The Ava Innes team recommends six science-backed books to help you establish better sleep rituals and routines.
Sleep underpins our health, happiness, and overall quality of life. At its core, good sleep is simple. Yet it can feel unmanageable and complicated when we aren't getting it. That’s because sleep is inherently holistic. And with anything that relies on multiple and diverging factors, coming at it from one angle won't yield results.
Understanding the foundations of sleep is the first step to addressing what may be causing you to not sleep well, and how to meaningfully change that long-term.
More from The Journal: Find out how our sleep changes in spring & summer, and what to do about it here.
Whether you're managing a transitional phase of your life like parenthood or menopause. If stress and lifestyle are blocking you from getting deep and restful sleep. Or if you simply want to optimise your rest to ensure you feel your best. Knowledge is always power, which is why we recommend taking a deeper dive into the mechanics and natural rhythms of sleep.
Here are six titles our team recommend reading for understanding how sleep works, what dreams mean, and why rest is so crucial to our lives.
Swap your bedtime reads for these non-fiction deep dives into the world of sleep...
Sleep Reimagined: The Fast Track to a Revitalized Life, by Pedram Navab
Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, by Matthew Walker
"Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker provides a revolutionary exploration of sleep, examining how it affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being. Charting the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and marshalling his decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood and energy levels, regulate hormones, prevent cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes, slow the effects of aging, and increase longevity. He also provides actionable steps towards getting a better night's sleep every night."
Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep, by Kenneth Miller
"4 June 1938. Nathaniel Kleitman and his research student make their way down the seventy-one steps leading to the mouth of Mammoth Cave. They are about to embark on one of the most intrepid and bizarre experiments in medical history, one which will change our understanding of sleep forever. Undisturbed by natural light, they will investigate what happens when you overturn one of the fundamental rhythms of the human body. Together, they enter the darkness.
When Kleitman first arrived in New York, a penniless twenty-year-old refugee, few would have guessed that in just a few decades he would revolutionise the field of sleep science. In Mapping the Darkness, Kenneth Miller weaves science and history to tell the story of the outsider scientists who took sleep science from the fringes to a mainstream obsession. Reliving the spectacular experiments, technological innovation, imaginative leaps and single-minded commitment of these early pioneers, Miller provides a tantalising glimpse into the most mysterious third of our lives."
Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun
"When Ada Calhoun found herself in the throes of a midlife crisis, she thought that she had no right to complain. She was married with children and a good career. So why did she feel miserable? And why did it seem that other Generation X women were miserable, too?
Speaking with women across America about their experiences as the generation raised to “have it all,” Calhoun found that most were exhausted, terrified about money, under-employed, and overwhelmed. Instead of being heard, they were told instead to lean in, take “me-time,” or make a chore chart to get their lives and homes in order.
In Why We Can’t Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X’s predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss—and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering, and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them."
"More than 60 percent of American women have trouble sleeping which isn't surprising, as they have a higher risk of developing sleeping problems. But addressing this issue is more nuanced for women than for men; pregnancy and menopause are just two factors that add complexity to an already difficult problem. At the risk of jeopardising work, parenting, relationships, or overall health, no woman can afford to deal with sleep deprivation on her own.
The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia is a roadmap for those who experience anything from occasional bad nights to chronic insomnia. It outlines several methods to overcome these issues and improve physical and emotional well- being. From medical sleep aids to nonmedical approaches, the book looks beyond the basics of sleep hygiene, helping women to retrain their bodies and minds for a good night's sleep every night."
"We are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis, and this has profound consequences – on our health, our job performance, our relationships and our happiness. In this book, Arianna Huffington boldly asserts that what is needed is nothing short of a sleep revolution. Only by renewing our relationship with sleep can we take back control of our lives.
Through a sweeping, scientifically rigorous and deeply personal exploration of sleep from all angles, Arianna delves into the new golden age of sleep science that reveals the vital role sleep plays in our every waking moment and every aspect of our health – from weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease to cancer and Alzheimer’s.
In The Sleep Revolution, Arianna shows how our cultural dismissal of sleep as time wasted not only compromises our health and our decision-making but also undermines our work lives, our personal lives and even our sex lives. She explores all the latest science on what exactly is going on while we sleep and dream. She takes on the dangerous sleeping pill industry and confronts all the ways our addiction to technology disrupts our sleep. She also offers a range of recommendations and tips from leading scientists on how we can achieve better and more restorative sleep, and harness its incredible power.
In today's fast-paced, always-connected, perpetually harried and sleep-deprived world, our need for a good night’s sleep is more important – and elusive – than ever. The Sleep Revolution both sounds the alarm on our worldwide sleep crisis and provides a detailed road map to the great sleep awakening that can help transform our lives, our communities and our world."
Read more on sleep hygiene, advice, and wellness over at Sleep Talk.
