I have to admit that I’ve been paying closer attention than usual to the blogger reviews in this campaign.  While I don’t suffer from insomnia anymore, I did - for years and years, starting when I was a child.  By comparison, the sleep I get now is heavenly.  But could it be better?  Absolutely.  As one of our reviewers asked, “Do you think you could benefit from better sleep? Um, you’re lying if you said no.”

Two major themes emerged from the second half of the reviews.  First, even without adopting the full-on, 28-day, Sleep Boot Camp program, our reviewers have seen marked improvements in their sleep.  The individual sleep strategies - in particular, the Extreme Bedroom Makeover - were incredibly effective on their own:

• There’s more to a sleep-friendly environment than mere darkness: “I never thought about how temperatures, smells or general clutter could affect my rest. Once I followed [Dr. Breus's] ’bedroom makeover’ tips, I did feel more at ease in our sleeping space.”
• I can personally vouch for this one: “Sound machines to drown out extreme snoring? Best. Invention. Ever.“
• And having lived in a two-bedroom apartment, I’ve fallen into the trap of using the master bedroom as a dumping ground: “Our bedroom was the one room that had become the perfect place to stash things…I cleaned and decluttered all the visible parts of the bedroom. The closet and drawers still need work but right now you can see the bedroom and it’s not piled up to the ceiling with crap.”
• Although expensive, a good mattress is essential: “We need to head out and shop for a new bed. Thankfully the book has tips for picking out a bed that works for both of you.”
• A new twist on counting sheep, and it really works: “It was so simple it was almost elegant, the very definition of good science. All I had to do was count backward from three-hundred by three. On the first night, I was asleep before I even hit two-hundred.”
• Psyching yourself up (or down) for sleep: “Some of the things that I had been doing incidentally were things that the good doctor recommended as part of good sleep habits: not checking e-mail (or, um, blogging) in the hour before bedtime, not consuming alcohol before bedtime, sticking to a regular bedtime, having a wind-down period…“

While all of these strategies are quite logical, it’s no wonder that we can’t quiet our brains down long enough to think of how we might help ourselves.  Shouldn’t there just be a magic pill that solves it all?  And if you watch the pharmaceutical commercials, you’d think that’s exactly what you should be doing.  Instead, take the time to relax and prepare yourself for sleep - that’s what your body really needs, not a pill.

The second point that many reviewers made was that the flexibility of Dr. Breus’s guidance made his book even more appealing and helpful.  “The emphasis on figuring out what works for you - and the provision of really, really good strategies for figuring out what works for you - rather than insisting upon adopting specific practices that may or may not be practical or desirable takes the stress out of addressing your sleep problems.”

Also, his empathy for parents sat well with our reviewers, who commented that “I truly appreciated the recognition that parenting and mothering in particular are hard work. The discussion of gender and hormone issues hit home for me as well.“  He also “…addresses common parent-related problems such as a co-sleeping child who is restless and kicks you awake all night or a child who routinely crawls into bed with you in the middle of the night, then states that there is really no clear-cut yes or no answer and that you have to decide what will work best for you and for your family - something I’ve been saying all along.”

Finally, even our reviewer who’s currently in the middle of a pregnancy and “was initially discouraged [by the] little caveat on page 57 that says pregnancy complicates the hell out of everything” has “noticed a big difference in [her] sleep quality.”  A book that can even help a pregnant woman get a good night’s sleep - now that’s saying something.

If you’d like to purchase your own copy of Good Night - The Sleep Doctor’s Four-Week Program, click here!  And be sure to check out Dr. Breus’s websites - The Insomnia Blog and Your Beauty Sleep.