Sleep Thieves or Primal Healing

Sleep Thieves

Author: Stanley Coren

In this engrossing, expansive look at the facts and folklore of sleep, best-selling author Stanley Coren provides astounding new evidence that we are becoming an increasingly sleep-deprived society, and that this condition is seriously affecting our work, posing a danger to ourselves and others. He shows, for example, that the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the disaster involving the space shuttle Challenger, and the nuclear accidents at both Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were all associated with people suffering from sleep deprivation. Drawing on dramatic interviews with a range of professionals including doctors, airline pilots, stockbrokers, and truck drivers, Coren shows the risks that everyone now faces as more and more people in the workforce operate with insufficient sleep. He also looks at some of the more subtle and insidious effects of sleep loss on our physical and mental health and explains how to tell whether you are getting enough sleep. In addition Coren asks intriguing questions like: Do fish sleep? Are there really "morning" people and "night" people? Why is it virtually impossible to fall asleep during midmorning hours no matter how tired you are? And how is it that you can sleep for hours on a plane and never feel rested? Some provocative stories about sleep oddities are presented along with a description of some strange sleep disorders that affect a surprisingly large number of people. Finally, the book describes specific techniques to help children sleep through the night and to improve the quality and efficiency of your own sleep.

Library Journal

While Coren's (psychology, Univ. of British Columbia) main thesis is that we Americans are becoming an ever-more-exhausted and accident-prone society due to "sleep debt," his fascinating book is also an in-depth look at this mysterious activity in which we all must, by nature, engage. Coren, author of the best-selling The Intelligence of Dogs (LJ 3/15/94), sees much peril in the fact that we are sleeping less, sleeping oddly, and think we can get away with it. He takes the reader on a journey into the world of sleep, keeping the scientific jargon to a manageable minimum without sacrificing the integrity of his work. One is impressed with the facts he lays out, though he makes clear that sleep remains a necessary but still very mysterious realm of human experience. After taking us through chapters detailing what scientists have come to know about sleep and the sleep experience, he tackles sleep problems, including insomnia, and details with alarming anecdotal and statistical evidence what progressively less sleep is buying us, both as individuals and as a society. Many chapters also offer tips, hints, and questionnaires dealing with different aspects of sleep. This is a well-written, easy-to-understand book on a complex scientific subject to which everyone can relate. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-David M. Turkalo, Suffolk Univ. Law Sch. Lib., Boston

Kirkus Reviews

Forget that early-to-rise myth; getting too little sleep is unhealthful, costly, and downright unproductive, according to this lively, anecdote-laden report on the perils of sleep deprivation.

Coren, a Canadian neuropsychologist whose previous work had wide appeal among dog lovers (The Intelligence of Dogs, 1994), will win the kudos of sleep lovers with this one. After a brief look at sleep in the rest of the animal kingdom, he focuses on what happens to the human mind and body when deprived of sleep. Citing research and using notes from a diary he kept while systematically cutting back on his own sleep, he demonstrates that reducing sleep decreases the quality and quantity of one's work. Furthermore, to ignore our biological clocks is to court disaster, for Coren notes that sleep deprivation weakens the immune system, leaving the body more vulnerable to infection and illness, even death. He looks specifically at the effects of sleep deprivation on truck drivers, airline pilots, air traffic controllers, hospital interns and residents, and shift workers such as police and firefighters. The statistics and anecdotes he provides are certainly eye-opening. A 1988 figure he cites gives the cost of sleep-related accidents in the US that year as billion, and he presents persuasive evidence that the major disasters of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and the Exxon Valdez were all caused by human beings with too little sleep. Tucked in among the sobering data are several charts and tables, quizzes to help one analyze one's own sleep habits and needs, and some tips on overcoming jet lag and getting a good night's sleep.

All the justification one needs for turning off the alarm and catching another 40 winks.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Edison's Curse	1
	Sleep and Consciousness	12
	What Is Sleep?	23
	Evolution's Mistake?	36
	No Sleep at All	48
	Cutting Down on Sleep	60
	A Little Bit of Sleep	70
	The Clocks Within Us	80
	Riding the Daily Seesaw of Sleepiness	94
	Sleepy Children and Sleepy Parents	105
	Sleepy Teenagers	119
	Sleep Thieves in the Kitchen	126
	Ondine's Curse	141
	Sleepless Nights	154
	Sleep and Health	168
	Asleep at the Wheel	176
	Asleep at the Operating Table	187
	Asleep on the Night Shift	206
	Asleep in the Sky	225
	The Cost of Sleep Debt	236
	Are We Chronically Sleep Deprived?	247
	What Is Your Personal Sleep Debt?	260
	Death on Daylight Savings Time	268
	A Wake-Up Call	278
	Notes	289
	General Bibliography	293
	Index	295

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Primal Healing: Access the Incredible Power of Feelings to Improve Your Health

Author: Arthur Janov

Primal Healing reveals how our mental and physical health are inextricably linked and determined by the brain. For true and lasting change, deep levels of the brain must change physiologically, enabling key structures within the brain to recalibrate to optimal, healthy levels.

For those who have ever sought help for any kind of mental health problem, Primal Healing shows how conventional, word-based psychotherapies such as cognitive, behavioral, and insight, cannot render lasting change, and at best offer only temporary relief from emotional pain. Utilizing compelling case studies, Dr. Janov shows how the brain and nervous system can be imprinted by trauma during birth and early childhood, and how these imprinted memories give rise to all manner of physical and mental dysfunction. When you are able to access these subconscious memories, you can liberate yourself and improve your health.

Dr. Arthur Janov has done more than 30 years of scientific research in neurology and psychotherapy, including studies in neurochemistry, brainwave patterns, vital signs, infrared visions, and immunology.

His 11 books, including the worldwide best-seller The Primal Scream and his recent best-seller The Biology of Love, have been translated into 24 different languages. Janov has served on staff at the Los Angeles Children's Hospital Psychiatric Department, and is currently director of the Primal Center in Venice, California. His work has also been the subject of a PBS special in the United States and documentaries in Germany, England, France, and Sweden. Janov was recently elected to Claremont Graduate University's academic hall of fame.

Library Journal

Primal therapy enjoyed a vogue in the United States in the 1970s, when Janov's (director, Primal Ctr., Venice, CA) Primal Scream was a best seller and Beatle John Lennon credited his therapy sessions with the author as the crucial catalyst in unleashing his creativity. However, it was never subjected to clinical studies of its effectiveness (no such studies are listed in Medline for the years 1965-2006), and the current volume is published by a press that specializes in New Age books. Therefore, the first question librarians must ask themselves is whether any current, noncritical book on primal therapy is worthy of purchase. If so, Primal Healing will serve as well as any: written in a popular style, it presents Janov's basic ideas and is illustrated by case histories. Among the questions Janov poses and answers are, "How do feelings evolve?" "What are the three different levels of consciousness?" and "How are memories formed?" Recommended at librarians' discretion. Sarah Boslaugh, BJC HealthCare, St. Louis Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.