Insomniac | 
 enlarge | Author: Gayle Greene
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 17939
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 520
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 1.7
ISBN: 0520246306
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8498
EAN: 9780520246300
ASIN: 0520246306
Publication Date: March 10, 2008
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Condition: CHARITY SALE!! Brand new, mint condition. 100% of the proceeds benefit literacy efforts of Books for America.
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Product Description
I can't work, I can't think, I can't connect with anyone anymore. . . . I mope through a day's work and haven't had a promotion in years. . . . It's like I'm being sucked dry, eaten away, swallowed up, coming unglued. . . . These are voices of a few of the tens of millions who suffer from chronic insomnia. In this revelatory book, Gayle Greene offers a uniquely comprehensive account of this devastating and little-understood condition. She has traveled the world in a quest for answers, interviewing neurologists, sleep researchers, doctors, psychotherapists, and insomniacs of all sorts. What comes of her extraordinary journey is an up-to-date account of what is known about insomnia, providing the information every insomniac needs to know to make intelligent choices among medications and therapies. Insomniac is at once a field guide through the hidden terrain inhabited by insomniacs and a book of consolations for anyone who has struggled with this affliction that has long been trivialized and neglected.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 More Thanks To Gayle Greene July 5, 2008
Finally, research that supports the "truths" about insomnia. I am a lifetime sufferer and I took copious notes. Other reviewers have nicely summarized the author's helpful hints, her empowering research, the validation readers will get from reading this book and the interesting and easy read the author has accomplished. I want to add two things. First, I finally have a VOCABULARY and a language to use when discussing my affliction. For example: broken sleep-switch, a defect in the sleep system, need for a paradigm shift, cumulative effects of disturbed sleep, ratcheting up. Second, the reality that other people have insomnia as seriously or even more seriously than I do amazed me. I have achieved a better level of acceptance just knowing this. What a gift this science and this validation have been to me. I wish this book had been available years ago when I first starting trying to "find the cure."
Insomnia: Whose problem is it, finally? June 30, 2008
There is something heroic -- as well as wonderfully clear, deeply informative -- in this critical tale of determination to understand an elusive, often discredited, condition about which so many people, from family, friends and lovers to world-renowned scientists, have their victim-blaming doubts. It is not finally insomniacs who emerge from Greene's book as having a problem. It is worlds set up on the premise, a premise that turns around and becomes a requirement, that we all behave as if we are far more alike than, thank goodness, we are. I learned a great deal from this book about the sleep and sleeplessness that so shape our lives and yet are so rarely openly discussed; about relevant sciences, medical and social; and, crucially, about survival skills. Greene's honed get-on-with-it skills include a wonderfully wry humor, you should know, along with an acute political sensibility that neither lessens nor drowns in the personal.
Finally someone put into words the public & private impact of living with chronic, long term insomnia June 28, 2008
It's as though someone finally got it! I've been trying to explain to doctors for years how this problem impacts my life. Looking for solutions, or even interest from the medical community has been impossible. The impression that they just don't care about my suffering was not always accurate. I now realize that there are few options for doctors to choose from to help a patient overcome sleep disorders. I know one thing though... the more we talk about it in an eloquent and coherent way the way Gayle Greene has done, the more people will listen and take the problem seriously. I wonder how many health problems could be averted if only people were able to get restorative sleep. This is a health crisis and the medical and research communities need to step up to the challenges and look for solutions for the sake of public health.
 For those of us who need more than 2 hours sleep ... June 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I ordered and read this book after hearing most of an interview with Gayle Greene on NPR ... I believe it was Talk of the Nation. I was impressed with what she had to say, her professionalism, and her obvious passion for the sugject. I wanted to hear more. Greene would like this book to give a voice to insomnia, and I believe she has done and excellent job of speaking for those with the complaint ... symptom ... disorder ... Even she seems unsure what to call it. "Insomniac" is a rewarding book, but if you are looking for a "How To" book, this is not it. I did not find answers in this book so much as more and better questions to ask.
Greene states in the first chapter that this is a cranky book, and she is right. I have difficulty sleeping, and even I found more irony than humor in the book. However, it is validating for anyone who has even mild insomnia, and is frustrated with the "I only need four hours of sleep" bragging so prevalent in our society. The discussion of these value judgements is just as enlightening as the medical research Greene has done.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is having trouble understanding a friend or loved one with insomnia. It will help you understand that insomnia is not just something he or she is doing wrong.
And for anyone who, like myself, is convinced that there is a physical as well as a mental component to the inability to sleep, this book gives an excellent look at the medical research that supports (and refutes) this opinion, explains some of its biases, and explains why there isn't more research. Greene also gives the pros and cons of most of the common "How Tos" out there, from her own point of view. If that's not enough reason to read it, I predict Insomniac will probably give you at least ONE idea of what to try next!
LOVED THIS BOOK !!!!! May 19, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK . IT WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN AND EASY TO FOLLOW. I HAVE SUFFERED FROM INSOMNIA FOR SO LONG AND COULD REALLY RELATE TO GAIL. THIS BOOK IS NOT LIKE SOME OF THE SELF HELP BOOKS OUT THERE ABOUT INSOMNIA, THAT TELL YOU HOW TO CURE YOUR INSOMNIA AND NEVER WORK . GAIL GETS TO THE REAL STORY THAT NO ONE LOOKS AT ... INSOMNIA IS NOT SOMETHING YOU ARE DOING OR NOT DOING .. IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT CAN GET FIXED BY A PILL. IT IS A REAL CONDITION AND NO ONE IS LOOKING TO FIND THE REAL CAUSE OR A REAL CURE. THEY ARE JUST LOOKING AT WAYS TO MASK THE PROBLEM WITH PILLS OR THE DOCTORS THINK IT IS PHYSCOLOGICAL INSTEAD OF PHYSIOLOGICAL. I REALLY BELIEVE IT IS A DISEASE... SOMETHING MISSING OR NOT WORKING CORRECTLY IN THE BODY. I FEEL IF THEY DID SOME REAL RESEARCH INTO IT THEY WOULD FIND THE PROBLEM. WE NEED TO GATHER DATA. AND WITH THE INTERNET WE CAN COLLECT DATA MUCH EASIER . INSOMNIACS AROUND THE WORLD NEED TO BAN TOGETHER AND TRY TO RAISE AWARENESS AND MONEY FOR REAL RESEARCH. IT CAN BE DONE. BUT READ THIS BOOK I REALLY LIKED IT . VERY EYE OPENING .
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