Insomniac | 
| Author: Gayle Greene
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 126009
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 520
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 1.7
ISBN: 0520246306
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8498
EAN: 9780520246300
ASIN: 0520246306
Publication Date: March 10, 2008
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Product Description
I can't work, I can't think, I can't connect with anyone anymore. . . . I mope through a day's work and haven't had a promotion in years. . . . It's like I'm being sucked dry, eaten away, swallowed up, coming unglued. . . . These are voices of a few of the tens of millions who suffer from chronic insomnia. In this revelatory book, Gayle Greene offers a uniquely comprehensive account of this devastating and little-understood condition. She has traveled the world in a quest for answers, interviewing neurologists, sleep researchers, doctors, psychotherapists, and insomniacs of all sorts. What comes of her extraordinary journey is an up-to-date account of what is known about insomnia, providing the information every insomniac needs to know to make intelligent choices among medications and therapies. Insomniac is at once a field guide through the hidden terrain inhabited by insomniacs and a book of consolations for anyone who has struggled with this affliction that has long been trivialized and neglected.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 If only the content were fictitious... September 1, 2008
Professor Greene's book, Insomniac, is a riveting memoir. As I read -- devoured, actually -- page after page, I felt vindicated, infuriated, dismayed, hopeful inspired, encouraged. This is a maelstrom of emotions indeed. The majority of books about insomnia offer the same hackneyed advice: regularize and restrict sleep, reduce or eliminate caffiene consumption, exercise, and ad nauseum. Not Gayle's book, however. As a lifelong insomniac, she has tried virtually every pill, treatment, technique that promises to "cure" insomnia -- all to no avail. In impassioned and somber prose, she guides the reader through a gripping and moving narrative of her lifelong battle with this "beast." She doesn't stop there, however. She shares the stories of other insomniacs --
insomniacs less fortunate than she.
Gayle is a tenured professor at a private liberal arts college. She has job security unlike the majority of insomniacs. Doctors and behavioral therapists exhort us to regularize and restrict our sleep and avoid so-called "sleep-incompatible" behaviors, but how, as Gayle asks, do you tell a single mother with children to feed, and struggling to make ends meet, to set aside time for what we insomniacs call "the program?"
When Gayle set out to write this book and search for answers, she was disconcerted to discover that insomnia is a poorly understood and often stigmatized affliction. Even today, insomnia is widely considered a psychological, not a neurobiological, disorder. If only WE reduce the stress in our lives; if only WE restrict and regularize our sleep; if only WE exercise more; if only WE don't obsess about our sleep (or lack thereof); "If only WE... If only WE...." WE are to blame.
As Gayle poignantly points out, however, narcoleptics were often blamed for their affliction. If only THEY had more will power; if only THEY weren't so indolent; if only THEY were more disciplined; "If only THEY... if only THEY...." But as it turned out, THEY weren't doing anything wrong. Similarly, WE may not be doing anything wrong. Why is this so difficult to see? And why is the medical and scientific world oblivious to this?
An unfortunate penchant for parsimonious explanations permeates our world. The simplest of explanations is usually correct, we are told. Indeed, it is easier to believe that our broken sleep is the consequence of a psyche in distress rather than defect in our brain -- an astoundingly intricate neural forest. Amidst 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synaptic gaps, where should researchers begin? As Gayle notes, sleep is more complex than we thought. . .
IN THE ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE, parsimony reigns. IN THE ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE, humanity believed the earth was flat, the earth stationary, the universe geocentric. Humanity believed these things because they were easy to accept and it did not collide with our common, OBVIOUS intuitions. It was OBVIOUS that the earth was flat, it was OBVIOUS that the earth didn't move, it was OBVIOUS that the earth was the center of the universe, just as today it is OBVIOUS that insomnia is depression and anxiety. But as someone once said, "OBVIOUS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS WORD IN SCIENCE."
I cannot recommend Gayle's book enough. Insomniacs, psychologists, psychiatrists, and sleep researchers will benefit from reading this book.
 Anecdotal Comments About Sleep August 22, 2008
This is a 300 page , 50 page book. The continous repeating of the same anecdotal comments about an insomniac soon leaves the reader wondering what is being said.
The call for more research and a list of suggested research topics would have been sufficient and taken only a few pages.
See Jim Horne's review in Nature, which I thought was overly generous.
incredible information here August 15, 2008
On every page, I kept saying, this is my life. Her information on the whole problem of insomnia and the sleep medicine industry was eye opening and right on target. so much useful information. And it reads like a novel! Fantastic book that should be read by all MDs in the field, as well as all people who have sleep problems. and all politicians as well.
This book is much needed and long overdue August 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am so glad I found this book. This book is practical, informative, and gives a voice to insomniacs. The research in this book is very thorough, and the personal perspective balances out scientific information with human experience. I have been disappointed and frustrated with the medical community's treatment of insomnia, and it was such a relief to read that I am not the only one. In fact, we learn from this book how this a fundamental barrier to effectively researching and treating insomnia.
As an insomniac, this book has helped me tremendously. I recommend it for anyone suffering from insomnia, as well as anyone who knows someone with insomnia, or anyone interested in the fascinating subject of sleep.
 Important book but too long, even for an insomniac July 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book made important points in clear, enjoyable, passionate prose. Greene discusses possible physical causes of insomnia, the financial disincentives for scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop new remedies, and the need for insomniacs to organize into a patients' interest group. Likewise, her personal stories and discussions with other insomniacs underscore how often insomniacs are blamed rather than helped by health care professionals.
Nevertheless, the book goes on at such length about these points that it develops an overwrought tone. Moreover, because it focuses so much on Greene's problem, sleep maintenance rather than sleep onset, this other form of insomnia gets little discussion or consideration.
As a fellow sufferer, though, the best thing this book has done for me is
lead me to accept my condition. In fact, after reading this book, I think I don't suffer nearly as much from my sleepless nights as others do, so henceforth I will look at my tossing and turning time as a gift, and slink out of bed and into an armchair with more books!
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