I am one of the 30-plus million adult Americans suffering from chronic insomnia. For about nine months now, I have been unable to sleep for more than about four hours before waking up to toss and turn for the rest of the night. Although this kind of insomnia can be a normal part of growing older, it is tremendously frustrating, and it leads one to become desparate for a solution. I tried a psychiatrist and my primary care doctor, both of whom were very quick to prescribe pills to help me sleep, but after trying several varieties, I haven't found anything that doesn't affect me adversely in the daytime. Side effects aside, who wants to be a slave to a pill to get a good night's sleep?

Dr. Jacobs's book outlines a comprehensive drug-free program for conquering insomnia. It starts with necessary background on insomnia, but the core is a set of six chapters focusing on six different strategies for gradually improving the quality and duration of sleep. The program is intended to be completed over six weeks, with each week adding a new chapter to the arsenal of strategies.

A large portion of the book is devoted to using the "relaxation response" and self-driven cognitive-behavioral therapy to reduce stress and improve one's mental outlook about sleep. Other parts cover proper sleep "hygiene", including the counter-intuitive advice to temporarily reduce one's overall time in bed in order to increase the percentage of time in bed actually spent sleeping.

There's a lot of good material here, and I can't do it justice in a brief review. As I write this, I'm just beginning to apply these strategies. In a few weeks, if it turns out that they've worked, I will change my rating to five stars and add a note here. I may even track down the Dr. Jacobs and give him a big kiss.

[January '05 Update: Well, it worked for me! I've been sleeping drug-free for two and a half months. Turns out that changing my attitudes about sleep, conforming to a consistent wake-up time, and having a carbohydrate snack (in my case, Cheerios cereal) just before bed does the trick. The Cheerios seem to be an absolute necessity, suggesting that my insomnia may have had something to do with my metabolism changing as I age.]