If, like me, you are curious about sleep and keen to sleep better, no doubt you have also read books by Matthew Walker (Why We Sleep), Christie Aschwander (Good to Go), and Guy Leschziner (The Secret World of Sleep). Perhaps you have absorbed and tried to apply the current principles of sleep hygiene: food-free for 3 hours prior to sleep; an hour in bed reading without blue light screens; darkness; coolness; lack of stress. Well, sleep clinician Stephanie Romiszewski is here to tell you, in her new book Think Less, Sleep More: From Panic & Perfectionism to Stress-free Sleep, that sleep hygiene is helpful but of minor import compared to a more fundamental idea: a fixed morning routine of rising, light, exercise, and eating that harnesses the most critical biological systems of tiredness and your biological clock. What’s more, she believes our current preoccupations with sleep hacks and using wearables to track sleep are, in many cases, causing sleep anxiety that in itself is driving insomnia. It’s a powerful, simple message and the author’s book is beautifully laid out and paced and written. Simple principles conveyed with clarity, an exploration of our most frequent questions, and encouragement to relax and let the body do what it does so well … Think Less, Sleep More is a brilliant book that trumps all those that came before it.
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