Power Sleep

Customer Reviews

• a good overview on the importance of sleep  Dec 5, 2001 (28 of 28 found this helpful)

  I don't think it will shock many readers that Americans are at least one or two hours sleep deprived a night -- the author details dozens of horrifying accidents and incidents that resulted from the actions of sleep deprived individuals. The opening few chapters about the various levels of sleep made for great reading. The twenty tips for good sleep were helpful, although most of them I already knew. In short, there is nothing extremely new or cutting edge, but there is lots of usable and easy to read information about all kinds of sleep disorders. I found it very entertaining and well presented although I would have cut out some of the extra stuff.

• Useful  May 6, 2002 (56 of 63 found this helpful)

  Not having problems with sleeping and appreciating it's importance, this book is not really for me: it soon becomes very clear that the author's two basic thesis for writing this book are 1) that you are so consumed by hectic pace of everyday life that you almost consider sleeping a waste of time, and 2) that you hardly have any idea on how detrimental is such an attitude to you, your energy, mood and success, and the people around you.

  Even if you did start reading the book, Dr. Maas is concerned that you aren't truly interested and that you might drop it any moment. One has to appreciate his attempts in keeping your interest by writing short chapters with small units, many illustrations (photographs or cartoons), his own attempts in writing wittily (with mixed results), and plenty of repetitions of most important points. I thought that a good part of what is written is common knowledge. On the other hand, there are things that I hoped would be explained which aren't even mentioned. For example, what are the biological mechanisms (and how they work) that affect some peoples' need for sleep when it's full moon, what are the hormonal changes that occur when a very fatigued individual after skipping a night or two feels his/her sex drive has increased rather than decreased (which would be expected)... you will not find anything on such phenomena in the book. The impact of sleep deprivation on one's mood and emotions is mentioned but not really explained.

  There are two things that I consider particularly good: a short true-or-false test with popular notions about sleep which one can complete in about 5 minutes, and which can be very motivational, and the Peak Performance Sleep Log which a reader is supposed to keep during several weeks. It's a simple record of factors that affect your sleep and even though one can occasionally feel silly keeping the log, it helped in finding a pattern where previously I did not think there was one. I believe Dr. Maas' claim that after a few weeks people may "discover, perhaps for the first time, what it really feels like to be fully alert all day long." As he says "If you're getting less than eight hours of sleep each night, including weekends, or if you fall asleep instantly, or need an alarm clock to wake up, consider yourself one of millions of chronically sleep-deprived people - perhaps blissfully ignorant of how sleepy and ineffective you are, or how dynamic you could be with adequate sleep."

  To conclude: if I have felt mislead into buying this book it's more because of the way publisher presented it than it is about the book's claim: the author makes it perfectly clear who is his target readership. As other reviewers have noted, there isn't much "revolutionary" about this book. Nevertheless, I did find it useful and consider it a good introduction to the topic. In addition, it contains numerous references, including web-sites, addresses of sleep disorder centers in the USA etc. which one can follow.

• Not a waste of money but not what I expected  Jul 11, 2004 (24 of 25 found this helpful)

  I liked this book in a lot of ways, but when it ended, I was dissappointed. There is worthwhile information about sleep and interesting quotations from famous people about sleep but there seemed to be a lot of filler in this book. The book throws out many statistics but rarely explains how these stastics were obtained. I also thought the book contained too many horror stories about deaths related to people falling asleep while operating heavy machinery etc.,.
  I got this book because I am 19 years old and in college and basically ever since I turned 13 I haven't been able to maintain a normal sleep cycle for more than a week at a time. I always end up not being able to get to sleep at my set bedtime and throw off my whole plan to wake and rise at the same time everyday. Unfortunately, I don't think this book is going to help me change that. I only just finished it today, though, so I'll keep you updated as to how things go.
  The books' main suggestion is that you should wake up at the same time every day and go to sleep at the same time every night. This is pretty common knowledge and unfortunately I just don't think this is something I can realistically do because I have tried hundreds of time in the past and just not been able to maintain a consistent schedule.
  The book gives some valuable suggestions like "don't exercise near bedtime" and "don't eat any heavy meals before bedtime". The book describes the "architecture" of sleep which is interesting to read about and gave me a better understanding of my sleeping patterns. One valuable piece of information the book gave is that 8 hours of disrupted sleep is not as restorative as 6 hours of deep uninterrupted sleep. The book also suggest that if you are cramming for an exam late at night that you should get a minimum of four hours of sleep. This is a valuable piece of information which I could have used throughout the last year of college. The message about sleeping pills in this book is that you shouldn't take them. I think one good message that the book delivers is that sleep is more valuable than we think. The book says that, when we get more sleep, we function at a higher level and then throws out some sketchy statistics to support this argument.
  There is a list of sleep clinics in the back of the book which is great. I think I'll have to check one of them out because I doubt this book's suggestions are going to solve my sleeping problems.
  I was very disappointed by the fact that there was no concluding chapter to the book. The book doesn't tie everything together at the end and just ends with a list of suggestions for elderly people on how to get to sleep and 20 pages of appendixes and footnotes. I also felt mislead by the title of this book. I thought the book would include information about how to sleep less or how to get more restorative sleep but it didn't and I found that most of the information presented is stuff I already knew. You could probably find most of this information on the internet but I only paid $1 for the book and it did have some interesting information (although it didn't provide me with the type of information I was expecting) so it gets 3 stars.

  p.s. I also found the suggestions to "go to sleep now if you're tired and staying up and reading this book" really annoying haha

• Valuable presentation on importance of sleep in our lives.  Apr 18, 1999 (14 of 15 found this helpful)

  In the months since I first read Power Sleep, I have referred back to the wonderful information contained in it many times, and each time, have found there is more to remember and to enjoy. Professor Maas' style of writing makes one want to even consider "losing some sleep," just to absorb this book non-stop. It is at once a valuable reference on sleep, both scientifically and practically; a book which is fun and entertaining, but also very challenging to read; and a subject well presented at a time when we all can be reminded of the restorative nature of getting enough sleep to be at our best each day.

• Power Sleep by Maas  Jun 5, 2005 (10 of 10 found this helpful)

  A main thesis of the work is that sleep is critical to peak
  mental performance and concentration during the daytime. Sleep deprivation can lead to immune system breakdowns and decreased
  memory capability. The author recommends at least 10 hours of
  sleep daily for peak performance. In addition, there is a suggestion that we should make up for lost sleep as soon as possible. Some benefit may accrue for workers who get approximately 15-20 minutes of sleep at work . This book will help you to feel better if the advice on optimum sleep is followed. The work contains some important new perspectives on sleeping. The volume is well-researched and current in both
  information content and outlook.