A GREAT READ IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE SLEEPING

The 8-Hour Sleep Myth: How I Learned That Everything I Knew About Sleep Was Wrong by Lynn Stuart Parramore We've been told over and over that the 8-hour sleep is ideal, but our bodies have been telling us something else. The 8-Hour Sleep Myth Pursuing the truth about sleep means winding your way through a labyrinth of science, consumerism and myth. Researchers have had barely a clue about what constitutes “normal” sleep. Is it how many hours you sleep? A certain amount of time in a particular phase? The pharmaceutical industry recommends drug-induced oblivion, which, it turns out, doesn’t even work. The average time spent sleeping increases by only a few minutes with the use of prescription sleep aids. And -- surprise! -- doctors have just linked sleeping pills to cancer. We have memory foam mattresses, sleep clinics, hotel pillow concierges, and countless others strategies to put us to bed. And yet we complain about sleep more than ever. MORE: ALTERNET