Customer Reviews

Say Good Night to Insomnia: The Six-Week, Drug-Free Program Developed At Harvard Medical School

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this book based on a recommendation from a February 22, 2005 article on Slate by Amanda Schaffer. If it wasn't for this recommendation, I'm not sure I would have kept reading after the first chapter. The book is full of exclamation points, oversimplification and glib promises. Very "self help"y.

So why 5 stars? Because I have slept deeply all night every night since I read the book. I was coming off the worst bout of insomnia of my life...several weeks at 3 hours or less per night. I planned to start the first week of the program, a sleep diary, the next night I slept badly. It hasn't happened. For me, just having read the program and realizing the simple changes I could make seems to have done the trick. And if my sleep problems resume, I feel confident that pursuing the six week program faithfully would solve the problem.

The author is condescending, overly perky, and seems to be writing for an IQ level of about 87. But if you have a serious insomnia problem, I recommend you get past the style and try out the substance. I'd read a lot more annoying books if I knew I'd sleep well afterward.

This book has been immensely helpful for me and my understanding of why I have always had so much trouble with sleep. Dr. Jacobs sets the record straight on a number of sleep myths but can be repetitive when he is trying to make a point. For example, he drones on for 16 pages about how sleeping pills will do more harm than good. This may be an effort to extend the length of this book.

Instead of providing us with a 200 page verbose browbeating the author would have better served us with a concise text that could have easily been less than 100 pages. And also, when he is trying to prove a point, Dr. Jacobs will cite some vague statistic. When trying to prove the effectiveness of his "Relaxation Response," or "RR" for short, the author says, "Dozens of scientific studies have proven that the RR is an effective treatment for insomnia," and that is it. If he's not going to be specific, why bother mentioning it at all.

As for the "6-week solution" this book provides, it seems to have been added as an afterthought. The 6 week program consists of keeping a sleep diary for 6 weeks. That's it. The point, of course, is to try to find a connection between what you did to help yourself sleep and how much you slept, but don't buy this book looking for a miracle 6 week cure.

In the end I still recommend this book to anyone with sleep trouble. There are some incredibly useful things in this book that make trudging through it worthwhile.

This book is wonderful--I finished it in 2 days! It is a very easy-to-read explanation of the physiology of sleep, why we lose it, and how we can get it back. The techniques Dr. Jacobs describes to stop insomnia are easy to follow (although they do take patience and persistence) and really make sense. And, best of all, this program works!!! I suffered from insomnia for over 16 years, and I never thought I would be free of endless days and nights worrying about sleep. To my amazement, the night following the day I started reading the book, I fell asleep within 10 minutes! Unheard of for me! And, I wasn't even employing any of the techniques suggested in the book yet. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to all insomniacs who suffer from constant anxiety about sleeping as I did, and wish you endless nights of restful sleep!

I took this book back. A book that spends as much time as this one telling you how good it (and the author) is turns me off. It presents research findings as though they are rumors, with no mention of the source. There's not even an index to look up topics. There are very much better books on this topic. The factually best is by William Dement -- the founder of the field of sleep medicine ("The Promise of Sleep"). A more accessible one is by Hairi & Linde, "No More Sleepless Nights."

I used to suffer from only slight but chronic insomnia, and when I got up in the mornings, I used to feel like I had been run over by a truck. I bought this book thinking that I've got nothing to lose except a few dollars. Yet after only a few days of following the expert advice contained in this book, my sleep improved "drastically", and I was finally able to function normally again during the day.

This book has all the information you need in order to develop a healthy sleep pattern that will inevitably improve the quality of your life if not save it. If you depend on sleeping pills or tranquilizers to sleep, this book will show you how to get off them and to stay off them for good.

Finally, I would recommend this book not only for the desperate insomniacs out there, but for EVERYONE, since it contains lots of useful and expert information that we ALL can use from time to time.

Jacobs does an excellent job of coherently outlining the causes of insomnia and barriers to sleep. He provides a concise outline of the physiology of sleep along with a nicely designed 6 week program to cure insomnia.

Following this program will require some motivation--but if you are not sleeping then you should have some extra time to devote to eliminating insomnia.

Of particular interest is the explanations for why sleeping pills don't work and actually make insomnia worse. There is a recommended program for weaning off of sleeping pills. Another important aspect of the program is learning to eliminate negative thoughts about sleep.

Highly recommended!

The first night after I picked up this book I slept 8 hours straight. That was after 2 weeks of 4-hour nights, sometimes punching the mattress because I was so tired yet I couldn't sleep. I tried Tylenol PM and NyQuil, but they made me feel horrible the next day. I spoke with a friend of mine who is a physician's assistant, but she had no good advice. I even went to websites like WebMD and got no help. In fact, the information online was terribly depressing because it said "anxiety about not being able to sleep can exacerbate insomnia", but it offered no solutions to deal with this anxiety, and that just made me more anxious! That was my main problem - I was anxious about not being able to sleep, and that just made things worse.

In contrast, this book precisely addressed the symptoms of insomnia I was experiencing and offered real solutions to the problem. And after weeks of trying to find answers and getting nowhere, the relief this book brought was downright tear-jerking. Dr. Jacobs has put together a comprehensive, easy to read book that focuses on the major causes of insomnia, including anxiety, negative sleep thoughts, and negative sleep patterns. His information is based on years of scientific research (we're not talking new-age, herbal, hollistic, astrological, etc here) and his system boasts an incredible 100% success rate (i.e., all participants have seen positive results in one form or another). He breaks down the myths that make insomnia sufferers feel as if something is mentally wrong with them, and he focuses instead on defining, in great detail, what happens when you actually sleep. His relaxation techniques really work, as does his sleep diary, and it is all done in a way that ultimately makes you feel in control of the quality and the quantity of your sleep.

I only read about the 1st 1/2 of this book, but it was enough to bring me back to a normal sleep pattern and to help me deal with bad sleep in the future. I have already recommended it to my P.A. friend and I gush about it whenever anyone tells me they have trouble sleeping. BTW, this is my first book review, ever. I owe at least this much in thanks to Dr. Jacobs.

This book was simply the best I have read on insomnia. I thought I was doing everything right to promote sleep, until I read this book and saw how I was sabotaging my sleep. It explained things better than my sleep therapist could. After 17 years of feeling hopeless from insomnia I have my life back due to this book. You won't be disappointed.

I bought this book out of desperation. It seems that one day I suddenly lost ability to fall asleep. After several weeks spent virtually without sleep, I went to a doctor and got sleep medication, which worked well. However, I was unable to sleep without it and my husband and I wanted to have a second baby. Thus, I knew I would have to get off the medication; but when I tried to sleep without the pill, I couldn't fall asleep.

Thank you to all the readers who have recommended this book and helped me choose the right one! As a result of following Dr. Jacobs' advice, I no longer need any medications and have no sleep-related problems. This was a great investment!

This book can be helpful to anyone who would like to improve quality (or quantity) of his or her sleep.

No kidding. I was resistant at first to start the book, I thought that by exploring my sleep I'd make the problem worse. Believe me, the exact opposite is true. "Knowledge is power" has never held so much truth. It took almost no time to feel a definite change in my sleep patterns. I started falling asleep in less than 20 minutes every night. If I woke up during the night I was able to get back to sleep almost instantly. By limiting my time in bed I was able to retrain my brain to think of a bed as a place to sleep again. At first I only got four hours of sleep a night, but now I'm up to as much as six and a half and I'm only into the second week of the program. Please do youself a favor, if you have insomnia, there is no need to suffer any longer. BUY THIS BOOK at any price, peace of mind can be yours again.