May/1998
|
POWER SLEEP: THE REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAM THAT
PREPARES YOUR MIND FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE
James B. Maas (Villard, 1998, 248 pages, hardcover, $25.00)
Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg
|
|
Power Sleep brings to mind a tourist who has only three
hours to visit the Louvre and wants to see it all. Maas hits the high
spots: how much sleep people get or don't get, the architecture and
functions of sleep, the consequences of sleep deprivation. But he
doesn't linger for the close-up looks that make Coren's and Lavie's books both
fresh and fun to read.
Maas tells readers to get enough sleep, keep a regular
schedule, exercise, and follow other tested rules of sleep hygiene.
The import of these principles is diminished, however, by the even-handed
inclusion of trivial advice such as how to choose
nightclothes and sheets.
The chapter on sleeping pills and over-the-counter remedies
includes some questionable assertions. One box states: "Many sleep
specialists advise 'never taking pills for sleep, period.'" Maas also
contends: "After only two or three nights of using sleeping pills,
when you stop you are likely to have bad dreams and even more
insomnia than before."
He includes standard advice for shiftworkers; jet travelers;
and families with children, adolescents and aging parents. His
sources include sleep experts and scientific publications as well as
other lay books and popular press reports, a mix that makes it hard
for the ordinary reader to weigh the accuracy of the material.
Maas is past chair of the department of psychology at Cornell
University. While not a sleep specialist, he has had a long interest in
the field, and, he says, has produced national television specials on
sleep, lectured to corporate and lay audiences, as well as students,
and been a resource for the media. Readers might have liked to
know more about the contents and making of these television
programs, interest in sleep on the corporate level, and some of his
more satisfying or zany media encounters. These topics are not
addressed in the book.
Power Sleep includes a directory of sleep disorders centers,
some good diagnostic self-tests, Internet sleep sites, and an index.
|
|
-Current Month- -Archives- -Authors and Titles- -About Lynne Lamberg- Copyright © 2000
Websciences |