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

"This book tells you how to get better sleep, not by banal and useless exercises but by proven scientific explanation. It outlines the history of research into sleep and recent findings in friendly plain English. Topics include the accumulation of "sleep debt", sleep patterns from newborns to the elderly, how to reset your body clock, the role of dreaming, and the very real ways in which lack of good sleep can affect health. The author also tells interesting anecdotes about his experiences researching sleep over many years, such as how eyebrows were raised when the first women took part in perfectly innocuous sleep experiments!"
~ Written on 2002-01-04

"The book is quite readable and covers in great detail the science of sleep. What comes out clearest, even after only 1 chapter is that this is a subject that affects us all, and not sleeping enough is a serious medical threat to many people in this day and age. The book is therefore fascinating, after all we sleep every day and tend not to think about it. When we don't sleep enough it affect us in a bad way but take the symptoms to your average doctor and he will not spot the problem. Sleep science is under funded and so not fully researched.

If you suspect that you, or someone you care for is suffering because they do not get enough sleep then get them this book for christmas. It might just save their life."
~ Written on 2001-11-09

"This is an excellent book highlighting the importance of getting good quality sleep. It seems that few people realise the full extent to which poor sleeping habits affect all aspects of our daily life.

This book also identifies potentially dangerous sleeping conditions and diseases (which are much more prevalent than one would think) which at best affect our performance during the day and at worst can be killers.

This is very well written by an author who has decades of experience in investigating sleep disorders and is easy to read, even for someone with little medical knowledge. A must-read for anyone who struggles getting good quality sleep or who is frequently tired during the day."
~ Written on 2000-03-19

"Dr. Dement has written a very readable book about the importance of sleep. I enjoyed the inclusion of case studies rather than potentially mind-numbing text about the theory. If he is a bit self-promotional, I don't blame him. He has apparently struggled to make the medical community aware of the importance of the sleep issue, and he's now gone out to consumers at large with his message. He deserves credit."
~ Written on 1999-08-23

"I was absolutely intrigued by this book. The first of its kind, The Promise of Sleep is much more than meets the eye. This isn't just another book on how to sleep better, with some trite advice like drinking warm milk and not consuming caffeine before bed. This is the start of a sleep revolution , with information on what happens when we sleep and, chillingly, what could happen if we don't get enough sleep. Dr. Dement paints an accurate, yet frightening portrayal of the potential crisis our nation is facing. People don't sleep enough because, in a vicious catch-22, they want to be more productive. And yet, lack of sleep has caused the economy to lose countless dollars in productivity. And yet the medical community and the government seem to be doing little about this. Every aspect of sleep that could possible be imagined is included in here, from the history of sleep in science and mythology to jet lag to dreams is included in here. As the author says, this book contains the basic knowledge about sleep that everyone needs. Everyone should have The Promise of Sleep in their homes."
~ Written on 1999-08-12