For those of us who need more than 2 hours sleep ...

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	• Insomniac Gayle Greene University of California Press, 2008 - 520 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

For those of us who need more than 2 hours sleep ...

I ordered and read this book after hearing most of an interview with Gayle Greene on NPR ... I believe it was Talk of the Nation. I was impressed with what she had to say, her professionalism, and her obvious passion for the sugject. I wanted to hear more. Greene would like this book to give a voice to insomnia, and I believe she has done and excellent job of speaking for those with the complaint ... symptom ... disorder ... Even she seems unsure what to call it. "Insomniac" is a rewarding book, but if you are looking for a "How To" book, this is not it. I did not find answers in this book so much as more and better questions to ask.

Greene states in the first chapter that this is a cranky book, and she is right. I have difficulty sleeping, and even I found more irony than humor in the book. However, it is validating for anyone who has even mild insomnia, and is frustrated with the "I only need four hours of sleep" bragging so prevalent in our society. The discussion of these value judgements is just as enlightening as the medical research Greene has done.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is having trouble understanding a friend or loved one with insomnia. It will help you understand that insomnia is not just something he or she is doing wrong.

And for anyone who, like myself, is convinced that there is a physical as well as a mental component to the inability to sleep, this book gives an excellent look at the medical research that supports (and refutes) this opinion, explains some of its biases, and explains why there isn't more research. Greene also gives the pros and cons of most of the common "How Tos" out there, from her own point of view. If that's not enough reason to read it, I predict Insomniac will probably give you at least ONE idea of what to try next!

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Wonderful, unique, informative, and personal

I think this is a wonderful book, and an incredible resource. It is a combination of an Insomniac's memoir with a summary of a huge amount of literature and research on insomnia, the status of sleep research and the lack of consensus among the medical community, treatments (both traditional and alternative), and the experiences and concerns of insomniacs themselves- what life is like with this "condition". Its a book for insomniacs, their friends and families, and the healthcare, healing, and therapeutic professionals who work with them. Nothing like it exists. Every case is different, but this book really does give some idea of how chronic insomnia impacts our lives. The author encourages readers to dip in, skip, and choose the parts that are interesting and helpful, and I think that is appropriate.

I've had serious, sometimes life-threatening insomnia for 20 years. That means, for the last 4 years, falling asleep at stop signs, and getting drowsy driving - I no longer drive for more than 30 minutes without wake-up medication (ProVigil/Modafinil, and alas, it worsens my sleep and gives me headaches, or I'd use it all the time). I don't know anyone with my kind of problem (my diagnosis is 'fragile sleep', the big expert told me, and he really did try to help, and did help, some.) The insomniacs I know are mostly people for whom sleeping pills seem to work. So it was really affirming to read Gayle Greene's story, her struggles, all the things she tried. She's right , we don't talk about it , and who wants to listen to all the miserable details. Yes, the discussion boards, [...] help. I got my best reference on Sleep Restriction there. And people do tell their stories, but at least when I hung out on Sleepnet, the stories were usually pretty abbreviated. I never told much of mine, it's too long and I didn't and don't now have the energy. She's put a huge amount of energy into this, and I so appreciate the results. She gives a voice to those of us who have been invisible. And so much information.

Yes she does complain a lot, as she acknowledges. That's part of the picture. And, she gives some sense of what it is like to live with managing this condition. Everyone is different. Everyone has to make their own decisions as to how to adapt, what to give up,what to try, etc. I do Sleep Restriction. It does help me, enough to be worthwhile, but it also complicates my life. And doesn't do as much as I'd hope.

I learned a lot from this book, about medications I've taken but not realized how they related to each other, about Sleep Restriction and the parts of the "recommended procedure" that I've forgotten about because they didn't work for me, about tools and strategies and supplements that I hadn't heard of or haven't tried. And insights into doctor's attitudes and comments to me, and the status of funding for insomnia research (appalling).

I was interviewed for this book, years ago, and had no idea of what to expect. It is so much more than I could have imagined, so much information, and the personal touch adds enormously. I highly recommend it.

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LOVED THIS BOOK !!!!!

I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK . IT WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN AND EASY TO FOLLOW. I HAVE SUFFERED FROM INSOMNIA FOR SO LONG AND COULD REALLY RELATE TO GAIL. THIS BOOK IS NOT LIKE SOME OF THE SELF HELP BOOKS OUT THERE ABOUT INSOMNIA, THAT TELL YOU HOW TO CURE YOUR INSOMNIA AND NEVER WORK . GAIL GETS TO THE REAL STORY THAT NO ONE LOOKS AT ... INSOMNIA IS NOT SOMETHING YOU ARE DOING OR NOT DOING .. IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT CAN GET FIXED BY A PILL. IT IS A REAL CONDITION AND NO ONE IS LOOKING TO FIND THE REAL CAUSE OR A REAL CURE. THEY ARE JUST LOOKING AT WAYS TO MASK THE PROBLEM WITH PILLS OR THE DOCTORS THINK IT IS PHYSCOLOGICAL INSTEAD OF PHYSIOLOGICAL. I REALLY BELIEVE IT IS A DISEASE... SOMETHING MISSING OR NOT WORKING CORRECTLY IN THE BODY. I FEEL IF THEY DID SOME REAL RESEARCH INTO IT THEY WOULD FIND THE PROBLEM. WE NEED TO GATHER DATA. AND WITH THE INTERNET WE CAN COLLECT DATA MUCH EASIER . INSOMNIACS AROUND THE WORLD NEED TO BAN TOGETHER AND TRY TO RAISE AWARENESS AND MONEY FOR REAL RESEARCH. IT CAN BE DONE. BUT READ THIS BOOK I REALLY LIKED IT . VERY EYE OPENING .

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indispensible

For anyone experiencing sleep difficulties, reading this book is an INDISPENSIBLE first step. The chapters on the biology and physiology of sleep systems, the information on the drug oligarchy's knockout pills masking as sleeping pills, the games clinicians play-- especially putting "depression" before insomnia....
it's all here, in well organized and engaging presentation.
If there is anything that is missing from this book, the reader will have a pretty good idea of where to go for further informaton.

Thanks

This isn't a `self-help' but a self-helping book. Here's just about everything you can try, with details about what happened to the author when she tried them. She is wonderfully careful to stress that everyone experiences insomnia differently, and the best she can do is share her own and a few other's experiences. And her indignation that medical science has simply given up on insomnia as just too hard.

This book will be loved by everyone with insomnia, and only hated by the true believers in the various (and self-contradictory) "cures". Greene is a grouchy insomniac with style, and a great sense of humor. Certain passages (alone at the sleep convention, packing for a trip, confronting male doctors with female issues they'd rather ignore, etc.) deserve places in illness humor books - assuming there are such things.

While there's nothing really you can do about insomnia, there are all sorts of short term things that, at least for awhile, help. Most of them aren't good for you, long term. For myself, I've worked through the whole range, running from alcohol through Ambien, by way of chloral hydrate, probably all the benzodiazepines ever in existence, and a period when I decided to not sleep at all by way of a very large (and very illegal) bottle of Dexedrine. Stay up 5 days and sleep for two. Works fine until the induced schizophrenia goes florid.

Greene's insomnia seems worse than mine, and she fights it every inch of the way. Thank God, because the rest of us seem to have been forced into servile mode: I know what a great favor you're doing for me and I don't deserve it, but please prescribe me some pills anyway. Doctors are in the horrible position of knowing that the pills available are all wrong in one way or another. Quacks, credentialed or not, have to believe in the virtues of their own panaceas or admit to themselves that they've mislead and mistreated their patients. There is no one more righteous then a questioned credentialed quack!

I'm tempted to thank Greene for not resting in trying to help us find our own voice.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

I can't work, I can't think, I can't connect with anyone anymore. . . . I mope through a day's work and haven't had a promotion in years. . . . It's like I'm being sucked dry, eaten away, swallowed up, coming unglued. . . . These are voices of a few of the tens of millions who suffer from chronic insomnia. In this revelatory book, Gayle Greene offers a uniquely comprehensive account of this devastating and little-understood condition. She has traveled the world in a quest for answers, interviewing neurologists, sleep researchers, doctors, psychotherapists, and insomniacs of all sorts. What comes of her extraordinary journey is an up-to-date account of what is known about insomnia, providing the information every insomniac needs to know to make intelligent choices among medications and therapies. Insomniac is at once a field guide through the hidden terrain inhabited by insomniacs and a book of consolations for anyone who has struggled with this affliction that has long been trivialized and neglected.

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