Finally someone put into words the public & private impact of living with chronic, long term insomnia

books:


	• Insomniac Gayle Greene University of California Press, 2008 - 520 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Important book but too long, even for an insomniac

This book made important points in clear, enjoyable, passionate prose. Greene discusses possible physical causes of insomnia, the financial disincentives for scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop new remedies, and the need for insomniacs to organize into a patients' interest group. Likewise, her personal stories and discussions with other insomniacs underscore how often insomniacs are blamed rather than helped by health care professionals.

Nevertheless, the book goes on at such length about these points that it develops an overwrought tone. Moreover, because it focuses so much on Greene's problem, sleep maintenance rather than sleep onset, this other form of insomnia gets little discussion or consideration.

As a fellow sufferer, though, the best thing this book has done for me is
lead me to accept my condition. In fact, after reading this book, I think I don't suffer nearly as much from my sleepless nights as others do, so henceforth I will look at my tossing and turning time as a gift, and slink out of bed and into an armchair with more books!

for more information click here

More Thanks To Gayle Greene

Finally, research that supports the "truths" about insomnia. I am a lifetime sufferer and I took copious notes. Other reviewers have nicely summarized the author's helpful hints, her empowering research, the validation readers will get from reading this book and the interesting and easy read the author has accomplished. I want to add two things. First, I finally have a VOCABULARY and a language to use when discussing my affliction. For example: broken sleep-switch, a defect in the sleep system, need for a paradigm shift, cumulative effects of disturbed sleep, ratcheting up. Second, the reality that other people have insomnia as seriously or even more seriously than I do amazed me. I have achieved a better level of acceptance just knowing this. What a gift this science and this validation have been to me. I wish this book had been available years ago when I first starting trying to "find the cure."

for more information click here

Finally someone put into words the public & private impact of living with chronic, long term insomnia

It's as though someone finally got it! I've been trying to explain to doctors for years how this problem impacts my life. Looking for solutions, or even interest from the medical community has been impossible. The impression that they just don't care about my suffering was not always accurate. I now realize that there are few options for doctors to choose from to help a patient overcome sleep disorders. I know one thing though... the more we talk about it in an eloquent and coherent way the way Gayle Greene has done, the more people will listen and take the problem seriously. I wonder how many health problems could be averted if only people were able to get restorative sleep. This is a health crisis and the medical and research communities need to step up to the challenges and look for solutions for the sake of public health.

for more information click here

Insomnia: Whose problem is it, finally?

There is something heroic -- as well as wonderfully clear, deeply informative -- in this critical tale of determination to understand an elusive, often discredited, condition about which so many people, from family, friends and lovers to world-renowned scientists, have their victim-blaming doubts. It is not finally insomniacs who emerge from Greene's book as having a problem. It is worlds set up on the premise, a premise that turns around and becomes a requirement, that we all behave as if we are far more alike than, thank goodness, we are. I learned a great deal from this book about the sleep and sleeplessness that so shape our lives and yet are so rarely openly discussed; about relevant sciences, medical and social; and, crucially, about survival skills. Greene's honed get-on-with-it skills include a wonderfully wry humor, you should know, along with an acute political sensibility that neither lessens nor drowns in the personal.

for more information click here

Fantastically Helpful Book

What did I like best about this book? It did not blame me for my insomnia. It did not patronize me for one minute. It did not tell me that I had obviously not tried to solve my sleep problems, or not tried hard enough. This is a book that works for people having their first insomnia problems and for those of us who have struggled for years. Gayle Green has undertaken a very thorough study of the science and business of sleep as they stand today, given a review of the history of insomnia, and presented many avenues for future research and experimentation. I now have more hope than I have had in years that I might improve my sleep. Heck, just knowing that there are other people out there going through the same experience I am gives a great deal of comfort. This book confirms the logical conclusion that insomnia is a complex, multi-faceted problem that needs a great deal more attention than it now receives. I can only thank her for having written it. Anyone who has trouble sleeping-- or knows someone who does-- should read this book.

for more information click here

reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

search for books
insomniac

Impressum / about us