This book brings together an unprecedented number and range of contributions from different disciplines relating to sleep in one comprehensive volume.The contributors explore the science of sleep - what it is, what makes it happen and why we do it - as well as the measurement of sleep, its importance for daytime performance and its sociological and cultural aspects. Sleep disorders, sleep quality and the importance of sleep for daytime performance are also explored, as are the ways...

"Robert M. Sapolsky is one of the best science writers of our time."—Oliver SacksThe author of New York Times Bestseller Determined offers a completely revised and updated edition of his most popular work, with over 225,000 copies in print.Now in a third edition, the renowned primatologist Robert M. Sapolsky's acclaimed and successful Why Zebras...

Why do we need sleep? How much sleep is enough? What is sleep? What happens when we don't get enough? We spend about a third of our lives asleep - it plays a crucial role in our health and wellbeing. References to sleep abound in literature and art, and sleep has been recognized as fundamental to the human condition for thousands of years. Over the past century, our knowledge of how sleep occurs, what it does, and what happens to our health if we do not have enough has developed h...

Do antidepressants work? Of course -- everyone knows it. Like his colleagues, Irving Kirsch, a researcher and clinical psychologist, for years referred patients to psychiatrists to have their depression treated with drugs before deciding to investigate for himself just how effective the drugs actually were. Over the course of the past fifteen years, however, Kirsch's research -- a thorough analysis of decades of Food and Drug Administration data -- has demonstrated that what everyone knew ...

Temperament is the single most pervasive aspect of us and our fellow human beings. We notice it; we gossip about it; we make judgments based on it; we unconsciously shape our lives around it.In The Temperamental Thread, developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan draws on decades of research to describe the nature of temperament—the in-born traits that underlie our responses to experience. Along the way he answers such questions as, How does the temperament we are born with af...

Linden sets the record straight about the construction of the human brain; rather than the “beautifully-engineered optimized device, the absolute pinnacle of design” portrayed in many dumbed-down text books, pop-science tomes, and education televisions programs, Linden’s organ is a complicated assembly of cobbled-together functionality that created the mind as a by-product of ad-hoc solutions to questions of survival. His guided tour of the glorious amalgam of “crummy parts” includes pit-s...

The prospect of parenthood represents a milestone in anyones life course and is often a period of stress and challenge. There are a number of significant mental health problems that can occur during the perinatal period, the consequences of which can be both enduring and, occasionally, life threatening. However, irrespective of the specifics of the clinical manifestation of a disturbance, the distress and misery that accompanies it has significant ramifications for the mother or mother-to-be ...

Why do we sleep? Or what is sleep? It’s like everyone passes out for six to eight hours everyday, all around the world, but what happens while we sleep, and how can we get a good night’s sleep?This book goes into detail everything you ever wanted to know about trouble sleeping, the causes and scientifically proven cures. After you read this book we are positive you'll be sleeping soundly, for longer periods, and having more vivid, enjoyable dreams.

This positive psychology textbook focuses on the importance of the body within optimal functioning and highlights new research in this area.

A lucid and stimulating explanation of how the body’s natural healing mechanisms work – and how they can be triggered in non-chemical ways via the ‘placebo effect’.Can we really cure ourselves of disease by the power of thought alone? Faith healers and alternative therapists are convinced that we can, but what does science say?Contrary to public perception, orthodox medical opinion is remarkably confident about the healing powers of the mind. For the past fifty years, docto...

This practical and evidence-based guide on postpartum depression (PPD) includes the best and most current studies to date on PPD as well as practical experience from the field.Postpartum Depression was specifically developed to meet the needs of front-line health and social service providers who work with women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. It provides a unique Canadian perspective and covers diversity issues in more depth than other resources.The gui...

Brain repair, smart pills, mind-reading machines--modern neuroscience promises to soon deliver a remarkable array of wonders as well as profound insight into the nature of the brain. But these exciting new breakthroughs, warns Steven Rose, will also raise troubling questions about what it means to be human. In The Future of the Brain, Rose explores just how far neuroscience may help us understand the human brain--including consciousness--and to what extent cutting edge technologie...