When asked why the atmosphere in Washington is so acrimonious, Bill Clinton once responded that "too many members of the Congress in both parties are sleep deprived… it clouds your judgment, and it undermines your ability to be relaxed and respectful in dealing with your adversaries."
Clinton's theory echoes mental health counselor Kat Duff's own observations of her clients, which, along with her "lifelong love of sleep," prompted her to write The Secret Life of Sleep, a multidisciplinary, multitudinous exploration of slumber's various aspects, from the biological to the spiritual.
In addition to her own experiences with sleep and dreaming, Duff (The Alchemy of Illness) noticed that when her clients addressed their sleep problems, other issues inevitably became more manageable. She analyzes the cognitive effects sleep has on our emotional and physical well being, including a section on how the popular "Ferber" method of teaching infants to sleep independently may affect their future happiness (and encourage a predilection for anxiety and guilt).
"I have come to think of sleep in our day and age as a wild creature that has been taken into captivity," Duff writes, "trying desperately to adapt to a radically changed habitat. It is alive but struggling, showing signs of stress from the effort to adjust to new and constraining conditions: impossible schedules, nighttime lights, overseas flights, a chemical soup of stimulants and sedatives, and hyper-vigilant nervous systems, to name a few." With The Secret Life of Sleep, Duff helps her readers tame sleep and embrace healthy habits. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics