Compare products

""to live is to suffer to survive is to find meaning in the suffering" "he who has a why to live can bear with almost any how" i have witnessed these two quotes in action with so many people who have experienced severe trauma in their lives many from within the military veterans community"

"this book however was a real disappointment"

"it tells the true story of how human beings survive in the most awful circumstances"

"i didn't intend to review this book just specifically for this reason but recently in my own life i have had a diagnosis that my long term cancer which was in remission has metastasised to lungs liver and bones and i am now in the 'endgame' which may be a couple of years or perhaps four or so years long"

"the second part about logotherapy was utterly dull & unclear despite me having studied many schools of psychotherapy in my training "

"where it challenges the meaning of good and evil in a way that only humanitys greatest catastrophe could do so"

"the first section where he describes his time in a concentration camp and the ways that he and his fellow inmates attempted to cope with the terrible conditions is extremely good"

"well written book illuminates many aspects of human nature and calls into question can in even the most dire circumstances meaning be found?"

"the 2nd part of the book which is less compelling is a summary of logotherapy a tenet of which is that even unavoidable suffering has a certain meaning in life"

"it is one that every single person should own and read because after you have read it you realise that misfortune and all the negative events of your life can only touch you to a certain extent: you have the ability to decide what your response will be"

"the book is also not overloaded emotionally which allows for a focus of course it's up to the reader to choose the topic of focus but this books surely offers a few"

"he is clearly mentally resilient and robust to find a way of dealing with the harsh conditions of a slaughter camp called auschwitz without being dehumanised"

"i thought it would be a traumatic read overly empathic response too immersed in the emotive horrors"

"i'd thought myself somewhat desensitised to depictions of the holocaust but frankl's matter of fact and rancour free prose proved very unsettling"

"and as if to prove the point of man's inability to learn anything from history is the fact that i read it as conflicts in the world continue to demonstrate man's contempt for human life and of the suffering endured by those whose skin colour or beliefs marks them out for despicable acts of inhuman behaviour"

"secondly despair and depression are not at all correlated with the experience of adversity but if anything inversely so: in our modern plentiful and comfortable times neuroses are legion"

"i’ve read many holocaust memoirs & this is the driest most dispassionate by far"

"a read for all to be aware and understand how far extreme persecution can go and for what?"

"this man went through hell and yet still is an inspiration he has made me see i can still have to make my own contribution to the world no matter how small"

"it keeps a perspective on our own very trivial sufferings"

"more an inspirational tale of over coming detrimental circumstance"

"to clarify the book is composed of three different parts: the first one the original tale of what living in a concentration camp was the second one a gentle introduction to logotherapy and the third one about tragic optimism "

"this is a must read book for anyone suffering from extreme despair loss bereavement torture emotional deprivation childhood abuse and the privations of war natural disaster and the like"

"it highlights the reality of a vast swathe oh people whose search for meaning is simply scorned as fruitless frivolous and with ultimate irony meaningless"

"this must have been difficult given the subject"

"but actually it’s a detached prose insofar as a scientist who lives his unchosen experiment can write which signifies the importance of finding meaning in life"

"the particular significance of this book is in respect of this observations on the human condition during the most horrendous of circumstances"

"and as if to prove the point of man's inability to learn anything from history is the fact that i read it as conflicts in the world continue to demonstrate man's contempt for human life and of the suffering endured by those whose skin colour or beliefs marks them out for despicable acts of inhuman behaviour"

"it was one of the first books written that described life in the concentration camps in ww2 with in the second part frankl's theories on why some people survived the labour camps as opposed to the death camps where many were sent to be murdered obviously while others didn't"

"but all the same this seems to me a plausible explanation for modern melancholy: who these days isn't continually and forcibly preoccupied with things he or she doesn't truly value?"

"frankel discovered in the camp that the key to surviving suffering is to find meaning in the suffering and to design for yourself an ultimate goal in life that you focus on to get through the suffering a must read for anyone experiencing ongoing suffering or depression"

"in today's world full of shallow therapies like cbt logotherapy is goes to the root cause"

"it enlightens the reader with very simple and logical answers to questions that seem complicated"

"a warning from history of brutal regimes"

"my uncle was taken by the nazis and was almost dead due to typhus when the camp at dachau was liberated"

"a heart breaking journey for but just one man but thousands in their ordeal and uneccesary suffering inflicted by a sick minded and his officers frankl gives meaning to the darkest days a man can fall upon"

"the book itself is divided into three parts starting with a first hand account of frankl's gruesome experiences in various concentration camps in ww2 continuing with 'logotherapy in a nutshell' where the approach is explained in more depth and ending with an essay on logotherapy adapted from his speech at the 3rd logtherapy congress in 1983 if memory serves "

"but all the same this seems to me a plausible explanation for modern melancholy: who these days isn't continually and forcibly preoccupied with things he or she doesn't truly value?"

"his book chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes how he used his psychiatry psychotherapy skills to guide himself and the other holocaust victims to survive their mental suffering in the death camps those who had lost faith in the future their future were doomed"

"i would say towards the end of logotherapy it is slightly rushed and requires rewind often"

"it is a book that is guaranteed to challenge your thinking or at the very least make you relook at existing assumptions"

"a life where death was a daily possibility and the only food dome watery soup"

"this is a must read book for anyone suffering from extreme despair loss bereavement torture emotional deprivation childhood abuse and the privations of war natural disaster and the like"

"this was at times a very uncomfortable read however just when i thought i couldn't read anymore something took hold of me and wanted me to carry on"

"frankl opens your eyes to a dehumanizing experience and provides an insight into his thoughts and processes that led onto his famous logo therapy"

"the second section a treatise on his own method of treating psychiatric patients ‘logotherapy’ seems an odd addition to the work and somewhat irrelevant to the holocaust theme in a lot of areas but ultimately ties in to the first half quite well if you stick it out"

"the first part is mainly the account of frankl's experience in the camp and the second part was more of an account of the theory behind his logotherapy may get a bit technical for a lay readership and is theoretically quite outdated but still interesting as a historical account of his ideas and the thinking behind his approach"

"great book that does not sound self righteous or drones on about irrelevant information while still putting its message across very well would highly recommend this book it helped me rethink my personal view on some things in life"

"he is clearly mentally resilient and robust to find a way of dealing with the harsh conditions of a slaughter camp called auschwitz without being dehumanised"

"this is a rather thin book"

"i thought it would be a traumatic read overly empathic response too immersed in the emotive horrors"

"as he overcame the trauma he’d seen and experienced so i use my much smaller traumatic experience to push me on to greater better things"

"his book chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes how he used his psychiatry psychotherapy skills to guide himself and the other holocaust victims to survive their mental suffering in the death camps those who had lost faith in the future their future were doomed"

"the author describes how many just gave up either committing suicide or passively waiting to be beaten to death"

"furthermore after looking into the biography of the author there seems to be some discrepancies between his account of his time in concentration camps and the written records which remain unexplained and this casts doubts over the honesty and aim of this book"

"an insight into a turbulent time"

"i found towards the end of the book it was too much heavy reading and the psyhcology was way over my head so much so it became boring"

"furthermore after looking into the biography of the author there seems to be some discrepancies between his account of his time in concentration camps and the written records which remain unexplained and this casts doubts over the honesty and aim of this book"

"only criticism i would have is that i am not fully convinced the idea of paradoxical intention always works"

"i was hesitant to read this book as i thought the negativity would be overwhelming but as much as it dealt with many negative themes these where countered by the overall positive message"

"don’t expect to find a generic answer to “meaning” as you might expect"

"his book chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes how he used his psychiatry psychotherapy skills to guide himself and the other holocaust victims to survive their mental suffering in the death camps those who had lost faith in the future their future were doomed"

"not as sad as one might think loved the overall message will recommend this to anyone going through a rough time of anyone who has lost their way"

"they let themselves decline and became subject to mental and physical decay eventually losing the will to live"

"the manner of presentation is non exhaustive every page surprisingly is giving a different take on something i thought i know of sufficiency well for a 3d question or at least am familiar with through works of other classics on the subject not necessarily the subject of holocaust but the subject of similar ugly historical events of equivalent scale that also touch on the murder of the soul and 'the what happens after' like experiences described during russian revolution s "

"it was like treading through mud!"

"anecdotally meanings are more likely to count as profound and compelling the more gravely connected with the "tragic triad" of pain guilt and death they are no shortage therefore at auschwitz "

"this means that few things are properly defined that some definitions contradict others and that only a few simple cases of the success of the approach are presented"

"if you ever think you're having a hard time read this book it'll change your mind and attitude forever"

"frankel discovered in the camp that the key to surviving suffering is to find meaning in the suffering and to design for yourself an ultimate goal in life that you focus on to get through the suffering a must read for anyone experiencing ongoing suffering or depression"

""to live is to suffer to survive is to find meaning in the suffering" "he who has a why to live can bear with almost any how" i have witnessed these two quotes in action with so many people who have experienced severe trauma in their lives many from within the military veterans community"

"it makes you realise that your problems today which seem to either rule or ruin your life are so insignificant"

"i have read this book twice and shall read it again"

"a heart breaking journey for but just one man but thousands in their ordeal and uneccesary suffering inflicted by a sick minded and his officers frankl gives meaning to the darkest days a man can fall upon"

"the 2nd part of the book which is less compelling is a summary of logotherapy a tenet of which is that even unavoidable suffering has a certain meaning in life"

"as cliched as it may sound it helped me through my difficulties and it's not like a preachy self help book but written by someone who really has been through significant trauma and come out the other side"

"as he overcame the trauma he’d seen and experienced so i use my much smaller traumatic experience to push me on to greater better things"

"this may perhaps be a little self fulfilling and neurosis may be a product of existential frustration in other words the confounding of one's own quest for meaning through preoccupation with things you don't truly value : frankl cites a senior american diplomat who sought treatment from depression arising from discontent with his working life"

"if you're going through a difficult time it really helps you to see how people deal with struggle and can reframe it"

"at times the author explained in depth and very well the reasons why people seemed to go along with the awful treatment being put on them and effects of being freed"

"it explains how with a purpose for life even if only imaginary can help you overcome the most severe situation"

"impossible to read without disliking the author so abandoned it early on"

"as someone who struggles to get to sleep this is not always possible because you have a 1000 other thoughts going through your head keeping you awake"

"i have a history of depression and anxiety and look towards 'self help' books to inspire my almost daily battle!"

"the style is typical of its time many decades ago the end of the book is concerned less with the recounting of his experiences during the war and more with academic practice focused commentary"

"don't leave it so long"

"just amazed at the resilience that can be drawn upon in times of extreme trauma"

"i was hesitant to read this book as i thought the negativity would be overwhelming but as much as it dealt with many negative themes these where countered by the overall positive message"

"i’ve read many holocaust memoirs & this is the driest most dispassionate by far"

"not a painful holocaust story more a book of hope and a practical guide to an incredibly useful psychology logotherapy "

"frankl's advice was not undergo psychotherapy but to change his job to something he cared more about!"

"i thought it would be a traumatic read overly empathic response too immersed in the emotive horrors"

"i can only feel a sense of relief from my long and arduous task of understanding purpose and meaning in life"

"it is well written with sufficient details not to make it uncomfortable due to the topic dealt with"

"makes me sound a little selfish"

"may these atrocities never happen again"

"the book is not all doom and gloom as the author takes you on a journey of discovery of how positive thinking can change how you feel on the inside which goes on to change your outlook of the outside situation"

"having said that it's not for everyone"

"impossible to read without disliking the author so abandoned it early on"

"a good read though not pleasant stuff"

"a validation as i said above of a deep seated confusion in my and many other's lives i suspect mainly how to thrive or even be recognised as legitimate in a society that values measurable achievement and very little else"

"could not put it down"

"his book chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes how he used his psychiatry psychotherapy skills to guide himself and the other holocaust victims to survive their mental suffering in the death camps those who had lost faith in the future their future were doomed"

"this book by victor frankl is one of the most important books ever written coming out of his concentration camp expereince in the war he has been able to distill the very essence of human behaviour and existence in a way that is as relevant now as it was then"

"very disappointing"

"the manner of presentation is non exhaustive every page surprisingly is giving a different take on something i thought i know of sufficiency well for a 3d question or at least am familiar with through works of other classics on the subject not necessarily the subject of holocaust but the subject of similar ugly historical events of equivalent scale that also touch on the murder of the soul and 'the what happens after' like experiences described during russian revolution s "

"for anyway struggling with life on life's terms there is always meaning to get through your struggles for "

"the second part about logotherapy was utterly dull & unclear despite me having studied many schools of psychotherapy in my training "

"this testimonial of the holocaust is well written engaging and helps you empathise with the position of all the people who were tortured and killed in concentration camps during wwii like no other has done before"

"this was my first book in this area and find it could not stop reading it"

"may these atrocities never happen again"

"a heart breaking journey for but just one man but thousands in their ordeal and uneccesary suffering inflicted by a sick minded and his officers frankl gives meaning to the darkest days a man can fall upon"

"for anyway struggling with life on life's terms there is always meaning to get through your struggles for "

"the setting of the holocaust gives the book and the author huge credibility"

"being written from a holocaust survivor frankl's guilt and tales of survival give a truly unique perspective on a tragedy that left me with feelings i never thought could be there"

"reading it makes you feel humble at the way we today complain about the small things in life which don't really matter"

"the book is in two parts the first part details his time in concentration camps not from the horrific side of the camp but more his mental ability to endure the harsh unremitting life in them and that of others"

"there is no reference to ethics"

"i did not like the book not what i expected"

"the manner of presentation is non exhaustive every page surprisingly is giving a different take on something i thought i know of sufficiency well for a 3d question or at least am familiar with through works of other classics on the subject not necessarily the subject of holocaust but the subject of similar ugly historical events of equivalent scale that also touch on the murder of the soul and 'the what happens after' like experiences described during russian revolution s "

"dr frankel was a neurologist brain surgeon and psychiatrist of jewish ethnicity and survivor of the wwii holocaust"

"interesting analysis of humans and how we deal with difficult and major life events"

"now in modern times people with all the benefits and material comforts of affluence succumb to despair and depression"

"its a tale of mans inhumanity to man and the horrors of being a victim in a concentration camp during the second world war"

"brilliant book and provides a road map for recovery for truly difficult times"

"i knew that this book would be affecting and impactful but i hadn’t actually realised how"

"the book is in two parts the first part details his time in concentration camps not from the horrific side of the camp but more his mental ability to endure the harsh unremitting life in them and that of others"

"it has made me realise i had little to complain about and that logo therapy was perfect"

"it has the subheader 'the classic tribute of hope from the holocaust' however this is not just a holocaust survivor book"

"he reluctantly agreed to write a script which as we know became this book"

"it has the subheader 'the classic tribute of hope from the holocaust' however this is not just a holocaust survivor book"

"very depressing if you are and insomniac as it tells you all of the terrible damage that has been done to your brain and body for chapter after chapter after chapter"

"i do feel it will change my sleeping patterns and when it doesn't it will make me feel terrible about it"

"undoubtedly extremely boring"

"this means the whole book is quite repetitive and could have been edited down into a shorter version"

"i found the book too scientific and very repetitive"

"if anything reading such books for people with pre existing anxiety could make them feel pretty helpless"

"alas it has also been partly responsible for triggering the worst insomnia of my life"

"however the book is tedious repetitive and very poorly edited"

"it even offers a little guidance for anyone suffering mental health issues such as ptsd anxiety which disrupt sleep"

"the sheer misery of being unable to sleep like seasickness you can't die of it but you will wish you could doesn't really get much coverage"

"entirely unhelpful book"

"could be shorter a bit repetitive time to time but a must read"

"sometimes i found the description of the experiments a bit long winded and felt that there was a bit of repetitive content but i was absolutely fascinated the book and its contents and have taken a number of things from it about the importance of a good night's sleep to health happiness and longevity which i am trying to incorporate into my approach to sleep"

"maybe you need glasses or maybe it's your glasses or contact lenses that are making you dizzy and not focused and giving you headaches?"

"i thought it would be easy for me to go to bed half an hour earlier and get up half an hour later thus achieving the eight hours sleep that professor walters says i need but in practice it has proved difficult and frustrating to change the seven hour habit of a long lifetime"

"this is known as the null hypothesis"

"made me think a whole new way about sleeping patterns and how lack of sleep affects us"

"ispoiler alertsleep 8 hours a day everyday i wonder why so may of us obsess with nutrition and fitness and ignore sleep"

"i would have discovered that anyone who claims that they function optimally on less than 8 hours per night every night is fooling themselves"

"worse we’ve decided along the way that anyone who won’t or can’t live up to them is lazy or uncaring"

"matthew walker expertly except explains the science of sleep the adverse effects of not getting enough of it and shares his insights into how a change in society’s attitudes to sleep could help us live longer healthier lives"

"the author does something which is particularly outstanding as an expert in his field he's able to effectivley communicate to non experts in a way which is easy to read and isn't filled with unnecessary jargon"

"it illustrates how we as humans tend to neglect sleep and make do with too little of it for nights at a time"

"but scary too when you discover how downright dangerous it is to have too little sleep!"

"if the desired effect was to scare people of missing sleep one chapter would’ve sufficed i also got bored of it trying to convince me of what it already convinced me a few chapters ago missing sleep is bad you keep hoping the book is going to give you some help for the problem it says you had but it just doesn’t"

"the pernicious effects of insufficient sleep are also covered"

"overall a fascinating but frustrating read at least for someone who dreams almost literally of being able to follow the author's advice"

"the information on quite how long caffeine stays in the body and how it acts to disrupt sleep was a real eye opener sorry about the pun and over the last 3 weeks i've avoided caffeine after lunch and have since found it much easier to get to sleep and i sleep better"

"even worse for the scandinavians"

"if my circadian rhythm is hard wired to make me a late riser ie many hours after dawn then i need to deceive my body clock drastically"

"when i have had mri scans it has been very noisy"

"as i incorporate changes to my routines lifestyle and environment my chronic insomnia of many years duration is finally getting better!"

"it flowed and information dripped off the pages"

"from his assertion that drowsy driving is worse than drink driving to his suggestions about how to improve neo natal units to ensure best possible survival of pre term babies this is a book with 'wow' moments"

"scared the hell out of wife"

"you wouldn't want to miss out on your sleep again after reading this as it's so important"

"you can summarise with the general adivise: don’t sacrifice sleep when weighted against something else and try to get as much of it as you can without over thinking it"

"as much as we should head the warnings about circadian rhythm and blue light we should also remember that stressing over every fine detail could lead to a neurotic life void of enjoyment"

"i am as many of us a bit of sleep deprived for many reasons: children technology early mornings to be at work and silly habit of trying to read books in the bed"

"from his assertion that drowsy driving is worse than drink driving to his suggestions about how to improve neo natal units to ensure best possible survival of pre term babies this is a book with 'wow' moments"

"i am at particular health risk if i don't get enough high quality sleep "

"i’d strongly recommend it to anyone especially those that have trouble sleeping"

"you cannot catch up on lost sleep except r"

"it is exactly as other reviewers have said : it simply sends you into a blind panic about how you'll just die if you do not sleep well"

"i would then try and prove myself wrong experimentally and statistically"

"it's a mixture of current accepted wisdom avoid blue screens at night and grandmotherly advice go to bed at the same time each night "

"as a side factoid i recently read that the world health organisation classifies shift work as a probably carcinogen because such hours mess up your sleep so badly"

"only problem is i find it hard to change to an 8 hour routine or to sleep for that long i was previously more relaxed about my sleep"

"i forced myself to read through till the end because it’s a timely subject and not many people are talking about it"

"the only reason it did not get 5 stars was the review of alex guzey which points to some i believe valid inaccuracies which frankly annoyed me"

"the pernicious effects of insufficient sleep are also covered"

"throw away all those diet books how to become better books and spend a fiver buying this"

"quite the opposite in fact therefore to read time and time again that we must get x hours sleep otherwise we will get all sorts of horrible life threatening illnesses is neither helpful nor interesting"

"and his book is partly an ode to sleep and its virtues and partly a dreadful warning about what happens if individuals and societies continue to under sleep"

"the most notable was where he described hunter gatherers dying earlier because they didn't get enough sleep because they spent too much time foraging and not getting enough sleep"

"it also dispels many unhelpful myths by showing clear conclusions based on rigorous research"

"i would have realised that simon and garfunkel’s lyrics in the sounds of silence about greeting their old friend darkness sleep and “the vision that was planted in my brain still remains” was insightful in highlighting the the key role of sleep in learning and memory"

"an exceptionally boring and badly written book"

"however the book is tedious repetitive and very poorly edited"

"matthew walker does not flinch from elucidating the catastrophic effects of consistently not getting enough sleep"

"throw away all those diet books how to become better books and spend a fiver buying this"

"this book explains why we sleep the positive effects of sleeping in your mind body and health and the negative effects that not sleeping enough has on them"

"and another is when without this information the human race has set some ridiculous parameters around when we should sleep & decided they should apply to everyone"

"he breaks down the roles of the rem dream state sleep and the non dream like state deep sleep which gives an understanding of why each part of the sleep cycle is important for our health"

"scary stuff"

"without sleep expect chronic illnesses to afflict your being and body without sleep expect to be grumpy and not at your best and so on"

"the book shows us clearly that some babies & children won’t be able to go to sleep early & stay asleep!"

"however for my as a non native english speaker i found that the author used difficult vocabularies on many parts of the book"

"i had so many aha moments as i learnt about the reasons behind different aspects of sleep which i had experienced but never questioned"

"this description is given over and over you start to believe it and say jesus!"

"this means the whole book is quite repetitive and could have been edited down into a shorter version"

"if you are having sleep trouble what's the good of being told how terrible that is without being told how to do something about it?"

"as a result perhaps the promised advice on how to actually sleep better is disappointing and rather sketchy"

"lack of enough sleep is implicated in conditions such as cancer alzheimer's and diabetes"

"i have three gripes"

"i had nightmares after reading of the sickening cruelty involved in this research"

"it’s ludicrous to ignore this knowledge just because we’ve got it wrong previously!"

"he has a tin ear and it’s very excruciating to read"

"the information on quite how long caffeine stays in the body and how it acts to disrupt sleep was a real eye opener sorry about the pun and over the last 3 weeks i've avoided caffeine after lunch and have since found it much easier to get to sleep and i sleep better"

"two there is a conspicuous absence of discussion of the situation of people who live in scotland or more northerly latitudes and southern latitudes where the lengths of the day and night vary dramatically over the year and of people whose circumstances affect their sleep parents of young children carers people who have to wake in the night because of a medical condition shift workers etc "

"i wouldn't recommend to those who have sleep problems as it is just telling you how bad it is to not get a good night's sleep every night"

"i would have thought one of the first questions researchers would ask is how these rhythms differ between the eight hour day an the eighteen hour day that we experience in these latitudes"

"matthew walker presents the most neglected topic sleep which is fundemental to every individual in the human race in thier maintenance of wellness and sanity in a very readable book"

"the evidence of lack of ability to learn remember make sound decisions and the onset of diabetes heart disease cancer dementia and the destruction of your immune system are all attributed to less than 8 hours sleep per night"

"my only criticism was that it was somewhat repetitive and towards the end of the book i had read enough!"

"too much jargon and detail on experiments and tests"

"it even offers a little guidance for anyone suffering mental health issues such as ptsd anxiety which disrupt sleep"

"then the obsession begins you buy a fitbit you track your sleep hours and get frustrated when you can’t get what is deemed to be the minimum sleep time before you know it you’re waking up in the middle of the night unable to sleep because of the anxiety not sleeping enough creates"

"if you're a coffee lover maybe give it a miss"

"lack of enough sleep is implicated in conditions such as cancer alzheimer's and diabetes"

"the author doesn’t promote over analytics but neither does he condemn it"

"but that belies the depth of investigations that have gone into scientific analysis of the brain of the role and mechanism of non rapid eye movement and rapid eye movement sleep and of the consequences of sleep deprivation"

"a lot of the advice was the common sense things my parents taught me but were later swamped by the worldly preoccupation with wakefulness and a view that sleeping is a waste of time and life"

"if anything reading such books for people with pre existing anxiety could make them feel pretty helpless"

"i think that the fitness and nutrition industry will or should wise up to the need of adequate sleep"

"the fact that margaret thatcher and ronald reagan both died from alkzeimers is attributed to leading lives with less than 6 hours of regular sleep"

"it truly scares me to think that for years i am just about to turn 50 that i neglected my sleep hours thinking that it was the better thing to do"

"another point of contention would be the authors views on slumbers economic benefits"

"covers every aspect of why we need sleep"

"as a side factoid i recently read that the world health organisation classifies shift work as a probably carcinogen because such hours mess up your sleep so badly"

"a final quibble"

"also quite terrifying how sleep or a lack of can greatly disturb our daily lives"

"it gives you no hope whatsoever just a series of repetitive descriptions of experiments that go like this: we took x amount of healthy young people or mice we sleep deprevided half of them tried for y effect and surprisingly the deprived confirmed that sleeping deprivation causes or increases chances of getting z problem"

"as a neuroscientist walker to more than qualified to discuss what is currently understood about sleep stages brain function during sleep and the explanations of why we dream"

"it’s ludicrous to ignore this knowledge just because we’ve got it wrong previously!"

"bangs the same drum throughout"

"sometimes i found the description of the experiments a bit long winded and felt that there was a bit of repetitive content but i was absolutely fascinated the book and its contents and have taken a number of things from it about the importance of a good night's sleep to health happiness and longevity which i am trying to incorporate into my approach to sleep"

"it puts in your head that if you miss as little as one hour of sleep you risk getting all major problems including cancer and alzheimer you might get fat depressed and it might even ruin your dna"

"my friend's mum sadly passed away and her lack of sleep contributed to it"

"very depressing if you are and insomniac as it tells you all of the terrible damage that has been done to your brain and body for chapter after chapter after chapter"

"the sheer misery of being unable to sleep like seasickness you can't die of it but you will wish you could doesn't really get much coverage"

"it gives you no hope whatsoever just a series of repetitive descriptions of experiments that go like this: we took x amount of healthy young people or mice we sleep deprevided half of them tried for y effect and surprisingly the deprived confirmed that sleeping deprivation causes or increases chances of getting z problem"

"it gives you no hope whatsoever just a series of repetitive descriptions of experiments that go like this: we took x amount of healthy young people or mice we sleep deprevided half of them tried for y effect and surprisingly the deprived confirmed that sleeping deprivation causes or increases chances of getting z problem"

"i have always struggled with sleep since i was a child"

"basically don't work shifts don't skimp on sleep don't cross time zones all the things we do all the time and it's packed with scientific studies supporting his case including lots of information on how the brain uses sleep to get rid of waste products it doesn't need process information at a deep level and develop new neural pathways"

"matthew walker has spent his life time studying sleep and the book is full of evidence from studies that prove that getting a full nights sleep is so important to our health and cognitive functioning"

"actually helped me quit alcohol and caffeine due to the effects on sleep and i feel better as a result"

"we have designed our modern society around a set of non scientific irrelevant & sometimes even harmful ‘rules’ such as ‘working 9 5’ & ‘early start & early finish school times’"

"putting my employer first over my sleep seems so so stupid now even getting up early for exercise and doing chores in the early to late hours to try to get ahead instead of getting into the bedroom to sleep"

"quite the opposite in fact therefore to read time and time again that we must get x hours sleep otherwise we will get all sorts of horrible life threatening illnesses is neither helpful nor interesting"

"it’s made me totally re evaluate the importance of a good night’s sleep and made me realise that i’ve been chronically sleep deprived for years"

"basically don't work shifts don't skimp on sleep don't cross time zones all the things we do all the time and it's packed with scientific studies supporting his case including lots of information on how the brain uses sleep to get rid of waste products it doesn't need process information at a deep level and develop new neural pathways"

"it’s all a bit scary for someone who is prone to sleeping problems"

"in the daytime every time i forget something or cannot remember where i put something i now put my failure down to an incorrect sleep pattern"

"this is definitely one of these books that has potential to change your life and routine forever"

"it became a little predictable in end but certainly worth a read if you not sure about the importance of sleep"

"will my damaged telomeres repair themselves in any way for example?"

"it will just make you worse"

"however the effect that the book will have on the reader could be very subjective"

"there’s some interesting bits here and there but not enough for a whole book and all of the doom chapters don’t help"

"some of his philosophical reasoning of the evolutionary benefits of various sleep patterns is less convincing"

"i was amazed horrified and inspired by the evidence based facts presented"

"one basis problem that struck me from the outset and i was expecting to be satisfied before the end"

"are you sometimes less optimistic than you used to be?"

"i thought it would be interesting but actually it just made me feel really anxious about sleeping so much so that i developed full blown insomnia!"

"this has made me take much more care about my sleep patterns and has really opened my eyes to how society has organised itself to denigrate those who are not natural early birds forcing people into unnatural sleep patterns in order not to lose out in the workplace or at school"

"there’s some interesting bits here and there but not enough for a whole book and all of the doom chapters don’t help"

"it desmythifies alot of fallacies said in current society and shows with fact and numbers based in scientific studies the relationship between cause and effect of the lack of sleep!"

"diet exercise sleep"

"lots of new info about the health benefits or of course the opposite when our sleep hygiene is poor"

"really really boring i’m afraid too boring to send you asleep"

"that is not predicting a dream"

"one of the most important books i have read about health and just how critical the quality of your sleep is to good health and not just for your brain"

"at my age the particularly powerful wake up call ho ho for me is the much greater chance of premature death even in your sixties"

"it's already an international bestseller but i wonder how many people have truly changed their sleeping habits long term as a result?"

"we have designed our modern society around a set of non scientific irrelevant & sometimes even harmful ‘rules’ such as ‘working 9 5’ & ‘early start & early finish school times’"

"this book is not a page turner as much as a chapter turner where there is alot of interest in the chapter information but because of alot of science within the words you can get lost at times"

"explains everything very simply and clearly but also the devastating effects of sleep depravation"

"i never realised the impact lack of sleep can make"

"very useful for insights to how sleep affects us and also how detrimental a lack of sleep is"

"not very helpful there's a bit here for you if you have trouble falling asleep but not much if your problem is waking up in the night"

"it is claimed that putting clocks an hour forward or back kills off lots of people but nothing is said about the different length of days of light in many latitudes"

"i'm afraid this book is undermined by too many nonsequiturs"

"life changing well written i have been reading it at 3am when i could not sleep the irony is not lost on me"

"even when i do manage to be in bed for eight hours i often do not sleep well and suspect i miss out on the essential rem and nrem sleep"

"we don't realize how important sleep is rather we do realize how important sleep is yet we do nothing about it"

"i read this the whole book i learnt some things i didn't know about sleep but it hasn't made me go to bed earlier to get the full 8 hours sleep which is why i wanted to read it"

"i found it boring and it really labours the point that sleep is important"

"otherwise it would be even less"

"it should carry a health warning"

"sadly there are no easy solutions"

"there are about 40 pages of slightly drier scientific stuff from pages 30 onwards but it's important to read them to understand the really good stuff later"

"like a couple of places where something drops 4 600% or 200% which is not possible unless you head in the negatives which is not the case"

"but scary too when you discover how downright dangerous it is to have too little sleep!"

"i am as many of us a bit of sleep deprived for many reasons: children technology early mornings to be at work and silly habit of trying to read books in the bed"

"how am i not dead already?"

"the author is i venture to suggest a good sleeper and the book is addressed very largely to those who could sleep more if they wanted to"

"this book whilst you know a lot of do’s and don’ts re sleep the impact in my opinion has been unknown"

"it is not a science book but rather one that brings the conclusions drawn from the scientific process to the masses"

"this book will put the fear of god into you in terms of the amount of sleep you need and the harm that is caused to your health when you don't get it particularly to your long term cognitive function"

"listen to the joe rogan podcast with matthew walker then you'll want to read it!"

"everytime i try and read it i fall asleep"

"really really boring i’m afraid too boring to send you asleep"

"bit of a dry read graphs and repetitive description"

"i forced myself to read through till the end because it’s a timely subject and not many people are talking about it"

"even i felt i wasn't doing enough"

"an exceptionally boring and badly written book"

"three after all the alarming stats there’s nothing to say whether i can make up for my past misdemeanours – can my body mind regenerate at all when given the sleep it needs?"

"if my circadian rhythm is hard wired to make me a late riser ie many hours after dawn then i need to deceive my body clock drastically"

"but i must join the critics over some of the reporting which is vague and alarmist without giving enough information to be able to judge how serious the alarms really are"

"putting my employer first over my sleep seems so so stupid now even getting up early for exercise and doing chores in the early to late hours to try to get ahead instead of getting into the bedroom to sleep"

"it is somewhat repetitive in places but overall very convincing"

"but i must join the critics over some of the reporting which is vague and alarmist without giving enough information to be able to judge how serious the alarms really are"

"do you sometimes feel dizzy?"

"the only reason it did not get 5 stars was the review of alex guzey which points to some i believe valid inaccuracies which frankly annoyed me"

"long and boring!"

"some of the writing is a little wordy"

"this is the worst book i have ever read"

"are you having too much coffee?"

"as i incorporate changes to my routines lifestyle and environment my chronic insomnia of many years duration is finally getting better!"

"really interesting topic but i’m finding it difficult to read"

"full marks to the author"

"are you sometimes forgetful?"

"basically don't work shifts don't skimp on sleep don't cross time zones all the things we do all the time and it's packed with scientific studies supporting his case including lots of information on how the brain uses sleep to get rid of waste products it doesn't need process information at a deep level and develop new neural pathways"

"then a chapter or two later he goes on how unhealthy we live today by being surrounded by 'blue light and how much better our hunter gatherer ancestors used to sleep because they were'n't exposed to the blue light"

"i was so impressed by his approach & the way he described how the study was first designed & then developed & expanded that i read the book feeling for the first time that i was reading genuine findings & not someone’s unproven opinions"

"if you read nothing else"

"there is not one aspect of health and wellbeing that sleep does not affect not to mention academic and sporting performance"

"perhaps someone with no knowledge of sleep would find it more interesting if they are learning about it for the first time"

"too analytical and hard to get to the crux of the information: there is 1 good chapter with practical info"

"our irresponsible attitude towards sleep is terrifying"

"two there is a conspicuous absence of discussion of the situation of people who live in scotland or more northerly latitudes and southern latitudes where the lengths of the day and night vary dramatically over the year and of people whose circumstances affect their sleep parents of young children carers people who have to wake in the night because of a medical condition shift workers etc "

"i feel he rather overstates his case you are given the impression that if you don't get 8 hours and get it every single night you're doomed to a life of failure and mediocrity"

"the guiness book of records allows free falling from 30 000 ft but now excludes sleep deprivation records as too dangerous"