The rare book that may help sufferers of poor sleep improve their quality of rest simply by elucidating the context of good...
A no-nonsense, science-based guide to achieving restful sleep from the doctor Ariana Huffington calls the "sleep whisperer.”
Right off the bat, Winter, a board-certified neurologist and sleep medicine specialist, dispels a powerful sleep myth: he asserts that everyone sleeps. In fact, he argues that insomnia is not an inability to sleep; instead, it reflects a person’s dissatisfaction with the quality of the sleep and, in many cases, an accompanying anxiety about a perceived lack of sleep. This reorientation of the problem casts a long shadow on the crowded market of sleep solutions, and the author cuts through the noise of pharmaceuticals and gimmicks to propose natural, implementable solutions that anyone can try at home. Throughout the book, his tone is refreshingly conversational, and while he backs up his suggestions with established research, he keeps the jargon to a minimum and focuses on clearly laying out a) the most common reasons a person’s sleep is disrupted or unsatisfactory and b) how to train the mind and body to regularly achieve restful, satisfying sleep. This is not to say that everyone can solve their sleep problems by lifestyle modifications alone; Winter examines the medical conditions, such as sleep apnea, that can result in disrupted sleep and long-term poor health. He also recommends an occasional device to help regulate sleep patterns or make bedtime more consistently enjoyable. However, the big takeaway is that sleep conditions are treatable without taking a pill and that, like so many things, a psychological adjustment may be the key to success. Many people will find this fact alone a huge relief from sleep-related stress and will be on their ways to achieving better rest.
The rare book that may help sufferers of poor sleep improve their quality of rest simply by elucidating the context of good sleep and offering the right techniques to achieve it.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-58360-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: New American Library
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
The former First Lady (First Lady from Plains, 1984, etc.) offers advice, support, and pats on the back for all those who feed, clothe, bathe, and comfort sick friends and relatives, for those who insert the feeding tubes and empty the bedpans. In her introduction, Carter explains: ``I have written Helping Yourself Help Others to hopefully ease the trauma associated with caregiving and to help you feel not quite so alone.'' In a tone that hovers somewhere between the maternal and the institutional, Carter reassures home caregivers that their complaints about having no time of their own are not expressions of selfishness and that fatigue is not failure. She offers strategies to avoid burnout and depression and advice on how to deal with the problems that caregiving can cause in a marriage. It's not just care for the old and infirm that she addresses. Carter's talking to those who care for developmentally disabled children, people with AIDS, the injured, and anyone else who might require long-term care in the home. Much of the data used in the book comes out of the Rosalynn Carter Institute at Georgia Southwestern College. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8129-2370-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
An engrossing, informative, and sometimes-frightening medical account that ends on an inspirational high note.
A debut memoir explores love, cancer, and learning to live in the moment.
On June 29, 2012, Slaby and her husband, Michael, were preparing to finish work (she at a Chicago law firm, he with the Barack Obama re-election campaign) before boarding a plane for New York to attend a friend’s wedding. But first she had to see her doctor. She had been suffering from shortness of breath. Her physician detected a heart irregularity and insisted she see a cardiologist immediately. What followed became a nightmare medical saga. X-rays and CT scans revealed a grapefruit-sized tumor pressing down on her heart: “My tumor was pushing on my heart, which reacted to protect itself by filling the sac where it lives with fluid. There was so much fluid, however, that my heart was under attack from its own protection.” The author was diagnosed with stage 2 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Chemotherapy, the prescribed treatment, first involved discussions of how to preserve her fertility. She was only 33 years old. While the tumor was not removed surgically, chemotherapy successfully shrank it. And then a December 2012 follow-up PET scan showed her thymus lighting up. It could be nothing—the tumor, now one-quarter of its original size, may have wound around her thymus. Or it could be something dire. The ensuing surgery involved cracking open her chest. Then a medical error almost caused her death. Slaby’s narrative is about much more than cancer. Although the unusual complexity of the sequential medical emergencies the author endured, which she details in lucid, graphic prose, threatens to overwhelm the memoir, she also presents a tender love story. Slaby deftly intersperses portions that recall the shifting up-and-down dynamics of her long relationship with Michael. These sections, despite the periods of great turmoil, offer readers respite from the grueling medical drama. As she worked toward physical, psychological, and emotional recovery, the author meticulously documents how difficult it was for her, a self-described “control freak,” to let go of the past and find “grace and kindness inside the unexpected.”
An engrossing, informative, and sometimes-frightening medical account that ends on an inspirational high note.Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63331-028-5
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Disruption Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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