The roots and effects of insomnia are complex, Eluned Summers-Bremner reveals in this fascinating study, and humans have employed everything from art to science to understand, explain, and mitigate this problem.
“An insomniac’s ideal sleep aid—and that’s a compliment. With her collage of ruminations about sleeplessness, [Benjamin] promises no real cure . . . Her slim book is what the doctor ordered.”—The Atlantic Insomnia is on the rise. Villainous and unforgiving, it’s the enemy o f energy and focus, the thief of our repose. But can insomnia be an ally, too, a validator of the present moment, of edginess and creativity? Marina Benjamin takes on her personal experience of the condition—her struggles with it, her insomniac highs, and her dawning awareness that states of sleeplessness grant us valuable insights into the workings of our unconscious minds. Although insomnia is rarely entirely welcome, Benjamin treats it less as an affliction than as an encounter that she engages with and plumbs. She adds new dimensions to both our understanding of sleep (and going without it) and of night, and how we perceive darkness. Along the way, Insomnia trips through illuminating material from literature, art, philosophy, psychology, pop culture, and more. Benjamin pays particular attention to the relationship between women and sleep—Penelope up all night, unraveling her day’s weaving for Odysseus; the Pre–Raphaelite artists’ depictions of deeply sleeping women; and the worries that keep contemporary females awake. Insomnia is an intense, lyrical, witty, and humane exploration of a state we too often consider only superficially. “This is the song of insomnia, and I shall sing it,” Marina Benjamin declares.
Despite its prevalence, insomnia remains poorly understood, mainly because of the lack of clear scientific data supporting the many approaches used. Millions of sufferers turn to alcohol, melatonin or over-the-counter sleep aids, despite the risks and lack of empirical evidence supporting the efficacy or safety of these agents. This book is the first of its kind to collate the up-to-date scientific data in order to identify the gaps in our knowledge and improve clinical management. A highly distinguished team of contributors examines the most recent findings and points where research should be heading. They cover the nature and prevalence of insomnia throughout the lifespan; the molecular, neuropharmacological, and neuroanatomical systems of relevance to insomnia, and the impact of related problems (such as shift work, industrial accidents, mood disorders, and other sleep disorders). This is essential reading for all health care professionals engaged in the management of insomnia.
The first source on insomnia treatment since the advancement of newer drug options and cognitive behavioral therapies, Insomnia: Diagnosis and Treatment presents a comprehensive reference on the complications, evaluation, and treatment of insomnia. Ideal for sleep medicine specialists, psychiatrists, and neurologists, this text uses a multi-discipl
"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.
Amazon's Best Biographies and Memoirs of the Year List A moving celebration of what Bill Hayes calls "the evanescent, the eavesdropped, the unexpected" of life in New York City, and an intimate glimpse of his relationship with the late Oliver Sacks. "A beautifully written once-in-a-lifetime book, about love, about life, soul, and the wonderful loving genius Oliver Sacks, and New York, and laughter and all of creation."--Anne Lamott Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at forty-eight years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera. And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance--"I don't so much fear death as I do wasting life," he tells Hayes early on--is captured in funny and touching vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age seventy-five to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015). Insomniac City is both a meditation on grief and a celebration of life. Filled with Hayes's distinctive street photos of everyday New Yorkers, the book is a love song to the city and to all who have felt the particular magic and solace it offers.
If ever a book could be called timely, this is it. Sleep disorders medicine has made rapid advances in recent years. The field has attained growing respectability, with a textbook recently published, a congressionally man dated National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, and a growing public awareness of the importance of sleep disorders. However, this rapid growth has made the discrepancy among certain components of the field all the more obvious. Thus, we find that patients who complain of insom nia are almost never in the majority of those seen in sleep disorders centers, in spite of the well-known fact that the prevalence of such individ uals in our society is by far the largest. Current articles on insomnia abound, but they tend to be facile recitations of diagnosis and impractical global recommendations for treat ment, without providing the essential details. Indeed, the clinical profes sions really do not know what to do about insomnia. This is reflected in a number of observations I have made in the recent past. For example, the majority of individuals who complain of insomnia take alcohol, aspirin, over-the-counter medications, hot baths, and a host of other nostrums, but rarely seek a physician. In the unlikely event that a physician is consulted, he is likely to prescribe a sleep medication but without any particular consistency, or any clear instructions on its use.
A full-color, oversized, hardcover tome that faithfully adapts the original Japanese material, detailing the creation of the most recent entry in the Final Fantasy saga! Final Fantasy XV's world of Eos is filled with wonderous scenery, larger-than-life creatures, diverse cultures, and treacherous foes. Experience hundreds of pieces of detailed design work composed lovingly for fans of the unique sci-fi fantasy world. This volume collects complex lore, insightful commentary, comprehensive data, and dazzling concept art, all beautifully bound in this richly detailed hardcover! Square Enix and Dark Horse Books present a superbly curated collection of Final Fantasy XV content that any fan will cherish.
The 50 million Americans who suffer from insomnia need - and want - this answer now.There is no "one size fits all" solution to insomnia because, as this revolutionary book illustrates, there are three types that affect those who suffer from it: difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, and broken sleep. And each of them requires a specialized treatment program. Now, leading experts in the evaluation and treatment of insomnia deliver personalized programs that provide relief for solve such persistent sleep problems as: Sunday night insomnia Anxiety caused by the "dread of bedtime" Waking before the alarm Awaking with a sudden start or jolt Scattered sleep patterns Based on cutting-edge knowledge of circadian rhythms developed in research labs for decades, this is the first sleep program that helps readers to self-diagnose and treat their particular type of insomnia.
A captivating literary portrait of London explored at night by some of the city’s most iconic writers throughout history “Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night,” wrote the poet Rupert Brooke. Before the age of electricity, the nighttime city was a very different place to the one we know today – home to the lost, the vagrant and the noctambulant. Matthew Beaumont recounts an alternative history of London by focusing on those of its denizens who surface on the streets when the sun’s down. If nightwalking is a matter of “going astray” in the streets of the metropolis after dark, then nightwalkers represent some of the most suggestive and revealing guides to the neglected and forgotten aspects of the city. In this brilliant work of literary investigation, Beaumont shines a light on the shadowy perambulations of poets, novelists and thinkers: Chaucer and Shakespeare; William Blake and his ecstatic peregrinations and the feverish ramblings of opium addict Thomas De Quincey; and, among the lamp-lit literary throng, the supreme nightwalker Charles Dickens. We discover how the nocturnal city has inspired some and served as a balm or narcotic to others. In each case, the city is revealed as a place divided between work and pleasure, the affluent and the indigent, where the entitled and the desperate jostle in the streets. With a foreword and afterword by Will Self, Nightwalking is a fascinating literary exploration of the writers who traverse the city at night and the people they meet.