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    Sleep: The Owner's Manual
    Sleep: The Owner's Manual
    Sleep: The Owner's Manual
    Ebook62 pages51 minutes

    Sleep: The Owner's Manual

    By Pierce Howard

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Cutting-edge, user-friendly, and comprehensive: the revolutionary guide to the brain, now fully revised and updated

    At birth each of us is given the most powerful and complex tool of all time: the human brain. And yet, as we well know, it doesn't come with an owner's manual—until now. In this unsurpassed resource, Dr. Pierce J. Howard and his team distill the very latest research and clearly explain the practical, real-world applications to our daily lives. Drawing from the frontiers of psychology, neurobiology, and cognitive science, yet organized and written for maximum usability, The Owner's Manual for the Brain, Fourth Edition, is your comprehensive guide to optimum mental performance and well-being. It should be on every thinking person's bookshelf.

    • What are the ingredients of happiness?
    • Which are the best remedies for headaches and migraines?
    • How can we master creativity, focus, decision making, and willpower?
    • What are the best brain foods?
    • How is it possible to boost memory and intelligence?
    • What is the secret to getting a good night's sleep?
    • How can you positively manage depression, anxiety, addiction, and other disorders?
    • What is the impact of nutrition, stress, and exercise on the brain?
    • Is personality hard-wired or fluid?
    • What are the best strategies when recovering from trauma and loss?
    • How do moods and emotions interact?
    • What is the ideal learning environment for children?
    • How do love, humor, music, friendship, and nature contribute to well-being?
    • Are there ways of reducing negative traits such as aggression, short-temperedness, or irritability?
    • What is the recommended treatment for concussions?
    • Can you delay or prevent Alzheimer's and dementia?
    • What are the most important ingredients to a successful marriage and family?
    • What do the world's most effective managers know about leadership, motivation, and persuasion?
    • Plus 1,000s more topics!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 6, 2014
    ISBN9780062357601
    Sleep: The Owner's Manual
    Author

    Pierce Howard

    Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D., is director of research and development for the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since the first edition of The Owner's Manual for the Brain was published in 1994, Dr. Howard has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and conducted countless seminars around the world. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the International Test Commission.

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    4.5/5

    12 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book is throughly written and a great, quick read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed reading your book. I read enthusiastically and understood the story. If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top

    Book preview

    Sleep - Pierce Howard

    Contents

    A Note to the Reader

    A Good Night’s Sleep: Cycles, Naps, Dreams, and Nightmares

    1  The Sleep Cycle

    2  The Purpose and Benefits of Sleep

    3  The Circadian Rhythm

    4  Time Zone Changes

    5  Sleep and Exercise

    6  Sleep and Diet

    7  Sleep and Weight

    8  The Effect of Odors on Sleep

    9  The Effects of Sleep Deprivation

    10  Sleep and Medication

    11  Naps

    12  Naps at Work

    13  Shift Work

    14  Dreams

    15  Nightmares

    16  Sleep Differences Between the Sexes

    17  Getting Back to Sleep

    18  Stability in Sleep Patterns

    19  If You Don’t Want to Sleep!

    20  Apnea and Restless Legs

    A Final Word on Sleep

    The Author

    Credits

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    A Note to the Reader

    Please note that all topic numbers and cross-references refer to those in the larger work.

    A Good Night’s Sleep

    A good night’s sleep should be declared a basic human right. Research is growing nearer to establishing the purpose of sleep. For example, Robert Stickgold (1998), reviewing studies on sleep and memory, points out that among rats, sleep deprivation prevents memory formation. This chapter reviews findings that may be helpful in understanding both what a good night’s sleep is and how we can manage to get one.

    The infant averages 14 hours of sleep, the mature adult 7½ hours, and the senior adult (over 75) averages 6. Before the invention of electric lights, typical adults slept for 9 hours. When all cues to time of day are removed, typical adults will average 10.3 hours of sleep daily, similar to their cousins, the apes and monkeys. However, studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking. The key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy. Each sleep cycle contains five distinct phases, which exhibit different brain wave patterns (see more in chapter 2):

    Pre-sleep: beta waves, or normal alertness.

    Phase 1 sleep: alpha waves, the mind at rest, eyes closed, breathing slowed, images beginning to appear; these images can be voluntarily controlled—you are at this point still conscious.

    Phase 2 sleep: theta waves, or light sleep.

    Phase 3 sleep: delta waves, or deep sleep.

    Phase 4 sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, or dreaming.

    Phase 5 sleep: theta waves, or light sleep, signaling the end of a cycle.

    Phases 1–3 together average 65 minutes, followed by an average of 20 minutes for phase 4 (REM) sleep, with phase 5 lasting only 5 minutes on average. For a complete description, see The Mind in Sleep (Arkin, Antrobus, and Ellman, 1978) or Sleep: The Gentle Tyrant (Webb, 1992). For our purposes, it suffices to say that one sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes (see figure 16.1).

    Figure 16.1. The Sleep Cycle

    If we were to sleep completely naturally, with no alarm clocks or other sleep disturbances, we would wake up, on the average, after a multiple of 90 minutes—for example, after 4½ hours, 6 hours, 7½ hours, or 9 hours, but not after 7 or 8 hours, which are not multiples of 90 minutes. In the period between cycles we are not actually sleeping; this is a sort of twilight zone from which, if we are not disturbed (by light, cold, a full bladder, noise), we move into another 90-minute cycle. A person who sleeps only four

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