Reddit mentions of Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep

Apparently in the middle ages, people used to do this. They'd sleep for 4 hours, then wake up around midnight, pray for an hour or have sex or whatever, then sleep for another 4 hours.

Apparently this is actually a healthier sleeping cycle.

Source

I don't have a good treatment book to recommend. Sitting on my desk next to read is Why we Sleep by Matthew Walker. We overlapped in training and he is brilliant so I look forward to reading this. I enjoyed Dreamland by Randall as an easier to read lay book. Bill Dement is the father of sleep medicine and his last book, The Promise of Sleep, is a nice call to arms for better sleep, though it is almost 20 years old now. I'm a sleep researcher, not a clinician, so the books I'm reading are not really clinical guides, though they contain good information.

As for insomnia, it is best treated by behavioral interventions. The research clearly shows that sleep medicines are only good for acute insomnia (maybe you just had a surgery and the pain is keeping you up at night) and not chronic insomnia. One place to start looking for someone to help would be to check out the Society for Behavioral Sleep Medicine provider list. Most sleep disorders clinics should either have a psychologist on staff or a referral to one.

This is what they will basically have you do. First, you should only go to bed if you are sleepy. If you do not fall asleep within 15-20 minutes, you need to get out of bed, and do something boring under low lights. Do not get on the computer or watch TV, turn on a lamp and read a boring book until you are falling asleep. Then go to bed and if you are not asleep within 15-20 minutes, do it all over again. It may be that you stay awake all night or until 4am the first few times you do it. That is fine, it will actually help you. Do not take a nap, be dead tired because that will help you fall asleep normally after a few days. Also, you need a consistent wake time, no matter your job or school or whatever. Pick a time and wake up everyday (even weekends) at that time.

You also need to look up best practices for sleep hygiene. Most importantly, do not use your bed for anything other than sleep or sex. Do not read, watch TV, play on your tablet, etc. in bed. You want to train your body so that it knows when your head hits the pillow, it is sleep time not thinking or doing time. If you have problems with intrusive thoughts as you are trying to go to sleep, download a guided meditation or progressive muscle relaxation and listen to it while trying to go to sleep (if you are concentrating on the meditation, you can't think about all of the things you were supposed to do that day). Also make sure you can't see the time. You do not need to know what time it is in the middle of the night. Seeing that it is 3am and knowing you have to be at work at 7am causes anxiety which makes it harder to go to sleep.

Do the routine where you get up if you can't fall asleep within 15-20 minutes for week and see if that does not help. The information I gave you are two components of CBT treatment for insomnia (Stimulus control therapy and relaxation). Now going to a sleep disorders clinic can be good because they will rule out other possible causes of your sleep problem other than regular insomnia. You can also try something like melatonin. The clinical evidence really says that it is only good for circadian rhythm issues like jet lag (there is some limited evidence that it can help with insomnia), but many people swear by it and it will most likely not hurt anything. Once again, do not get on ambien, lunesta, etc. for long-term insomnia. They will make it worse.

As I said before, I am a sleep researcher, not a clinician. Everything I told you can be googled so please read up on behavioral treatments of insomnia.

I have read a number of books on the subject. This [one] is a breezy read and I am almost doen with a Great Course on the topic which is not breezy at all, very sciency but worth the work.
(http://www.amazon.com/Dreamland-Adventures-Strange-Science-Sleep/dp/0393345866/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415515035&sr=8-1&keywords=Dreamland%3A+Adventures+in+the+Strange+Science+of+Sleep%27+by+David+K.+Randall)

I think is was in Dreamland that I first read about DARPA's interest. There was a tank battle in the first Gulf War wherein our soldiers had been up for ridiculous lengths of time and did all kinds of nonsensical things which in battle is, er, not good. The military needs to put soldiers to sleep, make sure they get through all the proper cycles and then wake them up with no grogginess.

People act irrationally without proper sleep. All kinds of accidents can be attributed to this as we are now learning. Also, sleep is vital for memory formation. The great Great Course course goes into this great detail, covering the chemistry involved and so forth.

I hope they figure it out soon! I didn't mind staying up all night when I was young but now I would like to get up very early in the morning and go to sleep at the same time every night.

My mother was like me as is my sister. It is very hard on my sister since she is still working.