According to The Sleep Council, only one in 10 people say they always sleep well, one in five report suffering from the effects of sleep deprivation and two thirds of the population admit to not getting as much sleep as they did a few years ago. The pressure to squeeze more into our waking hours is ever-increasing, but it is leaving many of us feeling exhausted and running on empty.
What The Good Sleep Guide Has to Offer
Sammy Margo, in her 2008 self-help debut, provides insight into why this particular S-word is so important, the many causes of a poor night’s sleep and what possible solutions exist to help achieve all-round better quality kip. As a qualified and experienced physiotherapist she is a reliable source of information and obviously well-practised at giving practical advice to support her recommendations. This guide, as Sammy explains, helps to devise a “sensible but flexible healthy sleep plan designed for people with busy lives.”
`What is wonderful about it is that at the same time as being concise, objective and to-the-point, it comes across as being personal, compassionate and nurturing – a valuable quality for the sleep-deprived reader! This book makes you want to approach the subject of slumber with special care and attention; it makes you want to regain control over your circadian rhythms and take pleasure from your sleeping habits. In fact, it should give new hope to any long-suffering insomniacs and reluctant owls.
Sleep Topics Covered
Sammy touches on a great deal of relevant issues, including: beds, pillows and duvets, bedtimes routines, environmental factors, shift work and long-distance travel, common sleep-interrupting aches, pains and ailments, diet and lifestyle factors and sharing a bed with a partner.
Some topics could have benefited from being expanded, such as sections on natural remedies and the language of dreams, but on the other hand, maybe what is said here is plenty to spark the individual’s interest and catalyse further personal investigation.
Whilst claims to banish fatigue from life forever and eliminate the reliance on alarm clocks to wake up on time (unless generous flexi-time becomes the working-life norm!) seem sensationalistic, The Good Sleep Guide is certainly a tool for increased energy and better health.
The Future of Sleep
There will always be people who view sleep as an inconvenience, an unwelcome interruption to the daily running. A mention is given to the advanced developments in sleep research, which renders the idea of a sleep-free existence plausible, but what a sad place the world would be without sleepy stirrings under the duvet, the snoozy lie-ins when work can surely wait, or those melting moments of half-waking, half-dreaming lucidity caught on the way to sweet slumberland?