Sleep always interests the media but there may be more interest nowadays for three reasons: 1) The “obesity epidemic” is causing an increase in sleep disorders. 2) Our informationsensitive, high-performance jobs demand mental acuity which is blunted by poor sleep and unfortunately 3) sleep weakens as one grows older.
I’ve often been asked why I became interested in sleep. After all, for most people sleep is something they barely think about – it comes as a surprise that anyone should devote their working life to understanding it. The short answer is that I don’t really remember. I certainly didn’t wake up one day and have an extraordinary interest in why I had slept the previous eight, nine, ten hours. I do know, though, that my Latin teacher, my wife, and my late friend and mentor Emeritus Professor Ian Oswald all had something to do with it. Their teaching methods, frank criticism of my work and fascinating insights into the human brain have all inspired me.
Looking after your sleep – and doing it in a way that isn’t harmful (by not using sleeping pills or alcohol, for example) – is fundamental to your well-being. This book brings together the essence of everything I’ve learned about sleep in a way that I hope is practical and accessible. My aim has been to give you not only information about the nature of sleep, but also guidance on actions you can take at home to improve your sleep quality. I haven’t shied away from the importance of conventional medicine in the treatment of sleep disorders (I’m a scientist, after all), but I hope you’ll see that there are lots of ways in which you can enjoy better-quality sleep through simple changes to your lifestyle and by performing simple tasks that promote sleep.
It’s important that you work through the book from the beginning. In Chapters 1 and 2, I’ve offered an understanding of what sleep is and what it does (as far as we know). Information and simple measures will help you to make your own assessments of how well you sleep at the moment and how sleepy you are during the day. By going back to these early assessments when you’ve read later parts of the book, you can gain a good measure of your progress as you start to implement my techniques and tips for sleep improvement.
Arguably, the critical chapter in the book is Chapter 3 – the chapter on sleep hygiene. A safe building is constructed on deep and solid foundations. Sleep hygiene is the foundation of refreshing sleep. You cannot improve your sleep – at any level – without making good sleep hygiene your priority. Sleep hygiene won’t fix broken sleep but it can help prevent sleep breaking.
In Chapters 4 and 5, I’ve looked at some of the specific challenges that we face for our sleep quality at particular times or stages in our lives, as well as in particular circumstances.
If you think you have a sleep disorder, Chapter 6 aims to give practical advice on treatment – I’ve covered major disorders, as well as some of the more unusual ones. If you have insomnia, I hope to enable you to make informed choices about your treatment, both at home and with the help of a sleep centre or a doctor.
An intriguing problem with this chapter was that since the first edition of the book a new classification of sleep disorders has emerged. Since I started in sleep 40 years ago this is the fourth reclassification. Over that period there have been many discoveries, like the wakefulnesspromoting brain chemical orexin and existence of REM behaviour disorder, which is essentially a neurological disorder which causes patients to act out their dreams. Obesity may be the main culprit behind obstructive sleep apnoea (not breathing properly during sleep). On the whole the new classification is a refinement of the older one, so I have made some adjustments but not many to that chapter. Treatment has changed little, except perhaps the use of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).