Today’s Book of the Day is The Sleep Prescription, written by Aric Prather and published in 2022 by Penguin Life.
Aric A. Prather is a psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor at the University of California, San Francisco, where he co-directs the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center. He has helped hundreds of patients improve their sleep using cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.
I have chosen this book for this post as I use and teach Yoga Nidra in my practice to help people sleep better and fight insomnia using meditation and relaxation.
In this interesting book, Aric Prather guides the readers on an effective journey to reducing their sleep debt by growing awareness of those behaviors that negatively affect our sleep. The goal of the journey is to give the readers a refreshing and restoring night’s rest.
Our minds and bodies get extremely negative and serious consequences from a lack of proper, quality sleep. We get more prone to get ill, more often, and for longer, we feel more pain, we are cognitively impaired and our memory worsens, and, from a personal and social point of view, we become less friendly, we lose empathy, and we grow a negative attitude towards others.
The author begins by suggesting the readers keep a sleep log, where they can record how they rest. This will become the starting point of the journey. This technique comes directly from the clinical experience of Prather in the Sleep Clinic he co-manages.
And, as proper sleep is essential for the quality of our life as eating, breathing, and taking care of ourselves, the author gives us his 7 steps in 7 days tool to set the foundation for well-being, as he writes.
During these seven days, the readers will be guided in the following exercises:
Day 1: Set Your (Internal) Clock
Day 2: Ease Off the Gas
Day 3: Energize—But Do It Right
Day 4: Worry Early
Day 5: You Are Not a Computer; You Can’t Just Shut Down
Day 6: (Re)Train Your Brain
Day 7: Stay Up Late
Having helped many patients with their insomnia, the steps are directly aimed at giving immediate, effective, and practical results.
The key elements to succeed are, of course, consistency and trust in the method.
Prather does an excellent job of helping readers become aware of the issue, grow a mindful attitude, and create a healthy sleep routine that will quickly improve the quality of rest and life in general.
I absolutely recommend this book to everyone who suffers from insomnia as it may represent an effective alternative to medical prescriptions.
Raffaello Palandri's Blog 
One thought on “Book of the Day – The Sleep Prescription”