Review 66: The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia

The Women's Guide to Overcoming Insomnia: Get a Good Night's Sleep Without Relying on Medication by Shelby Harris
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I don't have insomnia, maybe a night or two here or there, or a week at most at a time, but nothing long lasting. But who doesn't want a better night of sleep? I definitely have a problem with Sunday night as during the weekends I time shift. It's automatic, I can't help it. I fit myself into a sleep schedule to fit work, but it does not fit my internal time clock. Actually sounds like a recipe for chronic insomnia, so the fact I don't, makes me feel lucky.

Yet, I do struggle at times, which is why this book looked interesting to me. I wanted to also understand why it was geared towards women and not everyone. The author, Harris, mentions several things that are particular to women: we tend to worry more, our brains are harder to shut off, then there's those things such as menopause, perimenopause and pregnancy. The hormones and cycles definitely play a role in our sleeping.

It's sometimes hard to rate self-help books, and this one definitely fits in that category. One reason for a lower rating is the repetitiveness that is here. I think authors of these types of books figure people may skip around and not read every chapter, but this book is geared for reading in the usual manner. Another reason I rated the book lower was for lack of examples. It felt like more examples for the situations would have made for a better book. If there was repetition due to padding out the book, more of these examples would have taken care of that issue.

In a moment of synchronicity, I received an email yesterday that discussed a new FDA Black Box warning for insomnia medications. The short article states that the best primary way to tackle insomnia is not medications but cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, known as CBT-i. I had never heard of this before reading the book, but the book is all about CBT-i.

Despite the flaws of the book it still contains a lot of useful advice. I will likely add some of these recommendations to my sleep routine.

Book rating: 3.5 stars

Thanks to W.W. Norton and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.