, Macedo learned the hard way how valuable sleep is, and how it affects everything from our heart to our brain to our immune system. The longer Macedo struggled, the more her health deteriorated. Desperate, she tried standard sleep tip after standard sleep tip, but nothing worked - instead, it made her worse.
Finally, after developing a tolerance to sleeping pills, Macedo decided to attack the problem as a journalist, interviewing sleep experts from all over the world to get to the bottom of what really keeps us from sleeping—and the various ways to fix it.
As Macedo explains, the solution to catching zzz’s isn’t as simple as giving up caffeine, or putting away your phone before bed. With her down-to-earth explanations and humor, she instead teaches us how
• Understand sleep biology
• Identify sleep obstacles
• Flag sleep myths and separate fact from fiction
• Try counterintuitive approaches
• Shift our mindset
Most importantly, Macedo — a busy, working mom — teaches us how to adjust and fit these solutions into our everyday lives. Offering expert wisdom, cutting-edge research, intimate sleep stories from public figures, and actionable advice, The Sleep Fix is the tell-it-like-it-is guide this sleep-deprived world has been waiting for.
383 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2021
360 people are currently reading
2240 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
May 17, 2023
This book is unexpectedly helpful. Diane Macedo, a lifelong insomnia sufferer, compiles tips and strategies that, shockingly, actually improved my daily sleep and improved my relationship with my insomnia when it occurs. This is a rare book that delivers what it promises.
Notes
Tips and tricks
- Record video or audio of yourself. Look for snoring, talking, kicking, jerking, grinding. Look for potential external factors that might be disturbing you. At any point does it sound like you stop breathing?
- Constructive worry: you don't need to distract yourself or silence thoughts and feelings. Instead you need to embrace and process them in a productive way. List all your worries on one side of a page and the next steps to solving them on the other.
- Journaling: is generally much more productive than relentlessly trying to distract yourself from your worries.
- Enjoy your awake time: what are the keys to falling asleep is the stop worrying about being awake, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to start enjoying your awake time. So if you can't sleep at night, get out of bed and plan some enjoyable activities you can do if you don't feel sleepy.
- Stimulus control: a common CBT-I technique. Use your bed only for sleep. Establish a regular wake up time. Go to bed only when sleepy. If you're awake in bed long enough for it to bother you, get out of bed. Return only when you feel sleepy or after a predetermined amount of time. No napping.
- Sleep restriction: the premise is simple. Restrict the amount of time you spend in bed until you start to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. Then slowly increase your amount of time in bed until you're getting a sufficient amount of sleep but still sleeping efficiently.
- Sleep compression: like sleep restriction, sleep compression works to reduce you're awake time in bed, but instead of cutting your sleep window down, you reach your goal by gradually decreasing time in bed.
- Reverse curfew: Banning yourself from going to bed before certain time. Challenging yourself to stay awake rather than forcing yourself to fall asleep can alleviate some of the performance anxiety that comes with insomnia, in addition to increasing your sleep drive.
- Circadian rhythm: reduce the amount of light you're exposed to in the four or five hours before you go to bed. Get bright light first thing in the morning.
- Exercise: a 2019 study found that exercise at 7 AM helped to advance their melatonin on set by almost an hour. But even more surprisingly so did exercise between 1 and 4 PM.
- Nutrition: ensure you are getting enough magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin D, fiber.
- Relaxation tools: relaxation techniques don't always produce relaxation. When we use them to try to make sleep happen, they often do the opposite. We don't appreciate the breathing exercise for the meditation or any other techniques for how it makes us feel. Instead, we work hard to do it well, so that it will make us sleep. That effort makes our brain more active. To keep relaxation or mental exercise from backfiring, the first thing we have to do is stop viewing them as asleep tool and start feeling them as something to enjoy for their own sake.
- Have a passive attitude: outcome independence
Useful Ideas
- The gold standard treatment for chronic insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I
- Intensive sleep retraining (ISR): the treatment begins at a patient's usual bedtime and entails repeatedly giving them up to 25 minutes to fall asleep. But every time they do, they’re woken up almost immediately. As the night ticks by, they start falling asleep faster and faster. “We think it's because it's extinguished that insomnia response, that learned response that they have when they're trying to sleep, and instead replaced it with a really strong response for falling asleep quickly.”
- Sleep drive vs. arousal
- Catastrophizing, fearing wakefulness, and conditional arousal
- Conditional arousal develops because our brain likes to anticipate and prepare. Unfortunately for insomniacs, our conditioned arousal often goes beyond just cycling through to-do lists or processing our day. Instead, our fear of being awake kicks our arousal into overdrive.
- To make matters worse, typical sleep advice often reinforces this. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that if I have trouble sleeping, I should read a boring book… since boredom generally facilitates sleep, the logic is that you can basically bore yourself to sleep. But this approach ignores an alternative reaction to boredom: frustration.
- The more reasons we give ourselves to fear wakefulness, the more we see it as a threat, and the more likely we are to go into a state of hyper-arousal as we prepare for sleep.
- The sleep through the night myth: while we've been led to believe that a good nights sleep means sleeping straight through from bedtime to wake up time, that's actually not how humans sleep works. Instead, we sleep in cycles. In between cycles we usually wake up. Most people just fall back asleep so quickly they don't even remember these awakenings. Insomniacs, on the other hand basically freak out.
- Sleep confidence: the leading theory on sleep misperception is that our heightened arousal, which continues during sleep, makes our brain much more active than a sleeping brain normally would be.
Notes
Tips and tricks
- Record video or audio of yourself. Look for snoring, talking, kicking, jerking, grinding. Look for potential external factors that might be disturbing you. At any point does it sound like you stop breathing?
- Constructive worry: you don't need to distract yourself or silence thoughts and feelings. Instead you need to embrace and process them in a productive way. List all your worries on one side of a page and the next steps to solving them on the other.
- Journaling: is generally much more productive than relentlessly trying to distract yourself from your worries.
- Enjoy your awake time: what are the keys to falling asleep is the stop worrying about being awake, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to start enjoying your awake time. So if you can't sleep at night, get out of bed and plan some enjoyable activities you can do if you don't feel sleepy.
- Stimulus control: a common CBT-I technique. Use your bed only for sleep. Establish a regular wake up time. Go to bed only when sleepy. If you're awake in bed long enough for it to bother you, get out of bed. Return only when you feel sleepy or after a predetermined amount of time. No napping.
- Sleep restriction: the premise is simple. Restrict the amount of time you spend in bed until you start to fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. Then slowly increase your amount of time in bed until you're getting a sufficient amount of sleep but still sleeping efficiently.
- Sleep compression: like sleep restriction, sleep compression works to reduce you're awake time in bed, but instead of cutting your sleep window down, you reach your goal by gradually decreasing time in bed.
- Reverse curfew: Banning yourself from going to bed before certain time. Challenging yourself to stay awake rather than forcing yourself to fall asleep can alleviate some of the performance anxiety that comes with insomnia, in addition to increasing your sleep drive.
- Circadian rhythm: reduce the amount of light you're exposed to in the four or five hours before you go to bed. Get bright light first thing in the morning.
- Exercise: a 2019 study found that exercise at 7 AM helped to advance their melatonin on set by almost an hour. But even more surprisingly so did exercise between 1 and 4 PM.
- Nutrition: ensure you are getting enough magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin D, fiber.
- Relaxation tools: relaxation techniques don't always produce relaxation. When we use them to try to make sleep happen, they often do the opposite. We don't appreciate the breathing exercise for the meditation or any other techniques for how it makes us feel. Instead, we work hard to do it well, so that it will make us sleep. That effort makes our brain more active. To keep relaxation or mental exercise from backfiring, the first thing we have to do is stop viewing them as asleep tool and start feeling them as something to enjoy for their own sake.
- Have a passive attitude: outcome independence
Useful Ideas
- The gold standard treatment for chronic insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I
- Intensive sleep retraining (ISR): the treatment begins at a patient's usual bedtime and entails repeatedly giving them up to 25 minutes to fall asleep. But every time they do, they’re woken up almost immediately. As the night ticks by, they start falling asleep faster and faster. “We think it's because it's extinguished that insomnia response, that learned response that they have when they're trying to sleep, and instead replaced it with a really strong response for falling asleep quickly.”
- Sleep drive vs. arousal
- Catastrophizing, fearing wakefulness, and conditional arousal
- Conditional arousal develops because our brain likes to anticipate and prepare. Unfortunately for insomniacs, our conditioned arousal often goes beyond just cycling through to-do lists or processing our day. Instead, our fear of being awake kicks our arousal into overdrive.
- To make matters worse, typical sleep advice often reinforces this. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that if I have trouble sleeping, I should read a boring book… since boredom generally facilitates sleep, the logic is that you can basically bore yourself to sleep. But this approach ignores an alternative reaction to boredom: frustration.
- The more reasons we give ourselves to fear wakefulness, the more we see it as a threat, and the more likely we are to go into a state of hyper-arousal as we prepare for sleep.
- The sleep through the night myth: while we've been led to believe that a good nights sleep means sleeping straight through from bedtime to wake up time, that's actually not how humans sleep works. Instead, we sleep in cycles. In between cycles we usually wake up. Most people just fall back asleep so quickly they don't even remember these awakenings. Insomniacs, on the other hand basically freak out.
- Sleep confidence: the leading theory on sleep misperception is that our heightened arousal, which continues during sleep, makes our brain much more active than a sleeping brain normally would be.
April 19, 2022
I am a PhD student in the field of sleep, and I read this book because everyone I meet keeps telling me about their insomnia problems; I will now always refer them this book. It’s very practical, very accessible, and very relatable (books by healthy sleepers like Mathew Walker are less helpful). It’s better taken as a reference than something meant to be read cover to cover; not all the advise will apply to everyone.
A good amount was content I had learned about from the field, but there were some gems in there that I had no idea about but I found really promising; like a procedure to solve insomnia involving having someone try to fall asleep every hour for 24h, but whenever they do, you wake them up; thus they relearn the feeling of falling asleep.
This book tackles real problems people face with sleep, and also difficulties with the solutions clinicians or other self help books propose. It’s a self help book to the core.
I feel the need to provide the disclaimer that this is the only sleep self-help book I’ve read, and while I’ve had a period struggling with insomnia, I never got the chance to implement any of these suggestions. So I would recommend trusting more reviews from people who say they found the advice helpful.
A good amount was content I had learned about from the field, but there were some gems in there that I had no idea about but I found really promising; like a procedure to solve insomnia involving having someone try to fall asleep every hour for 24h, but whenever they do, you wake them up; thus they relearn the feeling of falling asleep.
This book tackles real problems people face with sleep, and also difficulties with the solutions clinicians or other self help books propose. It’s a self help book to the core.
I feel the need to provide the disclaimer that this is the only sleep self-help book I’ve read, and while I’ve had a period struggling with insomnia, I never got the chance to implement any of these suggestions. So I would recommend trusting more reviews from people who say they found the advice helpful.
August 14, 2021
I read this for research - I'm currently working on a book where a character has a sleep disorder - but it's so practical and helpful for daily life! I have had insomnia during parts of my life, and my husband has sleep apnea. So I found all sorts of helpful suggestions. Macedo writes in a smooth and engaging style, and her perspective as a TV journalist was really interesting. Highly recommended for the library shelf - patrons looking for help will get a lot from it, and I know that I will refer to it again when I encounter sleep troubles. (Already thinking about implementing some of the suggestions).
November 15, 2021
Some very useful information, particularly for shift workers and those regularly dealing with jet lag. Many props (apps, blinds, sense limiters, devices) were suggested, so anyone with enough money to spend should find their fix. I got a little bogged down in the many, many personal anecdotes describing the author’s multitude of sleep/health issues.
March 4, 2022
The Sleep Fix is a super readable (listenable!), topical nonfiction book that is absolutely worth your time if you have ever had trouble sleeping. Diane Macedo is on a mission to educate the world about sleep and present proven and practical ways for us to regain control of our well-being through healthy and adequate sleep. Consider this book her mission accomplished.
I picked this book up because I saw it on the HarperCollins website when I was looking for new books and I thought it might be interesting. I wouldn't consider myself an insomniac, but I do struggle with sleep enough to warrant reading a book that could give me some helpful tips and tricks. What I didn't expect was to learn SO much and have such a good time doing so.
Macedo really felt like the right person to write this book. She is a journalist by trade, and suffered for years and years with sleep problems, including severe insomnia and a severe circadian rhythm disorder. She worked in a newsroom, which required her to get up for work at 3am, or work overnight, or be on call at all hours of the night for breaking news. She refused to give in to the assumption that her career was the problem, and instead tried just about every idea under the sun to sleep at night. Sleep specialists, melatonin, blackout curtains, fancy pillows - desperation drove her to invest a lot of time and money into trying to find a solution. In the end, after much trial and error, she was able to learn what her body needed to get a decent night's sleep, but it wasn't easy. In this book, she pulls together extensive research from doctors and therapists, sleep experts, and the experiences of ordinary people who have struggled with sleep. Simply put, she approaches the question of how to fix sleep as a journalist. Her voice is down-to-earth and her information is so, so practical. She explains all of the science and reasoning, but always keeps close to the most important thing: what to do about it.
It's also super refreshing that Macedo goes against the grain of most of the sleep articles out there by getting real about the fact that worrying about your sleep is a huge cause of not getting sleep. If you are too caught up in trying to build the best bedtime routine, avoiding screens for two hours before bed, not eating at night, taking a relaxing bath, drinking tea - whatever it is, it can be no easier to get to sleep because while you are doing those things, you're thinking "I really hope this helps me sleep tonight." Everyone is different and you have to find what methods work for you, and Macedo not only explains each method/strategy in depth, she also explains which types of sleep struggles would be impacted by them, and practical ways for you to find out which works for you. She is open and honest about what it took for her to figure it out for herself, and walks you through it like a mentor.
If you really and truly want to tackle your sleep issues for the long term, I would recommend getting a physical copy of this book so that you can refer back to it often. The audiobook is excellent otherwise, and there is a PDF link included that you can use, which includes all of the diagrams, illustrations, and how-tos talked about throughout the whole book. You could print this out to reference too if you really wanted. I pulled it up and looked at it a few times while listening, and it was nice to have the resource.
I picked this book up because I saw it on the HarperCollins website when I was looking for new books and I thought it might be interesting. I wouldn't consider myself an insomniac, but I do struggle with sleep enough to warrant reading a book that could give me some helpful tips and tricks. What I didn't expect was to learn SO much and have such a good time doing so.
Macedo really felt like the right person to write this book. She is a journalist by trade, and suffered for years and years with sleep problems, including severe insomnia and a severe circadian rhythm disorder. She worked in a newsroom, which required her to get up for work at 3am, or work overnight, or be on call at all hours of the night for breaking news. She refused to give in to the assumption that her career was the problem, and instead tried just about every idea under the sun to sleep at night. Sleep specialists, melatonin, blackout curtains, fancy pillows - desperation drove her to invest a lot of time and money into trying to find a solution. In the end, after much trial and error, she was able to learn what her body needed to get a decent night's sleep, but it wasn't easy. In this book, she pulls together extensive research from doctors and therapists, sleep experts, and the experiences of ordinary people who have struggled with sleep. Simply put, she approaches the question of how to fix sleep as a journalist. Her voice is down-to-earth and her information is so, so practical. She explains all of the science and reasoning, but always keeps close to the most important thing: what to do about it.
It's also super refreshing that Macedo goes against the grain of most of the sleep articles out there by getting real about the fact that worrying about your sleep is a huge cause of not getting sleep. If you are too caught up in trying to build the best bedtime routine, avoiding screens for two hours before bed, not eating at night, taking a relaxing bath, drinking tea - whatever it is, it can be no easier to get to sleep because while you are doing those things, you're thinking "I really hope this helps me sleep tonight." Everyone is different and you have to find what methods work for you, and Macedo not only explains each method/strategy in depth, she also explains which types of sleep struggles would be impacted by them, and practical ways for you to find out which works for you. She is open and honest about what it took for her to figure it out for herself, and walks you through it like a mentor.
If you really and truly want to tackle your sleep issues for the long term, I would recommend getting a physical copy of this book so that you can refer back to it often. The audiobook is excellent otherwise, and there is a PDF link included that you can use, which includes all of the diagrams, illustrations, and how-tos talked about throughout the whole book. You could print this out to reference too if you really wanted. I pulled it up and looked at it a few times while listening, and it was nice to have the resource.
January 10, 2022
UN-REAL! Insomnia is a frustrating, upsetting, anxiety provoking, isolating thing. I've talked vaguely with others who have had sleep issues but we don't usually describe our experiences in much depth. The way the author talks about insomnia in this book made me feel SO incredibly seen and validated. It makes me feel more normal and not alone. Also - I’ve read everything and done everything you can possibly imagine for sleep, and never gotten many of the kinds of tools and guidance the author gave in this book. Very helpful!
January 29, 2024
This was such a helpful book! I have long had sleep problems, and the author breaks down all the different types of sleep problems with an aim of understanding them better, and not trying to solve for the wrong thing. She also suggests a WIDE array of possible solutions. In the end, there are about 20 things I can do that might help my sleep, and there are a couple of things that I will start with that I think might significantly impact me for the better. There is so much hope in this book!
January 24, 2022
There is not a lot of new information in this, if you have read a bunch of other sleep books. A few tidbits but nothing huge.
January 2, 2023
This is exactly the book you are looking for on sleep. In depth solutions, tests, and ideas for the average person to fix their sleep. I have thumbed through everything the library has, and this one is the gold standard.
March 20, 2023
This was a very interesting read. Even the parts that didn't apply to me were good to read & I really like the author's relaxed attitude about sleep & not trying to make everything perfect.
December 28, 2022
The most practical and down-to-earth book on Sleep that I've seen. I wish I had this book when "Why We Sleep" by Mathew Walker scared me into insomnia. This is a user-friendly and easy to read guide on how to have a healthier relationship with sleep. I recommend it to anyone who has ever had any issues with sleep or anyone who is interested in the topic.
October 22, 2022
While the title is “The Sleep Fix” it more realistically should be titled “One hundred and Sixty-four Fixes - Take Your Pick”.
February 17, 2024
I was listening to this in audiobook format as part of a month of free trial, and couldn't find the often referenced 'enhancement' document anywhere, which made the experience less wholesome, obviously. I found I don't really have the patience to listen to audio nonfiction, so I was listening at double speed, and still fell asleep the first night, I don't really have a problem in that area, it seems. I was already familiar with some of the scientific facts, how stress and other hormones, or light affect our circadian rhythm, for instance. I'm not affected by shift workers' problems anymore, but it was very interesting to hear about the solutions (not what I had been told to do when I had had crazy hours). Still, it gave me some new ideas (the use of apps, good advice for my son who has trouble falling asleep), and it is always exciting to hear about other people's stories.
April 25, 2022
This book is as practical as any sleep advice book can be. I never knew my definition for Insomnia was very inaccurate until I read the first part of The Sleep Fix. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with sleep issues or just want to know more about the mechanics of sleep.
July 19, 2022
This book is so much better than Why We Sleep. It's written for people who can't sleep, rather than being a scare-mongering tome that would make any insomniac panic. It has an easy gentle approach to information about sleep and a TON of actionable steps you can implement to see what works for you. Highly recommend for my fellow sleepy-babes!
April 25, 2022
3.5 stars. Lots of info in here. Maybe too much, now I need to go through and pick a few strategies to try, but if you want lots of advice for sleep issues, check this out.
May 8, 2022
S2V1L2
February 10, 2023
As someone with a sleep disorder, this had some really helpful tips and tricks. I like that she includes step by step guides for fixes.
March 9, 2023
What’s so great about this book is that it comes from the author’s personal experience from insomnia for years. While I’ve already dealt with many of my own issues with insomnia, this book served to solidify many of the tools I’ve learned to use, while giving me more insight on others. I’ve learned a few more things that I plan to incorporate, along with being given some great reminders on “why” we sleep.
May 27, 2025
I read most of it. Some interesting info, and good tips.
September 4, 2025
Very helpful
June 13, 2022
This is written by a television journalist, who collected information during her years fighting insomnia on her own. No groundbreaking information. The science is weak. Read this for a tool box full of different methods to try. I would agree with the author that there isn't any one way to conquer sleep problems. Look at what changed in your own life, and patiently apply different methods to help.
April 11, 2022
Thought my husband would enjoy this non-fiction book and I ended up reading it before he did. It was a quick read, filled with a variety of facts about getting a better sleep. Loved the journalist's sense of humour. Some of the information was fascinating especially the section on 'night owls' and 'circadian rhythms'.
Read
February 29, 2024DNF - just got bored lol
September 1, 2024
Audiobooked while mowing the lawn and running when I wasn’t in the mood for music.
I had a lot of trouble sleeping over the past 2.5 years. Then I found out the job I had temporarily been assigned was being turned over to someone else (I applied, but they went with someone else). To my surprise, my sleep problems disappeared about a month after I found out I wasn’t getting the job.
So I started this book at a point where my issues were already gone.
For 2.5 years, a good night of sleep was 6 hours.
A bad night was 4 hours or less.
Sat and Sun were sleep in and nap days, and I snuck naps in when and where I could.
The main issue was stress.
I listened to this book because it is quite likely I’ll step into management roles again in the future, and next time I want to he equipped with tools to help me be more successful.
I have picked up some valuable tools.
But you know what I really appreciated?
The author has a really cool job, and what seems like a fantastic and enriching life. And she never sounds braggy or self-aggrandizing. She is down to earth and everything she mentions pertains to the topic of the book.
I have read so many books like this where the author’s voice is insufferable. This one is done so well. So well I didn’t even realize how nice it was to listen to a humble author until the book was done.
If you have trouble sleeping and haven’t done a lot of research on it, this book is great.
If you have trouble sleeping and have scoured the internet for solutions, you’ll probably still learn a few new things.
If you have trouble sleeping and enjoy journalism as a profession, you’ll probably enjoy this book even if you don’t learn a lot about fixing your sleep.
I had a lot of trouble sleeping over the past 2.5 years. Then I found out the job I had temporarily been assigned was being turned over to someone else (I applied, but they went with someone else). To my surprise, my sleep problems disappeared about a month after I found out I wasn’t getting the job.
So I started this book at a point where my issues were already gone.
For 2.5 years, a good night of sleep was 6 hours.
A bad night was 4 hours or less.
Sat and Sun were sleep in and nap days, and I snuck naps in when and where I could.
The main issue was stress.
I listened to this book because it is quite likely I’ll step into management roles again in the future, and next time I want to he equipped with tools to help me be more successful.
I have picked up some valuable tools.
But you know what I really appreciated?
The author has a really cool job, and what seems like a fantastic and enriching life. And she never sounds braggy or self-aggrandizing. She is down to earth and everything she mentions pertains to the topic of the book.
I have read so many books like this where the author’s voice is insufferable. This one is done so well. So well I didn’t even realize how nice it was to listen to a humble author until the book was done.
If you have trouble sleeping and haven’t done a lot of research on it, this book is great.
If you have trouble sleeping and have scoured the internet for solutions, you’ll probably still learn a few new things.
If you have trouble sleeping and enjoy journalism as a profession, you’ll probably enjoy this book even if you don’t learn a lot about fixing your sleep.
April 4, 2022
This is going to sound very cliche, but this book is completely different than any other sleep advice that I have ever received. It completely changed the way I view sleep and taught me how I was going about sleep all wrong. My sleep has improved dramatically since reading this book. I still have my bad nights, but not nearly as often as I used to. I recommend this book for anyone who has trouble sleeping. Just a read of the first two chapters is worth it. It went into my head of what I used to think at night when I struggled to fall asleep and then taught me the proper way to think about sleep and how to use tricks to my advantage. Thank you, Diane! You are a life saver!
March 4, 2024
I've had sleep problems as long as I can remember, so when I saw this book in the library I grabbed it immediately. I've never really taken my health let alone my sleep seriously enough. I am now as of writing this about two months sober from alcohol and even coffee. I've switched to tea for some caffeine intake, but this was also mainly because I was getting unexplained panic attacks going on for about half a year. Not to mention that being a relatively new cat owner, I don't always get an uninterrupted night sleep. Thanks to Diane, I realized the problems I've been dealing with are not just who I am; not that insomnia is choice but most of the things that cause it are. I've always believed if you want something in life you have to work for it, we can't expect things to just be handed to us. But it never occurred to me that I'd have to work at getting good sleep.
I would have given this book five stars, but that is pending on how well I'm sleeping a month from now. When I started reading this, right off the bat I was thinking I have some level of insomnia and circadian rhythm disorder. But before I go to a sleep specialist I wanted to take matters in my own hands. Reading this book is the first I heard about sleep compression/restriction strategies and even stimulus control to an extent. I now do not bring my phone to bed and only lay in bed when I'm ready to sleep. I only try to sleep when I feel like my sleep meter is full and would find it easier to fall asleep, which so far I've been having a pretty easy time doing thanks to waking up earlier than I normally would. By compressing my sleep I plan on being able to get better sleep in a somewhat shorter amount of time by hopefully sleeping through the night and falling asleep quicker. I'm still working on the sleeping through the night part.
It's only been a week or so since I started changing my sleep schedule, and despite still being groggy in the morning, I've been able to successfully get out of bed a lot earlier than I usually would, by approximately two hours some days (I'm still getting roughly seven hours of sleep but I'm going to be and waking up earlier than before - about 11:30 to 6:30 vs closer to 1:30 to 8:30 before). I feel like knowing that I'm trying to improve my sleep makes me more motivated to get out of bed in the morning despite still being tired (my sleep duration is up to improvement depending on how I feel after a week or so, it's hard to tell if the sleep inertia I feel in the morning is normal or a sign of sleep deprivation. I figure if it lasts awhile it's probably because I'm not getting enough sleep, but I want to keep waking up at my earlier time until I'm consistently sleeping through the night). I'm still working on certain things about my morning routine, but I've picked up other habits throughout the day thanks to Diane's advice like utilizing a sleep tracker app which essentially acts as a sleep journal, as well as maintaining a separate journal for "constructive worry" and other word vomit. By journaling I'm getting out anything that is on my mind onto paper so that when I'm in bed, I know I don't need to be thinking about anything because anything worth worrying about I've already dealt with earlier.
The one thing that went unanswered for me is what is the impact that sex has on sleep? Can sex just be chalked up with stimulus control and shouldn't be done right before bed? Even so, what is the impact of ejaculation a few hours before our desired bed time,? Are we more inclined to sleep through the night if we have sex that day? I would like to know what Diane thinks about this and if she has received any advice on this, but not just to get her talking about sex, hehe.
I will end up coming back to this review at some point most likely to update my progress. Hopefully changing it to five stars. Although, when considering my reviews I always try to consider the books on their own, but since this is essentially a self-help book, I will have to take more time to determine how much this book has helped me. Anyway, four stars.. for now.
I would have given this book five stars, but that is pending on how well I'm sleeping a month from now. When I started reading this, right off the bat I was thinking I have some level of insomnia and circadian rhythm disorder. But before I go to a sleep specialist I wanted to take matters in my own hands. Reading this book is the first I heard about sleep compression/restriction strategies and even stimulus control to an extent. I now do not bring my phone to bed and only lay in bed when I'm ready to sleep. I only try to sleep when I feel like my sleep meter is full and would find it easier to fall asleep, which so far I've been having a pretty easy time doing thanks to waking up earlier than I normally would. By compressing my sleep I plan on being able to get better sleep in a somewhat shorter amount of time by hopefully sleeping through the night and falling asleep quicker. I'm still working on the sleeping through the night part.
It's only been a week or so since I started changing my sleep schedule, and despite still being groggy in the morning, I've been able to successfully get out of bed a lot earlier than I usually would, by approximately two hours some days (I'm still getting roughly seven hours of sleep but I'm going to be and waking up earlier than before - about 11:30 to 6:30 vs closer to 1:30 to 8:30 before). I feel like knowing that I'm trying to improve my sleep makes me more motivated to get out of bed in the morning despite still being tired (my sleep duration is up to improvement depending on how I feel after a week or so, it's hard to tell if the sleep inertia I feel in the morning is normal or a sign of sleep deprivation. I figure if it lasts awhile it's probably because I'm not getting enough sleep, but I want to keep waking up at my earlier time until I'm consistently sleeping through the night). I'm still working on certain things about my morning routine, but I've picked up other habits throughout the day thanks to Diane's advice like utilizing a sleep tracker app which essentially acts as a sleep journal, as well as maintaining a separate journal for "constructive worry" and other word vomit. By journaling I'm getting out anything that is on my mind onto paper so that when I'm in bed, I know I don't need to be thinking about anything because anything worth worrying about I've already dealt with earlier.
The one thing that went unanswered for me is what is the impact that sex has on sleep? Can sex just be chalked up with stimulus control and shouldn't be done right before bed? Even so, what is the impact of ejaculation a few hours before our desired bed time,? Are we more inclined to sleep through the night if we have sex that day? I would like to know what Diane thinks about this and if she has received any advice on this, but not just to get her talking about sex, hehe.
I will end up coming back to this review at some point most likely to update my progress. Hopefully changing it to five stars. Although, when considering my reviews I always try to consider the books on their own, but since this is essentially a self-help book, I will have to take more time to determine how much this book has helped me. Anyway, four stars.. for now.
February 18, 2024
I certainly found a some helpful tips in this book. While she primarily focuses on insomnia, there was information pertinent to other cases of poor sleep. Favorite takeaways:
- The emphasis on working with - or retraining your body to work with - your circadian rhythm was solid advice. Don't stay up past the sleepy-feeling zone out of FOMO or laziness. If you do, you're asking your body to ignore your natural window of winding down, and it will be harder to get to sleep later.
- The worry journal idea is a great tip. Offloading everything I haven't given my brain time to process BEFORE turning out the light allows me to confidently forward inbound calls of anxiety to voicemail for tomorrow. Don't enter into dialogue with unaddressed worries when you're trying to sleep, they will just keep your brain wide, wide awake.
- Similarly, not using bed as a second couch or desk keeps the bedroom a place that signals "sleep". If writing in a worry journal, she suggests sitting on top of the covers.
- Practices for winding down are great (healthy snack, reading a book, journaling, stretching, warm bath, etc.) as long as the process doesn't become a cumbersome to-do list that you start overthinking or dreading. Wind-down activities are good if they're enjoyable and leave you feeling relaxed. They are unhelpful if the process has you thinking: "Ugh I don't feel like doing my routine of activities" "I only have 5 more minutes, I better chill-out harder!" "I don't feel relaxed yet, ugh what am I doing wrong? While I'm at it, here are all these other things I did wrong today-"
My main complaint is that the short sections, while specific, were often very brief. More often than not, this led me to more independent research outside of the book.
- The emphasis on working with - or retraining your body to work with - your circadian rhythm was solid advice. Don't stay up past the sleepy-feeling zone out of FOMO or laziness. If you do, you're asking your body to ignore your natural window of winding down, and it will be harder to get to sleep later.
- The worry journal idea is a great tip. Offloading everything I haven't given my brain time to process BEFORE turning out the light allows me to confidently forward inbound calls of anxiety to voicemail for tomorrow. Don't enter into dialogue with unaddressed worries when you're trying to sleep, they will just keep your brain wide, wide awake.
- Similarly, not using bed as a second couch or desk keeps the bedroom a place that signals "sleep". If writing in a worry journal, she suggests sitting on top of the covers.
- Practices for winding down are great (healthy snack, reading a book, journaling, stretching, warm bath, etc.) as long as the process doesn't become a cumbersome to-do list that you start overthinking or dreading. Wind-down activities are good if they're enjoyable and leave you feeling relaxed. They are unhelpful if the process has you thinking: "Ugh I don't feel like doing my routine of activities" "I only have 5 more minutes, I better chill-out harder!" "I don't feel relaxed yet, ugh what am I doing wrong? While I'm at it, here are all these other things I did wrong today-"
My main complaint is that the short sections, while specific, were often very brief. More often than not, this led me to more independent research outside of the book.
June 1, 2022
Many people say that sleep is for the weak or wish they could get by with less sleep. However, sleep is essential to healthy living. It's something you don't think about until you can't do it. Lying awake in bed and watching the minutes turn to hours is terrible. I used to think I slept perfectly well until I found that I snore loudly. I went to a sleep specialist and found that I have sleep apnea, they gave me a CPAP device, and now I wear it to bed. It helps out.
Diane Macedo is a person. She is a television personality or news anchor or something along those lines. Macedo also happens to have two sleep disorders; insomnia and circadian rhythm disorder. She wrote The Sleep Fix to help people like you and me power through the night and conquer their sleep issues.
While the book isn't superb, I did learn some things from it. For example, sleep specialists don't all know everything about sleep. That is a bit of a confusing sentence, so let me explain. A sleep specialist might be an expert on sleep apnea but know nothing about insomnia. I suppose this shouldn't surprise me since sleep is complicated, and we still don't know everything about it.
You could read the book cover-to-cover, or find a specific subject that tickles your fancy and read up on that. The book contains some testimonials from various people. They aren't about a specific product, though. I admit I took this book out from the library to learn more about sleep, but I didn't expect to glean too much. I read everything I could about it, so while I didn't think I was an expert, I wasn't a beginner at it either.
Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
Diane Macedo is a person. She is a television personality or news anchor or something along those lines. Macedo also happens to have two sleep disorders; insomnia and circadian rhythm disorder. She wrote The Sleep Fix to help people like you and me power through the night and conquer their sleep issues.
While the book isn't superb, I did learn some things from it. For example, sleep specialists don't all know everything about sleep. That is a bit of a confusing sentence, so let me explain. A sleep specialist might be an expert on sleep apnea but know nothing about insomnia. I suppose this shouldn't surprise me since sleep is complicated, and we still don't know everything about it.
You could read the book cover-to-cover, or find a specific subject that tickles your fancy and read up on that. The book contains some testimonials from various people. They aren't about a specific product, though. I admit I took this book out from the library to learn more about sleep, but I didn't expect to glean too much. I read everything I could about it, so while I didn't think I was an expert, I wasn't a beginner at it either.
Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
Read
September 9, 2022This is a hard book to review. I started following the author on Instagram after she appeared on Dan Harris’s podcast, and became increasingly intrigued on behalf of the poor sleepers in my life. But I also, I have a deviated septum, and apnea, and have taken an over the counter sleep aid for a decade, and started wearing a watch at night that grades my sleep and let’s just say I’m flunking. I’m tired, and have headaches, all the time and SO OK MAYBE IT’S TIME FOR meeee TO DO SOMETHING. 😅
This book contains so so SO many nuggets, many of them counter to conventional wisdom, and wise. (One thing that definitely works for me when I am not sleeping but would like to be is to verbalize the enjoyment of rest, something like “Oh my gosh I get to just lay here for 4 whole hours before it’s time to get up…” I’m usually out again soon after. Attitude is central to her advice, and I think that’s smart!)
At the same time, I often felt like I needed a Choose Your Own Adventure pagination system for the book because there are LOTS of paths to solutions that really depend on the individual and what they’ve ruled out. She provided that a little at the beginning and a lot at the end, plus “see chapter X” along the way, but it still felt overwhelming.
For me, it helped me call Time’s Up on my ENT and apnea issues. And that’s probably a life-changing recognition… once I call my doc. And I’d still love to see some of the tougher sleepers in my life give the book a read to see if there’s anything of use in there for them. 🖤
This book contains so so SO many nuggets, many of them counter to conventional wisdom, and wise. (One thing that definitely works for me when I am not sleeping but would like to be is to verbalize the enjoyment of rest, something like “Oh my gosh I get to just lay here for 4 whole hours before it’s time to get up…” I’m usually out again soon after. Attitude is central to her advice, and I think that’s smart!)
At the same time, I often felt like I needed a Choose Your Own Adventure pagination system for the book because there are LOTS of paths to solutions that really depend on the individual and what they’ve ruled out. She provided that a little at the beginning and a lot at the end, plus “see chapter X” along the way, but it still felt overwhelming.
For me, it helped me call Time’s Up on my ENT and apnea issues. And that’s probably a life-changing recognition… once I call my doc. And I’d still love to see some of the tougher sleepers in my life give the book a read to see if there’s anything of use in there for them. 🖤
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