This conversationally-written book aims to help readers examine their attitudes toward sleep and to alter self-sabotaging behavior.

Can you say with confidence that you've made all the needed adjustments in your sleeping environment to help assure good sleep? Do you understand the relationship of alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine to the quality of your sleep? Do you understand how circadian rhythms affect your sleep? And do you know several things you can do when you have trouble sleeping, and feel that they're apt to work?

Alex Lukeman, a psychotherapist, teaches readers self-hypnosis and other relaxation techniques. The word "hypnosis" is a tribute to Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. The man who coined the term, James Braid, a nineteenth century English physician, mistakenly thought hypnosis was a form of sleep. In truth, it's a wakeful state involving deep relaxation and heightened suggestibility, a state you can consciously induce in yourself. Many sleep books talk about the value of relaxation strategies to boost sleep readiness. Few provide as detailed a step-by-step guide to such tactics as this one.

Lukeman covers sleep basics, including the nature of the circadian clock, and describes common sleep disorders, such as insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and restless legs syndrome. He reviews sleeping pills in an even-handed manner. His advice on herbal remedies, though, needs to be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. Too little is known about either the efficacy or safety of most such products.

This book's real strength lies in its reassurance that you can devise good solutions to your own sleep problems, and that your dream of a good night's sleep can become a reality.

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