Part I

I Couldn’t Sleep at All Last Night

In this part . . .

Everybody sleeps, or at least . . . everybody’s supposed to. The trouble is, too many people lay their heads down at night and don’t sleep. They stare at the ceiling, they flip themselves over and then back again, they rearrange their pillows and tug on their blankets, they turn on the light, they turn off the light, they get a glass of water, but they don’t sleep. Sound familiar?

In Part I, we tell you all about sleep — what it is, why it’s necessary, and what kinds of things can happen to the body if you don’t get enough of it. We also brief you on sleep disorders, common and not-so-common, and tell you how to evaluate your own sleep habits (you can record your symptoms on the handy sleep diary sample page in Chapter 2), and what to do next if you suspect you have a sleep disorder. We demystify the diagnostic process and walk you step by step through a sleep lab. So read on. The zzzzzs you save may be your own.