Sleep the mysteries, the problems, and the solutions Hardback - 2007

by Carlos Schenck

The average adult will spend more than 200,000 hours sleeping in a lifetime, the equivalent of more than 8,000 days. Yet research has only just begun to decode the mysteries behind what really happens when we sleep. Now Dr. Carlos Schenck, one of the most prominent sleep doctors and researchers in the country, takes us on an extraordinary journey into the mechanisms of sleep and what can go wrong.

Dr. Schenck explains and then offers solutions for the most common sleep disorders-insomnia, restless legs syndrome, sleep apnea, and more. But what sets this book apart is the fascinating new insights Schenck offers from the cutting-edge science that he and other researchers have pioneered in identifying, understanding, and explaining the realm of "parasomnias"- mysterious, more extreme sleep disorders such as sleep terrors, sleepwalking, dream-enactment, sleep violence, sleep-related eating disorder, sexsomnia, sleep paralysis, which affect at least 10 percent of Americans. Sleep offers fascinating-and often shocking-real-life stories drawn from Carlos Schenck's more than twenty years of clinical practice and research to illustrate the sometimes terrifying, debilitating, and even life-threatening experiences that those with parasomnias can suffer from, along with their loved ones. Backed by the latest medical research, Sleep is a groundbreaking book about what continues to be one of most mysterious and compelling medical puzzles.