This is a book of sound bytes. Though the cover proclaims the book offers 653 doctor-tested therapies, only a few experts are cited in the text. The advice in the sleep section ranges from common-sensical to quirky.

If you are sleepy, this book advises, get an extra 20 minutes of sleep a day: go to bed earlier, sleep later, or take an afternoon nap. The book asserts that women need between 8 and 8.5 hours of sleep a night, while men need 7, a dubious claim. Sleep laboratory studies show adults of both sexes need about 8.25 hours of sleep on average.

If you have trouble falling asleep, the book says, count sheep. There's little evidence that this oft-advised remedy works. Indeed, for most of us, counting sheep is just too boring. Psychologists often suggest you concentrate on a more engrossing yet pleasurable mental task to distract yourself from bedtime worries. Possibly useful tactics: plan the menu for a dinner party, outline the itinerary for a vacation, reflect on the meaning of each line of a favorite poem, recall the languor of a lazy summer afternoon dozing in a hammock.

If you're looking for a mid-day energy booster, take a brisk walk around the block, this book advises. That may be helpful, but the book's assertion that 20 minutes of walking will energize you for up to 8 hours afterward is over-optimistic. In the new edition of Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, the sleep field's premier textbook (W.B. Saunders, 2000), sleep specialist Michael Bonnet notes that arousing stimuli act for only a discrete amount of time, probably less than 30 minutes.

Also questionable are the assertions that you can improve alertness substantively by pressing on the arch of your foot with your knuckles for a few seconds or by smelling a peppermint or rosemary essential oil.

Produced by the editors of Prevention, this book includes detailed instructions for use of herbal remedies. Keep in mind that few have been subjected to rigorous study in a sleep laboratory. You probably won't harm your sleep by following the advice in this book, but you may not derive much benefit either.

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