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Steven W. Lockley
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Sleep: A Very Short Introduction 1st Edition

by Steven W. Lockley (Author), Russell G. Foster (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 180 ratings
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Why do we need sleep? What is sleep? What happens when we don't get enough? This Very Short Introduction addresses the biological and psychological aspects of sleep, providing a basic understanding of what sleep is and how it is measured, a look at sleep through the human lifespan, and the causes and consequences of major sleep disorders. The book describes dramatic breakthroughs in our knowledge of how sleep occurs, what it does, and what happens to our health if we do not have enough. The authors consider the impact of modern society, examining the relationship between sleep and our 24/7 culture.
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  1. ISBN-10
    9780199587858
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199587858
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    March 24, 2012
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.7 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
  8. Print length
    146 pages
  9. See all details
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very short introducations, introductions, comprehensive
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Book Description

This Very Short Introduction addresses the biological and psychological aspects of sleep, providing a basic understanding of what sleep is and how it is measured, a look at sleep through the human lifespan, and the causes and consequences of major sleep disorders.

About the Author

Steven W. Lockley is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard University. Russell G. Foster is the Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 019958785X
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (March 24, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 146 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780199587858
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199587858
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 180 ratings

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Steven W. Lockley

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
180 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Richard Hahn
5.0 out of 5 stars Succinct rundown on modern sleep science
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015
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I went on a little reading binge on books about sleep. Understandably, they covered a lot of the same material (but not exactly the same) and each one had a distinctive style to it. For comparison here are the books I read (in order):

1) The Secret World of Sleep: The Surprising Science of the Mind at Rest by Penelope A. Lewis
2) Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David K. Randall
3) Sleep: A Very Short Introduction by Steven W. Lockley
4) The Secret Life of Sleep by Kat Duff

I was looking mainly for scientific information, in conjunction, perhaps, with interesting anecdotes. Dreamland by David Randall was the closest to what I thought I was looking for and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in sleep. The Secret World of Sleep by Penelope Lewis and Sleep: A Very Short Introduction by Lockley and Foster were a little more purely scientific. However, among these two I strongly preferred the no-nonsense style of Sleep: A Very Short Introduction. By comparison, The Secret World of Sleep felt like an academic paper that had been hastily modified by a copy-editor to read like a popular science book. The result is not-very-exciting writing that is larded with "accessible" descriptions and analogies. The amygdala is referred to at least a dozen times by the epithet "almond shaped". The first time was fine, the fifth time was patronizing. But I powered through.

I cannot recommend Kat Duff's book, because of passages that give serious credence to the explanation that hypnogogic hallucinations are in fact visitations by evil spirits. See my review there for more details.

The best thing about this book is how succinct it is. I suggest reading it along with (before or after) the David Randall book.
25 people found this helpful
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Bernard Lavallee
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2022
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Reading this book will allow you to associate sleep problems in you own life with ways to isolate and correct. Much valuable information. Will serve you well in the future from both a social point of view as well as a health perspective.
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jenjarratt
4.0 out of 5 stars Sleep as an underappreciated actor in our lives
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2012
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There are two "yous." One of them is you, awake. The other is you, asleep. The sleeping you doesn't get as much attention as it should because you don't control it. This short book on what we know and what we've learned about sleep brought that other "me" more fully to my attention. I read it on my Kindle every night before going to sleep, or entering the "sleep gate" the authors write about. The authors have an agenda based mainly on the dangers of interrupting sleep cycles or not getting enough sleep. They also have some good advice on minimizing jet lag.
2 people found this helpful
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JW Kim
5.0 out of 5 stars All you need to know to get you up to speed
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2013
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I am not a sleep medicine professional, but a non sleep medicine professional, i.e. medical researcher who wants to get to speed with sleep medicine to study related phenomena in my field.

I have mostly been reading Czeisler's excellent Cold Spring Harbor lecture, and wanted something more detailed.

I found this book by searching for some of the major authors who pioneered sleep studies (and was also available on kindle).

In short, it is very well written, relatively up to date, and sufficient as something you can wet your feet with.

It helped me get up to speed to read more recent research, and I believe that is what this book aims for, and what many of you who have searched for appropriate books that are a bit more sophisticated than the common text book are looking for.
3 people found this helpful
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Luna
3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but not a very fluid read
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2014
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The author reveals through thorough but extremely concentrated prose why sleep is far more important than we would like to believe. I felt this book was utterly informative, but personally, I like a bit more eloquence, story, and sense of style and art to shape and give life to what is otherwise just raw and somewhat boring data to those of us who don't have apple products for brains. Not really a fan of the new trend of removing all passion and feeling from information. The author isn't a bad writer, but the language is simply too concentrated and heavy. It would be much more interesting if the author had or had been given more freedom in this work. Then again, I'm not a scientist or a doctor, just a person who likes to learn. I would rather read a book ten times in length that was presented in a more digestible form. Still, you can't knock this book for it's heavy dosage of information, and I appreciate that the author has the guts to make controversial statements based on relatively sound argument. I agree with him about drowsy driving, in particular. If you can stomach non-fluidity of the language, this book could save your life.
8 people found this helpful
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Tyler Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and useful
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2016
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I was looking for a book that discussed the science of sleep, and I was very happy to find this book. The book describes what we know about sleep in a detailed but approachable manner. This understanding, combined with the book's many pieces of advice, have helped me improve my quality of sleep.
One person found this helpful
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Magical Dragon
5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Fascinating Stuff
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2015
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The two most fascinating states of sleep are non rem and rem. During rem, the brain is as active as it is when it's awake, organizing knowledge and storing memories. I was surprised that animals don't have the same sleep times as us. Giraffes only sleep about two hours a night and some animals sleep up to 18 hours a day. Even fish sleep, but they don't have the same rem and non rem states like we do.

From a practical side, he talks about how to set our natural sleep/wake clock (circadian rhythm). After lights go off at night (or by using a red light), the body produces melatonin which makes us sleepy (and has other health benefits). If you go outside in the morning, the bright outdoor light will also help your set clock. Also eating earlier in the day and not having a big meal late at night will help. He recommends a black out shade to keep the bedroom pitch black, doesn't recomend watching TV or using the computer an hour before bedtime (the LED lights suppress melatonin), and has many other great tips.

He talks about some scientific stuff that I just skinmmed because it was technical, and about various sleep problems also.
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Reflection on importance of sleep
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2019
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I do not have particular problems regarding sleep, but I found this book interesting to read so that I can prevent any future problems or even assist some of my friends in their sleep-related problems.
One person found this helpful
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Jason Harder
4.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in Canada on November 3, 2017
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Good info to take into account. Everyone should read and understand the risks of not getting enough sleep. We should adjust accordingly, just as we are adjusting our environment based on understanding what pollution is doing to the world.
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V.C.Parro
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente síntese!
Reviewed in Brazil on September 5, 2017
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Muito bem escrito e uma excelente referencia para estudo. Capítulos muito bem divididos e referenciado. O foco de cada um permite um entendimento que possibilita o aprofundamento caso o leitor tenha interesse.
One person found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Review
Reviewed in India on April 18, 2019
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Very good
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Yehezkel Dror
5.0 out of 5 stars MUST BE READ, INCLUDING BY POLITICAL LEADERS
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2014
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Sleep takes up about one third of our lives. Therefore it is important to understand sleep and its pathologies. This book fully meets this requirement and is therefore recommended to all who want to gain some insight into a hidden but crucial part of being a human.
As frankly stated in the book, many features of sleep and the factors shaping it are not really understood. A definition of sleep fitting comparable phenomena in all forms of life is lacking. And, most important of all, "The reasons why we sleep remain frustratingly unresolved" (p. 40). But some of the essential functions of human sleep are known. These include many biological ones. On the mental level, "In humans, procedurial learning, declarative learning, and even higher-level "insights" - the process of mental restructing in the brain, that leads to a sudden gain of understandilgn or explicit knowledge - have been shown to depend on sleep" (p. 52). Also, "sleep helps our brains find creative solutions" (p.1).

All the more serious are the consequences of sleep deprivation and disturbances, as caused by a variety of pathologies; shift work; disruption of the natural day-night cycle which is hardwired into humans by its evolutionary history, caused by modern 24 hour active, noisy and brightly lightened modern societies; and personal neglect of sleep requirements.
This leads to a very important issue, not discussed in the book, namely the potentially serious consequences of sleep deprivation and disturbances by high level decision makers. The work schedule of political leaders increases the dangers of serious and sometimes catastrophic errors, especially in crisis situations. This is also the case when traveling through time zones, rushing from continent to continent for important meetings.
Matters are made even worse because of unawareness of lack of sleep consequences."While there are individual differences in how sleep deficiency affects alertness and performance, no-one is immune....Unfortunately, our sleepy brain cannot judge our own abilities, and as a result we are sometimes blissfully, and dangerously, unaware of our impaired performance" (p. 91). And, again, "the sleepy brain cannot evaluate itself and often underestimates how sleepy we are" (p. 105).
Fatigue-reducing drugs are only helpful for short periods and then produce aggravated mental capacity degradations. Therefore, essential is strict time management making sure that high level decision makers have enough time and suitable conditions for sleeping about six to seven hours daily, with few exceptions; and that they follow special regimes to reduce jet-lag problems and in crisis situations. But, my studies of quite a number of heads of governments around the world show that when critical issues are faced sleep deprivation is the rule, with more than a few dismal consequences. It would be very interesting to learn if this played a role in "sleepwalking" into the catastrophe of World War One 100 years ago, but in the various books being published on this episode contain no information on the sleep rationing of the critical decision makers, such data being usually unavailable..
I wish the authors had taken up the problem of sleep deprivation by senior decision makers, which can easily cause much more damage than drowsy driving as discussed by them (pp. 103-107), however tragic.
All the more so this book is strongly recommended to all, including top level decision makers. I will include it in the recommended reading list of my next book on required qualities of political leadership.
Professor Yehezkel Dror
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
4 people found this helpful
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Anka
5.0 out of 5 stars Fundamentals of Sleep
Reviewed in Germany on November 24, 2013
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All of us spend a third of our lives asleep – and clearly, sleep is most important to all organisms: sleep deprived animals die after too long without sleep, people who are sleep deprived go eventually insane. Surprisingly, the exact why of sleep (its adaptive use) is still a matter of debate.

This book surveyes the current knowledge on the nature of sleep. It is broadly organised in two parts: in the first part, the scientific understanding on sleep physiology and regulation is summarized, in the second, the health aspects of sleep and sleep loss are covered. Written by two expert sleep researchers, the book is accessible even without too much background knowledge on sleep or neurobiology.
The first part gathers information on how sophisticated the generation of sleep and dreaming by the brain is, including the human sleep stages and dream stage. The sleep mechanisms of humans are compared to those in other animals in an evolutionary framework, and the adaptations of sleep don’t stop to fascinate: for example, marine mammals can split sleep and wakefulness between the two halfs of the brain in order not to drown. The authors certainly drive home the message how central sleep is to our well being. Especially the latter part discusses the social pressure to marginalize sleep, and the resulting dangers for our own and others health.

Our current life style apparently manages to get almost everything wrong to guarantee a healthy sleep. The authors include some advice on how to go on about your daily sleep routine, and also give some instructions to avoid jet lag. Some more information on the action of sleep medication would have been nice, but overall this is an exemplary book on the neuroscience of sleep. Highly recommended.
One person found this helpful
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