Inveterate medical pursuer of the cutting edge, Michael Mosley has informed a chunk of my life. I executed his 5:2 diet from “The Fast Diet”, am right now occasionally on his “The Fast 800” diet, and read with great interest “The Clever Guts Diet” and “Fast Exercise.” I don’t always agree with him but he has a knack with clear explanation, readily implementable good practices, and the harnessing of cutting-edge medical/scientific ideas. “Fast Asleep: How to Get a Really Good Night’s Rest” (notice how he neatly gets the word “fast” into the title) is his examination of insomnia and other sleep problems. As he and many others see it, poor sleep is a modern plague. In his customary fashion, he sums up the science and explores options, and comes up with a process to inculcate better sleep routines, consisting of a savage attack on the issue followed by sound ongoing principles. Though no expert, I’ve read a lot about sleep and insomnia recently, and Mosley’s ideas gibe with the sensible views of the most forward-looking. A disconcerting coda section provides recipes written by his wife, but this can be justified by his emphasis on diet in improving sleep. I commend the book to anyone concerned about the dark hours.
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