October 2001
|
THE WOMAN'S BOOK OF SLEEP: Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg |
|
Women report troubled sleep twice as often as
men, and use more sleeping pills, too. They are more apt than men
to have painful disorders that disrupt sleep, including arthritis,
fibromyalgia, and migraines. Changes in female hormones across the
month, and over the life cycle, from puberty to pregnancy to menopause,
disrupt women's sleep. Moreover, women often sacrifice both sleep
and leisure time to meet mundane demands of family life, from helping
children with homework to folding laundry. The study of women's sleep, however, is a recent
phenomenon. Until the 1990s, most sleep studies, like most research
in other fields, focused on men. Scientists felt hormonal ups and
downs in women over the menstrual cycle added unwanted complexity
to data collection and analysis. As a result, they neglected half
the population. But federal guidelines enacted into law in 1993
mandate that women be included in all clinical research funded by
the National Institutes of Health. About one in three sleep researchers
today is female. Some have seen the opportunity to break new ground
by studying women's sleep. "Women's health issues, and now sleep issues,
are at the forefront of our cultural consciousness as never before,"
Amy Wolfson asserts in this book. Wolfson is a clinical psychologist,
a sleep specialist, and director of women's studies at the College
of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Wolfson surveys the latest findings pertinent
to women's sleep, and distills their practical implications. At the
same time, she reviews both normal sleep in women over the life cycle,
and sleep problems common in women. She includes scientific publications
as resources throughout the text, yet writes in a direct and straightforward
style suitable for lay readers. Wolfson draws on her own experiences to illuminate
issues. A chapter on work, motherhood, and sleep, for example, begins
with what she describes as "a typical day in my ridiculous schedule."
The day starts at 5:37 a.m., and ends at 10:30 p.m., providing the
opportunity for, at most, just under 7 hours' sleep. It includes activities
as disparate as teaching college classes and chauffeuring her 9-year-old
son to and from school and hockey practice. She manages to fit in
a morning fitness walk with a friend, and to share dinner with her
husband, who usually prepares this meal. In one study, Wolfson gave the Women's Sleep and
Health Questionnaire to women working daytime shifts at corporations,
businesses, and schools in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Of her
200 respondents, 70 percent reported they worked at their jobs 35
hours or more each week. They reported getting 20 minutes less sleep
each night on average than women working fewer hours. Nearly 20 percent
of the women reported getting less than 6.5 hours sleep a night during
the work week. Sleep experts say most adults need about 8 hours to
feel well-rested. As an aid to coping, Wolfson provides "sleep-smart
strategies" in this and other chapters. She urges working women
to establish a regular sleep schedule and try to stick to it, forgoing
evening activities such as checking e-mail or watching late-night
television. She suggests ways to cope with sleep deprivation: take
15-minute nap breaks in the daytime, learn to tackle your most challenging
tasks when you're most alert, and save your least demanding projects
for the time you're most likely to be tired. Though she didn't suggest
it, the rest of us might benefit from her example by persuading our
husbands or partners to take cooking lessons. This book will compete for sales with the similarly
named A Woman's Guide to Sleep: Guaranteed
Solutions for a Good Night's Rest, by Joyce A. Walsleben,
PhD, and medical writer Rita Baron-Faust. Both books cover similar
ground. Wolfson's cites more scientific studies. Walsleben and Baron-Faust's
strikes a more conversational tone. Buyers of either book will get
their money's worth. |
Copyright (c) 2001
Websciences |