Sleep Thieves

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Overview

In this engrossing, expansive look at the facts and folklore of sleep, best-selling author Stanley Coren provides astounding new evidence that we are becoming an increasingly sleep-deprived society, and that this condition is seriously affecting our work, posing a danger to ourselves and others. He shows, for example, that the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the disaster involving the space shuttle Challenger, and the nuclear accidents at both Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were all associated with people suffering from...
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Sleep Thieves

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Overview

In this engrossing, expansive look at the facts and folklore of sleep, best-selling author Stanley Coren provides astounding new evidence that we are becoming an increasingly sleep-deprived society, and that this condition is seriously affecting our work, posing a danger to ourselves and others. He shows, for example, that the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the disaster involving the space shuttle Challenger, and the nuclear accidents at both Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were all associated with people suffering from sleep deprivation. Drawing on dramatic interviews with a range of professionals including doctors, airline pilots, stockbrokers, and truck drivers, Coren shows the risks that everyone now faces as more and more people in the workforce operate with insufficient sleep. He also looks at some of the more subtle and insidious effects of sleep loss on our physical and mental health and explains how to tell whether you are getting enough sleep. In addition Coren asks intriguing questions like: Do fish sleep? Are there really "morning" people and "night" people? Why is it virtually impossible to fall asleep during midmorning hours no matter how tired you are? And how is it that you can sleep for hours on a plane and never feel rested? Some provocative stories about sleep oddities are presented along with a description of some strange sleep disorders that affect a surprisingly large number of people. Finally, the book describes specific techniques to help children sleep through the night and to improve the quality and efficiency of your own sleep.

The A to ZZZ of sleep is offered by the bestselling author of The Intelligence of Dogs. In an engrossing blend of entertaining anecdotes and scientific data, bestselling author Stanley Coren explores the world of sleep and sleeplessness. 320 pp. National print publicity and radio drive-time satellite tour. 25,000 print.

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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
While Coren's (psychology, Univ. of British Columbia) main thesis is that we Americans are becoming an ever-more-exhausted and accident-prone society due to "sleep debt," his fascinating book is also an in-depth look at this mysterious activity in which we all must, by nature, engage. Coren, author of the best-selling The Intelligence of Dogs (LJ 3/15/94), sees much peril in the fact that we are sleeping less, sleeping oddly, and think we can get away with it. He takes the reader on a journey into the world of sleep, keeping the scientific jargon to a manageable minimum without sacrificing the integrity of his work. One is impressed with the facts he lays out, though he makes clear that sleep remains a necessary but still very mysterious realm of human experience. After taking us through chapters detailing what scientists have come to know about sleep and the sleep experience, he tackles sleep problems, including insomnia, and details with alarming anecdotal and statistical evidence what progressively less sleep is buying us, both as individuals and as a society. Many chapters also offer tips, hints, and questionnaires dealing with different aspects of sleep. This is a well-written, easy-to-understand book on a complex scientific subject to which everyone can relate. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-David M. Turkalo, Suffolk Univ. Law Sch. Lib., Boston
Kirkus Reviews
Forget that early-to-rise myth; getting too little sleep is unhealthful, costly, and downright unproductive, according to this lively, anecdote-laden report on the perils of sleep deprivation.

Coren, a Canadian neuropsychologist whose previous work had wide appeal among dog lovers (The Intelligence of Dogs, 1994), will win the kudos of sleep lovers with this one. After a brief look at sleep in the rest of the animal kingdom, he focuses on what happens to the human mind and body when deprived of sleep. Citing research and using notes from a diary he kept while systematically cutting back on his own sleep, he demonstrates that reducing sleep decreases the quality and quantity of one's work. Furthermore, to ignore our biological clocks is to court disaster, for Coren notes that sleep deprivation weakens the immune system, leaving the body more vulnerable to infection and illness, even death. He looks specifically at the effects of sleep deprivation on truck drivers, airline pilots, air traffic controllers, hospital interns and residents, and shift workers such as police and firefighters. The statistics and anecdotes he provides are certainly eye-opening. A 1988 figure he cites gives the cost of sleep-related accidents in the US that year as billion, and he presents persuasive evidence that the major disasters of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and the Exxon Valdez were all caused by human beings with too little sleep. Tucked in among the sobering data are several charts and tables, quizzes to help one analyze one's own sleep habits and needs, and some tips on overcoming jet lag and getting a good night's sleep.

All the justification one needs for turning off the alarm and catching another 40 winks.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780684831848
  • Publisher: Free Press
  • Publication date: 4/3/1997
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 320
  • Product dimensions: 0.72 (w) x 8.50 (h) x 5.50 (d)

Meet the Author

Stanley Coren an international authority on sidedness, is professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Born to Bark: My Adventures with an Irrepressible and Unforgettable Dog (2010), among other books.

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Table of Contents

Preface
Edison's Curse 1
Sleep and Consciousness 12
What Is Sleep? 23
Evolution's Mistake? 36
No Sleep at All 48
Cutting Down on Sleep 60
A Little Bit of Sleep 70
The Clocks Within Us 80
Riding the Daily Seesaw of Sleepiness 94
Sleepy Children and Sleepy Parents 105
Sleepy Teenagers 119
Sleep Thieves in the Kitchen 126
Ondine's Curse 141
Sleepless Nights 154
Sleep and Health 168
Asleep at the Wheel 176
Asleep at the Operating Table 187
Asleep on the Night Shift 206
Asleep in the Sky 225
The Cost of Sleep Debt 236
Are We Chronically Sleep Deprived? 247
What Is Your Personal Sleep Debt? 260
Death on Daylight Savings Time 268
A Wake-Up Call 278
Notes 289
General Bibliography 293
Index 295
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