We spend, on average, one-third of our lives sleeping.
And yet, for some of us, sleep can feel difficult, elusive, or downright impossible.
When was the last time you got in bed before midnight, fell asleep easily, slept through the whole night without waking up, and awoke feeling rested and refreshed in the morning? Perhaps you can remember a time when sleep was like this. Or maybe this experience of sleep is something you’ve never had, and you can only imagine what it would be like. Maybe you sleep well, but you have a partner, family member, or friend who has difficulty sleeping. No matter what your relationship is to sleep, this book will provide helpful advice and information on natural ways to improve your sleep.
I was initially drawn to health and medicine through a desire to understand my own life experiences. Though I thought I might work as an engineer, a series of experiences with meditation early in life showed me that happiness is much more closely connected to health than to material
possessions or technology. I found myself more and more wanting to understand how people worked, instead of how things worked.
Conventional medicine, with its narrower focus on disease and dysfunction, wasn’t able to satisfy my desire for a medical system that integrated every level of human experience, from physical to spiritual. However, I didn’t want to abandon the incredible detail and analytic capacity of Western science. Naturopathic medicine was the perfect combination, and when integrated with a classical understanding of Chinese medicine, provides me with an extremely comprehensive understanding of human health.
This book begins with a general overview of sleep: what it is, why it’s
necessary, what types of benefits come from good sleep, and what can go wrong when sleep issues occur. Next, we will look at the concept of natural remedies and gain insight into what makes them distinct from more conventional types of sleep remedies, such as medications. Once we have created some context, we will then get you set up with a sleep toolkit. The toolkit chapter (here) reviews the specific resources you will need to start getting a good night’s sleep, and how to prepare for this daily journey into the land of slumber.
The next several chapters will discuss specific remedies. For each
chapter, you will learn how and why the remedies work; for each individual intervention, we will discuss the rationale behind the remedy, take a brief look at some of the scientific evidence, and see how it may work for you.
Of course, not every remedy is appropriate for every person, which is why we will cover a great many potential remedies that you can use. Finally, in the last chapter (here), we will discuss specific sleep situations you may have experienced or are experiencing, as examples of how to apply the remedies in the previous chapters.
Though I am sure the material in this book will be of value to you, it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Don’t be afraid or
embarrassed to reach out for additional help, or to get confirmation about the usefulness of a particular therapy for yourself.