An intriguing but familiar glimpse into the mysteries of body clocks and sleep rhythms.
A wide-ranging debut book explores the circadian rhythms of the human body.
Hasyim researched the subject of human sleep cycles for half a decade and compiles his findings in this work aimed at improving readers’ quality of restfulness. For those puzzled by why their bodies’ active and lethargic periods occur throughout the day, the author offers explanations and a practical follow-up plan to adjust readers’ circadian rhythm patterns to promote improved productivity and energy. He credits the Lean Six Sigma project, whose core goal is to streamline processes in business, with sparking an effort to maximize his own productivity by making adjustments in his personal awake and sleep routines. The book provides an illuminating overview of how a circadian clock functions and the detrimental effects it can have on the human body when it becomes disrupted. Personally, the writer recalls how much energy he’d had as a boy on a regular schedule living in Indonesia. But when he ventured to college in Singapore, disruptive late-night study assignments and coffee jags entered the picture. Graphs and charts outline the classic synchronous circadian process, including how levels of cortisol and melatonin regulate stress, darkness perception, and sleep drives and how an irregular rhythm can affect metabolism, disease susceptibility, and inflammation. According to one of the many studies Hasyim cites, these factors contribute to causing the sleep deprivation of 51% of American adults. Other chapters stress the integral importance of aerobic and strength training, the monitoring of caloric intake, and the problematic nature of an unregulated “random eating lifestyle.” The author describes this habitual diet in clear detail and in conjunction with healthier alternatives, such as intermittent fasting regimens and fat-loss programs (with particularly good advice for reducing dietary sugars). Finally, he delivers practical guidance on adopting the optimal routine for seeking homeostasis in everyday life. While compelling and encouraging for readers seeking personal improvement, sections of the volume veer away from the circadian subject matter and are overly repetitive. Other areas present facts that are arguably utilitarian and common-sensical (lack of sleep adversely affects mood and productivity; regular exercise promotes increased energy and output). These particulars affect the book’s overall impact but don’t detract from its core message of reminding readers about the importance of regularly reassessing their sleep, exercise, and dietary needs and schedules.
An intriguing but familiar glimpse into the mysteries of body clocks and sleep rhythms.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-981-14-7038-7
Page Count: 142
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
