I get asked all of the time for a book recommendation on sleep and for years I’ve had a hard time finding one I genuinely enjoyed reading and felt offered practical advice. There are some really great options geared towards insomnia. The wildly successful “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker is a little too esoteric and anxiety-provoking for a lot of folks.
For a long time, I’ve been thinking of writing that book I wanted to recommend, but it seems my teacher from fellowship has beat me to it! I had the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Rafael Pelayo on the phone yesterday and he encouraged me by saying self help books are like cookbooks, people need more than one. We also talked a bit about the genesis of this book and it’s intention as a practical handbook for anyone and everyone.
This book is concise, medically accurate, up to date, easy to read, and extremely helpful. It contains the practical knowledge every person should have about sleep as it pertains to health.
If there’s one takeaway I’d want my colleagues and connections on IG to learn from this post it is to stop recommending “sleep hygiene” as a treatment for sleep problems (I posted about this a few months ago on IG and was met with some push back from a few primary care doctors). It is shaming and blames the person for their sleep problems. In the book Dr. Pelayo calls these the “old rules.” Swipe for an excerpt on this topic. Well here are the new rules for sleep. Enjoy because this is the book we’ve all been waiting for. Link in bio to Amazon to purchase.
What are your favorite books about sleep?