Not enough hours in the day?
Think again with a new book from Dover!
We all know about REM sleep; those periods during the night when we have Rapid Eye Movements. That’s when we dream our colorful and alarming dreams, or the exhausting ones where we work all night at the office and then wake, unrefreshed, to go put in another long day. And according to the National Institutes of Health, that REM sleep accounts for about two hours out of a full night.
But what about the other five or six hours?
According to authors Eric Maisel, PhD and his daughter Natalya Maisel, that’s where the real action is.
In this new book from Dover’s Ixia line, you can learn how to harness the power of your off-hours to solve problems and therefore experience more success an satisfaction in your waking life.
Through a series of stories and steps, The Magic of Sleep Thinking: How to Solve Problems, Reduce Stress, and Increase Creativity While You Sleep offers a self-guided program to enhance your life. Case studies and examples along with lots of good advice will help you to make plans during the day that will set the brain on a clear course of navigation during the night.
The brain, according to Dr. Maisel, is a “nighttime problem-solving organ,” one ready and waiting for you to put in a little bit of work during your waking hours. The work includes steps like stating your problem or question, and then narrowing down what you feel the real problem could be. Dr. Maisel’s advice also includes not kicking yourself if you get the question “wrong”; there really isn’t any such thing in the process of self-discovery. “Any honorable attempt you make at self-inquiry and sleep thinking,” says Dr. Maisel in the book, “will net you results.”
Dr. Maisel also offers a comforting take on dreams. They’re interesting and sometimes useful, but they are far from auguries that portend the future. You are not doomed by your dreams. Rather, suggests this book, they are interesting bits of noise that, upon awaking, you might squirrel away for future reference or ignore completely. Keep a note, especially as it relates to the task you have set yourself. But keep working.
And remember, he adds:
“A defended brain is an enslaved brain. Free yours.”
