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Book Review of Sleep, It Does a Family Good: How Busy Families Can Overcome Sleep Deprivation

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Sleep, It Does a Family Good by Archibald D. Hart explains in detail what happens to our bodies when we're sleeping, why sleep is so important, and how to get good sleep. There's really good information in the book about getting enough rest and how the lack of sleep causes all kinds of health problems.

The book begins by explaining why both sleeping and dreaming are important. The next sections allows the reader to analyze why they or a family member aren't getting enough sleep and provides ideas on how to get the additional sleep that our bodies need. The third section provides way on helping your child sleep better, how sleep affects your marriage (since I'm not married that section wasn't relevant for me), how sleeping pills can affect your sleeping habits and patterns, and provides strategies for getting more sleep and better quality sleep.

The last section provides 3 End-of-Day exercises which help the reader to relax their mind before bed, so that their mind isn't racing, which makes it difficult to achieve the deep sleep our bodies need. I plan on utilizing the gratitudes exercise in which you review your day and think of 3 things you're grateful for or 3 blessings you've received. You write the 3 situations down, and reflect on them. This exercise allows you to end your day in a positive and happy state. I really appreciate this idea. I will use it with my girls as well.

I wasn't expecting to receive valuable information in this book. However, the information the author provides is backed up by numerous studies, and the real life examples really made me think about how my own lack of sleep affects my daily routine, and my life in general especially when it talked about how it affects the quality of life and told the story of the man who had the heart attack.

For me, the section that I will work on the most within my own family is the section dealing with your children's sleep patterns and how to get them to have better sleep habits. Both of my girls get to bed on time (may need to make their bed time a little bit earlier, though), but both wake up in the middle of the night and come into my bed. I plan on working nightly with them using a bed time routine, and working on them sleeping through the night.

The author provides real life examples of consequences caused by lack of sleep. For example, one child was always falling asleep in class. No one could understand it. But, then the parents took away the child's cell phone and realized that he was texting his friends until 3am! You just don't realize how the lack of sleep affects your well-being.