by Jon Biddle
I love reading self help books, there is always room for improvement as we evolve through the turbulent world we have created. I try and stick a self development book in between the murder-death-kill I normally reach for in the virtual-book shop, and this wasn’t what I expected. This book is rich in deep learning that frankly, everyone should read.
Where did this all go wrong with our opinion of sleep? Why as a society limit the amount of sleep we ought to get everyday, eight hours being the optimal. Eight hours, why are we so resistant to it. Why do we sit and watch mindless TV to then replace the TV with a phone in bed. When going to bed has so many prescriptive benefits. Augment your immune system, got to be a good thing in the current climate. Sleep fights cancer, sleep dulls your cravings for food, sleep repairs your body in a way that no other adjunct can. Sleep can create a creative process that can enrich your life, sleep can help you solve problems, sleep can help you think clearer. Sleep is as important to the human physiology as breathing, eating, exercising, in fact sleep tops every function we do to get through our days.
Skipping a workout can leave you feeling guilty while skipping a meal can make you hungry, skipping all of you meals on any given day can create mood swings and cravings while missing out on a night of sleep can have a calamitous effect on the next day. To put simply, sleep should be prioritised in your daily routine and an eight hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep being the goal. Eight hours I hear you say – impossible and why is that? Your job, TV listings, socialising…these are excuses right?
This book, so cleverly written melds proven scientific research and evidence in a vernacular that anybody can understand, the author has created a book that every adult being a professional, parent, carer should read. If you want the fountain of youth, the secret to a long and healthy life, sleep is the ultimate antidote to the stress of living in the 21st century. I mean, if a marketing advert for sleep started with all the benefits that sleep can offer before the ‘closing of the sale’ reveal, you would probably get your credit card out and buy it…But the one thing that Mother Nature has given you is that ability to sleep with all the benefits that sleep can offer you and it’s completely free of charge.
So, if you have difficulty sleeping, struggle to find/justify the amount of sleep you get, understand the cerebral importance of sleep, if you’re a parent with children that have challenging bedtime routines, or your teenagers are spending too long in their festering pits, If you work shift work like I do. Then you you need to read this book. Hit the link, or copy and paste it and it’ll take you to the Amazon listing.
