Hello Sleep: The Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications

Hello Sleep is a practical and compassionate guide to having a better relationship with sleep and overcoming insomnia from Jade Wu, an experienced expert in behavioral sleep medicine.

For many people who have trouble sleeping, each night is an anxious odyssey where getting a good night's sleep feels like a battle to win rather than a basic biologic process. Hello Sleep is a guide for people with insomnia to help them shift their relationship with sleep, so that it stops being a battle and starts being enjoyable and natural again. It is a practical, self-guided tour through evidence-based interventions for chronic insomnia, including cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), phototherapy, chronotherapy, mindfulness-based approaches, and medication tapering.

Jade Wu is a behavioral sleep medicine specialist and researcher who has helped hundreds of patients over a period of ten years. She provides in-depth but down-to-earth scientific explanations of how sleep and insomnia work; anecdotes about real patients' experiences with overcoming insomnia; rationale for why the evidence-based interventions help; and tips for how to problem-solve common pitfalls, along with tailored recommendations for special circumstances (e.g., pregnancy/postpartum, menopause, chronic pain, depression, older adults etc.). Wu's practical recommendations support a philosophical theme: Sleep is a friend, and it's the nurturing of our relationship with this friend—rather than an anxious nightly battle—that will give us sustainable sleep health.

Hello Sleep is not a rigid set of rules or a one-size-fits-all approach. Wu believes this can make things worse for those with insomnia issues, making what was once easy and intuitive into something effortful and elusive. Instead, this book treats insomniacs with respect, by giving them knowledge and empowering them to trust themselves and their own sleep.