The Promise of Sleep

By William C. Dement,

Book cover of The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night's Sleep

Book description

This study of sleep ranges from the science of the sleeping brain to the coded world of dreams. It emphasizes the importance of sleep: loss of sleep diminishes motivation, saps the ability to experience pleasure and endangers the body. There is advice on getting enough sleep.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Promise of Sleep as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is the definitive book on sleep!  It is loaded with gems: Your sleep drive keeps an exact tally of accumulated waking hours. Like bricks in a backpack, accumulated sleep drive is a burden that weighs down on you. Every hour that you are awake adds another brick to the pack. The brain's sleep load increases until you go to sleep when the load starts to lighten.

The author emphasizes that your brain keeps an exact accounting of how much sleep it is owed.  Each successive night of partial sleep loss is carried over and the end effect appears to…

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