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Title details for Wide Awake by Patricia Morrisroe - Available

Wide Awake

What I Learned About Sleep from Doctors, Drug Companies, Dream Experts, and a Reindeer Herder in the Arctic Circle

by Patricia Morrisroe
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A fourth-generation insomniac, Patricia Morrisroe decided that the only way she’d ever conquer her lifelong sleep disorder was by becoming an expert on the subject. So, armed with half a century of personal experience and a journalist’s curiosity, she set off to explore one of life’s greatest mysteries: sleep. Wide Awake is the eye-opening account of Morrisroe’s quest—a compelling memoir that blends science, culture, and business to tell the story of why she—and forty million other Americans—can’t sleep at night.            
Over the course of three years of research and reporting, Morrisroe talks to sleep doctors, drug makers, psychiatrists, anthropologists, hypnotherapists, “wake experts,” mattress salesmen, a magician, an astronaut, and even a reindeer herder. She spends an uncomfortable night wired up in a sleep lab. She tries “sleep restriction” and “brain music therapy.” She buys a high-end sound machine, custom-made ear plugs, and a “quiet” house in the country to escape her noisy neighbors in the city. She attends a continuing medical education course in Las Vegas, where she discovers that doctors are among the most sleep-deprived people in the country. She travels to Sonoma, California, where she attends a Dream Ball costumed as her “dream self.” To fulfill a childhood fantasy, she celebrates Christmas Eve two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, in the famed Icehotel tossing and turning on an ice bed. Finally, after traveling the globe, she finds the answer to her insomnia right around the corner from her apartment in New York City. 
 
A mesmerizing mix of personal insight, science and social observation, Wide Awake examines the role of sleep in our increasingly hyperactive culture. For the millions who suffer from sleepless nights and hazy caffeine-filled days, this humorous, thought-provoking and ultimately hopeful book is an essential bedtime companion. It does, however, come with a warning: Reading it will promote wakefulness.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 4, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780679603634

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780679603634
      • File size: 2421 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      February 15, 2010
      Former New York magazine contributor Morrisroe (Mapplethorpe: A Biography, 1995) considers her insidious condition.

      The author is one of the millions of Americans who suffer from insomnia, but it didn't cause her real alarm until 2006, when,"after a particularly bad night" she went in search of coffee and was almost run over by a taxi. This wakeup call, coupled with her fear of relying too heavily on sleeping pills, caused her to seek professional help. Morrisroe's quest began with an overnight stay at a sleep laboratory, where she was hooked up to an EEG machine for diagnosis. Then she visited a sleep therapist, but the treatment plan—drugs combined with cognitive behavioral therapy—didn't work for her. Though her hopes for an easy cure were dashed, her interest in the nature of sleep was awakened. She learns that there are"more than eighty recognized sleep disorders," conducts research on the invention of the EEG machine, wonders how early man slept and investigates the pharmaceutical industry. The dangerous side effects of drugs and the aggressive marketing of them make the author worry that,"[j]ust as Botox moved from Hollywood to the suburban mall, people may one day tweak their brains as nonchalantly as they now freeze their foreheads." During her journey, Morrisroe was enticed by luxury mattresses that can cost as much as $60,000 and visited"the world's largest igloo," at the Icehotel in arctic Sweden. On a whim she sampled a course on the practice of Qigong (a Chinese meditation/exercise system), which proved to be a life-changer. To her great surprise, through meditation she not only achieved peaceful sleep at last, but experienced a spiritual awakening.

      A weird, wonderful journey in search of a good night's sleep.

      (COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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