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
A hard look at how for-profit health management organizations have come to be the force they are in our health care system and how their emphasis on the bottom line threatens quality medical care. Wall Street Journal reporter Anders (Merchants of Debt, 1992) reveals how corporations in the 1980s turned to managed care as a way to hold down the mushrooming costs of employee health plans by taking power away from doctors, hospitals, and patients and putting it in the hands of businessmen. Over 55 million Americans are now covered by HMOs, and their numbers are growing at the rate of 100,000 a week. The entrepreneurs who led the way in this astonishing revolution in our health care system come in for some sharp scrutiny (Anders seems to enjoy deploring their greed and flashy lifestyles), but the main focus is on how HMOs function. Anders examines their impact on hospitals, doctors, the pharmaceutical industry, and of course consumers. Hair-raising stories about the refusal to treat seriously ill patients are featured prominently in his discusion of how cost-conscious HMOs handle heart disease and breast cancer, emergency medicine, mental health, and care of the elderly and the poor. The picture that emerges is disheartening, even alarming, but not hopeless. Anders shows how consumers, doctors, employers, and regulators have been able in specific instances to challenge stingy treatment guidelines, negotiate for better access to specialists, change the rules about use of emergency rooms, and help set better standards of coverage. He concludes by summarizing various courses of action these groups can take to improve the medical care provided by HMOs and by warning HMOs that as society develops a cost-effective medical system, they may find themselves expendable. Highly readable and downright essential for anyone—patient or doctor—in an HMO or considering joining one. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Nov. 13, 1996
ISBN: 0-395-82283-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1996
A poetic, searingly personal book about a subject much of society would prefer to ignore. Francisco was a happily married 20-something writer and assistant editor when a rapist entered her apartment while her husband was away and brutally raped her. The act itself only took moments (although he spent several hours mentally torturing her), but her recovery took years. Novelist Francisco (Cold Feet, 1988, etc.) chronicles that recovery here in a book that is personal and yet universal enough to offer hope to others who have faced similar trauma. Francisco has an enviable feel for language. Her prose is by turns subtle and shockingly direct, just as rape itself is simultaneously blunt and violent and an insidious spiritual attack whose wounds fester internally long after the actual act has been committed. Francisco chillingly chronicles the act itself and the various methods she used to cope. “My most deeply held belief about my experience of rape is that, by talking, I saved my life,” she writes. “I had a small chance and it arrived like an opening in traffic. I knew exactly what to do with it. Tell. Talk about yourself. Spill it.” Unafraid to bare her soul as a writer as well, Francisco walks the reader through the failure of her marriage (80 percent of marriages involving a rape victim fail, one counselor tells her) to her slow, painful reawakening to her self and life through a variety of therapies, including body treatments such as massage and energy work. “I’ve come to believe that the body’s memory is as deep and unacknowledged as our dreams. Both fall outside language, their messages carried in image and sensation.” Francisco is not afraid to tell. We all must be brave enough to listen. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-019291-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
© 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.
