The Sleep Prescription: Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest

For many, attaining good sleep has become increasingly difficult in today’s stressful world. Part of Penguin’s “Seven Days” series, this book provides readers with suggestions and tools to improve sleep. Prather (psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Univ. of California, San Francisco) helps lead the UCSF Insomnia Clinic and has written numerous articles on insomnia and other sleep-related issues. The author explains the science of sleep in an uncomplicated way and provides readers with techniques to improve sleep and combat insomnia. He also makes the case that better sleep improves immunity and can assist with developing and maintaining better relationships. Fictionalized anecdotes based on former patients are included to emphasize the importance of readers becoming their own sleep scientists. There’s also a sleep diary in which readers can track sleep patterns over seven days in order to customize sleep plans. Each chapter concludes with a practice—finding moments throughout the day for stress-free breaks, for example—designed to help break habits that can lead to insomnia or poor sleep.