This book is a great mixture of science and entertainment to keep your attention. The science covers the root cause of various sleep disorders, treatments, possible causes and genetics while the entertaining side is a huge number of anecdotes from sleep disorder sufferers that the author has interviewed - this puts everything into context, knowing how real people feel about and manage their sleep disorders.

The book covers a variety of different sleep disorders; narcolepsy, insomnia, sleepwalking, apnea etc.
Each chapter is fascinating and full of very quotable fun facts, though some of the sciencey bits can get quite heavy (neurochemistry, anybody?). The author does combat this very well to make the book more accessible with his humorous narration style.

You can tell how much work and research went into bringing this book together, the fact that the author has narcolepsy puts a personal spin on things which makes it easier to sink in to.

There’s a wealth of information in this book, sometimes in the text, and sometimes through the references it offers—I’ve picked in those a couple of books I’ll need to read at some point.

“Sleepyhead” is probably more interesting if one is already suffering from sleep-related troubles, maybe not as bad as narcolepsy, but even temporary troubles, such as acute insomnia caused by stress. It goes through a certain amount of factors that trigger narcolepsy and other “X-somnias”, providing details about how misdiagnosed those used to be historically, and helping understand what they entail. For instance, I always thought that narcolepsy was about people falling asleep at any time of the day, but it had never occurred to me that their sleep at night was highly disturbed, and not the peaceful slumber one would imagine from that very basic description. I’m glad I know more about it now.

The book was also interesting for its insights about sleep in general, though the focus remains on the dysfunctional parts: it seems that over the centuries, lots of superstitions (like “incubi”) were in fact descriptions of parasomnia-induced symptoms, such as night terrors. I also didn’t know about the two-time sleep people seemed to have had before artificial lights: sleeping early for a few hours, then being awake for 1-2 hours in the dead of night, then sleeping again for a few more hours.

While note a bona fide scientific book, “Sleepyhead” is useful no matter what: for the journey it describes (Henry Nicholls went to meet and interview many people while researching), and for the information it provides. It could be beneficial for people who suffer from such troubles, sleep apnea for instance, if only to alert them in a “hey, that sounds exactly what -I- am going through!” way.

The author did a brilliant job of writing about the different categories of sleep disorders and how genes and other factors can contribute to the development of them. This was a fascinating read with tons of relevant information!

Sleepyhead is a great resource for those that either have trouble falling asleep or staying awake.

The author suffers from narcolepsy and frequently falls asleep at inappropriate times. He relates his own story and states that the average time before narcolepsy diagnosis is 15 years. However, Sleepyhead goes further than just narcolepsy. It also contains the possible reasons for other sleep disorders like SCN or the molecular circuit that controls when your body wants to sleep and rise. Many people do not have a 24-hour cycle meaning that they go to sleep and rise at variable times each day. Even moving your bedtime by 15 minutes per day either earlier or later makes a large difference over the course of a year. The book also discusses seasonal effective disorder and insomnia as well as the impact of daylight savings time on a body’s sleep cycle.

The best part of the book for me was the author’s note at the end that tells readers how to find more information about their particular sleep issue. In addition, Sleepyhead has comprehensive end notes referencing all the sources of the information in the book. The end notes make up 20% of the book. Sleepyhead is a great resource for the sleep-challenged among us. 4 stars!

Thanks to Perseus Books and NetGalley for an advance copy.

The Science of Sleep. As told by a narcoleptic journalist. This was actually a fascinating book about the hard science of sleep - all the way to the gene and chromosome level of certain sleep disorders. Other than the first chapter and last chapter, the traditional setup and summary, the remaining 10 chapters cover the hard science of sleep - everything from how light plays a large part in our circadian rhythm cycles to exactly how the current thinking on most sleep disorders was discovered by studying dogs. The *one* caution here is that if you come in looking for a quick pointer or two on how to sleep better... well, you'll get that. But you'll get the hard science explanation of *why* it is, rather than a short and sweet "do this, just do it". Excellent book, very thoroughly researched - the last 24% or so is bibliography and index!

For my first meeting with something written by Nicholls, I was very impressed. The author is a science journalist who has talked a lot about animals and their preservation. Here he does the Andrew Solomon thing, where he takes a topic which affects him directly, depression and anxiety in Solomon’s case, and attempts to give a general outline of the current understanding of this condition.

The book traces the history of the condition and its diagnosis, where medicine and science in general have come in understanding its physiological causes, and the psychological and social implications of the affliction over the people who suffer from it and those around them. In the case of Nicholls, the topic is a sleep disorder called narcolepsy, which generally means that he inadvertently falls asleep at anytime, even when strong external stimuli are present.

An interesting thing about a sleep disorder is the fact that it is never clear-cut. It is always linked to a lot of other conditions of which one must be aware. The author talks about people’s sleeping habits, both presently and historically (apparently before the ubiquity of electrical lighting people had two distinct periods of sleep during the night); about the advent of sleep research and the awareness over sleep disorders in the medical profession (quite low) and the world at large (a lot lower); about the race to discover what brain chemistry is responsible for the condition (exciting, at least, and with a few twists along the way); about a lot of sleep disorders which can appear together and are connected by the way our sleeping mechanism tries to compensate for some of the deficiencies which may appear in the systems involved (the roots of such deficiencies may be genetic, behavioural, post-traumatic, chronic and other ways, including, for a small number of cases, a certain flu vaccine); punctuated by lots of details about the persons involved (both scientists, medics, psychologists and fellow patients), many of which he interviewed personally.

The book is a non-scientist’s journey to discover and understand how something works in order to accept it. In fact, Nicholls acknowledges this spiritual journey, and the profound importance of such an exploration, in order to accept himself, to come to terms with his own existence in this world. It is a thoroughly and painstakingly researched volume, one which puts equal emphasis on the hard facts and on the human side, the path to understanding and coping with the condition.

Thank you #Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC of #Sleepyhead.

Sleepyhead is an informative and entertaining nonfiction book that dives deep into the nature, causes, and treatments of narcolepsy. For someone with a limited understanding of narcolepsy, the book helps clear up a number of misconceptions and overgeneralizations about the disorder. Henry Nicholls shares his own experience living with narcolepsy and helps clarify the nature, course, and treatment of the disorder. He also creatively weaves in the rich, provocative stories of others who live with sleep-wake disorders, as well as a number of scientists who have helped explain and treat these disorders. While the focus is predominantly on narcolepsy, comorbidity rules among the sleep-wake disorders. Hence, Sleepyhead also details the nature, cause, and treatment of a number of other sleep-wake disorders.

As an educator, the book's stories are particularly helpful to deepen my understanding of these disorders and the supporting research. No doubt my future sleep-wake disorder presentations and learning activities will benefit from having read this book. Sleepyhead is another A+ selection among several outstanding nonfiction books on sleep over the last couple of years.

SLEEPYHEAD’s author Henry Nicholls is a science writer and a narcoleptic, so he knows whereof he sleeps! 😀 For his sleep syndrome causes him to fall asleep anywhere at anytime. Nicholls uses his experience as backdrop to explore the neuroscience of disordered sleep, which is a gripping trip. He introduces us to the realms of insomnia (I’ve lived in that chronically tired state), sleep apnea (sufferers nearly suffocate as they stop breathing during sleep), and his own kingdom of chronic narcolepsy, among other forms of sleephead-hood. We learn why some of us love mornings and others hate them, how sleep habits change through aging, the when of REM sleep stages, and the importance of dreaming. I highly recommend this absorbing account to all sleep-deprived readers ... which if my circle of friends is any indication, is most of us! 5/5

Pub Date 04 Sep 2018   

Thanks to Perseus Books, Basic Books and NetGalley for the review copy, in exchange for my honest opinion.

#Sleepyhead #NetGalley

Sleepyhead is a well-written, interesting and informative book about sleep, focusing specifically on Narcolepsy and other sleep disorders. The author relates his own experiences with narcolepsy, as well as interviewing a variety of sleep-disorder sufferers, neurologists and other specialists. The book is relatively accessible without insulting the intelligence of readers. I would recommend this book to anyone who suffers from narcolepsy or knows someone with sleep-disorders.

Thank You Net Galley for the free ARC.

A book about sleep and what makes it good or bad. I loved the sections on color and timing of light, reminded me of flowering responses in plants. I sleep like the proverbial rock, so it is amazing to see how many different struggles and disorders there are and how much they impact a person's life. I had never heard of cataplexy and found the book very interesting.