The Effortless Sleep Method:The Incredible New Cure for Insomnia and Chronic Sleep Problems (The Effortless Sleep Trilogy Book 1)

I have purchased things on Amazon almost every day for a couple of years now, and have never left a review. This should tell you how strongly I feel about the power behind this book! :) Without going into the details of my own problems, haha, I'll just say that my battle with insomnia had gotten pretty extreme. The lack of sleep, and the countless nights of torturous tossing and turning and agonizing about WHY ON EARTH I COULDN'T FALL ASLEEP?!?! led me to doctors, testing, natural remedies, herbal supplements, exercise, diet changes, etc. etc. and then, finally, prescription sleeping pills. These pills gave me a brief reprieve, but only in that I didn't have to spend three or four hours of agony before drifting off. They never gave me "good sleep" or "deep sleep" or "restful sleep," and I've always been on the "anti-drug" side of things, so being even slightly dependent on such a strong substance, only deepened the horrible anxiety I was fighting during those torturous nights. One night, at my wit's end, I got online and started yet another search for advice I hadn't heard yet, or "the perfect book" or "routine" that would help me conquer this problem....I'll be quite honest and say that I chose this book because it wasn't very expensive, and the explanation seemed clear and "effortless!" :) And it was compatible with amazoneprime which meant I would get it in 48 hours! THANK GOD I read this book when I did, because without it, I may never have had the confidence to "get off" the sleeping pills and give my body, mind, emotions and mind a chance to achieve what they are perfectly capable of achieving -- natural sleep. Here's just a few of the reasons why I LOVED this book. 1. EMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING! Sasha has been through the painful, brutal experience of sleep deprivation, worry, and life-altering changes that only insomniacs can understand. Simply hearing her story and recovery was inspiring. I honestly thought no one understood the depth of the struggle, that I had a "serious problem" that didn't have a solution (turns out most insomniacs believe this and Sasha does a great job helping you understand why!). I felt supported and understood. 2. EMPOWERMENT! I read the book in 24 hours, and though I knew I had a tough road ahead of me, I felt truly inspired and comforted by her words. There is nothing medically wrong with me, and I CAN find the peace, tranquility, schedule and ABILITY to sleep again. Her writing was clear and scientific, while still providing the soothing inspiration I needed to "get over the hump" of my fear. 3. GAVE ME TANGIBLE, SMALL STEPS TO CONQUER MY OVERWHELMING PROBLEM! Most advice I have been given has only one aspect (oh, you need to cut out alcohol and sugar! oh, you need to meditate! Oh, your problem is stress! Oh, your problem must be red meat, more baths, less exercise, more exercise blah blah blah!) and Sasha spent the time to explain how we developed the "problem" in many ways, therefore revealing how we can slowly and deliberatley eliminate the problem. I felt that I could take baby steps in different areas that would all chip away at the problem, instead of searching for some big 'cure' that I had been missing all along. This way, if I neglected to do something, it didn't mean I had "ruined anything" or "messed anything up" because I was on a more holistic, "mind and body" approach to healing my sleep. 4. ERASED MY FEAR! Sasha's understanding of sleep trouble really gave me confidence that the problem was not to be feared. She sort of "de-mystified" the whole thing. It turns out that my fear of not sleeping, my fear that I was "missing something" in this grand mystery, was my biggest hurdle to overcoming my sleep problems. The peace of mind that I have with my new understanding is absolutely invaluable during the nights I have the most trouble. I now know what to "tell myself" when I go to relax, and I no longer spend valuable mental, emotional and physical energy trying to "figure things out." I have to add on here that I emailed the author from her website with questions when starting the program and I got a prompt, personal response! I couldn't believe it! It was helpful to know I was "on the right track" when she responded. My sleep is now well on the way to recovery, and most importantly, I feel confident that I'm doing all that I can, so no matter how the night turns out, I can rest assured it's the best it could have been, and it will only get better! And now I'm free to enjoy my life regardless of my sleep. Something I never thought possible!

I'm a mother to a special needs child who does not sleep well. My struggles with sleep began when she was born almost six years ago. Two years ago she began sleeping better but I began have severe insomnia. I dreaded bed time and went through my days feeling like a zombie. I complained to anyone who would listen about how little I slept. I would spend my days researching different treatments and asking in various facebook groups. I rarely went out after 8 at night because I was terrified if I didn't get to sleep by 930 I wouldn't be able to sleep. (this was just one of the weird rules I had about sleeping.) I would find a natural supplement that worked and I felt like finally something worked but it seemed to stop working within a few months leaving me back to searching for a "cure." I was convinced I had serious health problems that were causing my inability to fall asleep and stay asleep. The last straw was standing in front of the sleep section in my local health food store and realizing I had tried every single supplement. That same week I stumbled on this book and decided to give it a try. It left me with a great deal of hope. The first few nights were really rough. Getting up when I couldn't sleep felt like torture and I slept very little. I ended up taking something for sleep in the early morning hours out of desperation. During the day I tried not to think or talk about my insomnia. I forced myself to carry on the day like I had slept. By the forth day I gathered up all my sleep supplements and threw them away. I was ready to follow the book exactly. That night I slept through the night and it was amazing. Since then I've been able to fall asleep without fear and I no longer let myself be ruled by insomnia. Now if I have a night were I don't sleep well I no longer freak out and think, oh no my insomnia is back. Every single area of my life has gotten better since I've started sleeping again. I feel like I'm finally alive again. I'm so thankful I found this book! Update*** I totally had a relapse as the book said might happen. I fell in love and my life and sleep were turned upside down. I started relying on Nyquil almost nightly to fall asleep and fell into the trap of thinking this time my insomnia was somehow different/worse/more severe than before. I knew I needed to restart the program over but I knew I had to give myself a week or two to do it. It is not easy but I knew what I had to do. I reread the book and told everyone I was taking a week to get my life back on track and wouldn't be available. I threw my Nyquil out and committed to following the steps. At one point I hadn't slept in four days and I couldn't even get out of bed when I couldn't sleep so I rolled out of bed and laid on the cold. hard floor. I was in tears and would have happily sold my soul to the devil if I thought it would help me sleep. Thankfully, I didn't have to go to those lengths. I fell asleep sometime after that and have stuck with the guidelines and I'm sleeping again. This works but it's like tough love you have to stick it out. If you have a night or two or three of not sleeping don't do as I did and freak out and think my insomnia is back. Restart the program, get out of bed if you can't sleep. It sucks but it's so much better than spiraling out of control for months like I did. I hope I remember that!

This is a solid book that has already started to help with my sleep issues. I've suffered from insomnia for 3 years, much of that time getting 2-3 hours of pitiful, restless sleep and feeling horrible the next day. I've tried many solutions, including antidepressants, sleeping pills, therapy, etc., all to no avail. I don't share the author's disdain for the established medical treatments of insomnia, but can echo the fact that none of those methods worked for me. The reason I love this book is that it contains advice that resonates with me logically. So much of the well-meaning sleep advice out there nowadays has to do with going to bed at the same time every night, having the room pitch black, and a host of other things that have no bearing at all on the quality of your sleep. Have any of you ever wondered why these perfect sleep conditions are necessary when none of them seemed to matter when you were younger? Me too. Back before stress took over our lives, we were able to fall dead asleep and stay that way for eight hours, even sleeping in a recliner by a lamp, with the television going. If you change the sleeping conditions now without changing the stress, you are still going to sleep like crap. Stress and anxiety begin to erode your sleep and you form poor habits such as worrying in bed and waking up in the middle of the night. This book shows you how to change the habits through positive thinking and a healthier approach to stress. The only reason that I give this book 4 stars is that it completely disregards common medical approaches to insomnia. As I mentioned before, I too tried most medical treatments, including therapy, multiple anti-anxiety meds, and sleep meds. Even though none of these solutions worked for me, I know people that have been able to control insomnia through the right combination of these treatments. The author has an understandable disdain for the medical approaches to insomnia since she was not able to get relief through them for her sleep issues, but that doesn't mean that sound medical advice won't work for anyone. My advice is to try this book first and then consult your doctor if you continue to have problems. Therapy is the most helpful of all the medical approaches I tried, whereas pills were much less effective. Understand that if you are looking for a pill that is going to magically make you get 8 hours of hibernation-quality sleep every night, you will be disappointed. Tying things up, this is a great book if you want to take control of your sleep issues yourself. Be ready to challenge your beliefs and attitudes about sleep. Be ready to put some effort into changing your sleep habits gradually, over time. Be comfortable with incremental improvements. In the short time that I've put the advice in this book to work, I've already started to sleep better and perhaps even more importantly, been more comfortable during the day after I didn't sleep well. No matter what course you take, I wish you luck and better sleep.

The irony of the author telling you to stop looking for a "miracle cure" for insomnia as one of the program points and then calling her way the "incredible new cure" in the title isn't lost on me. I think the book has helped me understand the entire CBT process a bit better but the book also made me more anxious in some ways. For example, she is pretty stern about the fact that if you fail with her method, it's all your fault and it's only YOU, especially the negativity part. This made me terrified before I even started CBT with a psychologist. I am naturally a very negative person so reading that I need to somehow magically be positive and happy, otherwise it won't succeed, put me into an emotional tail spin already. I was actually surprised when my sleep psychologist didn't even touch upon that subject for the first weeks of therapy and was very relieved by that. I struggle with discipline, motivation and dedication with everything in life. In short, I am a quitter. So if a book tells me I can only sleep again if I push through and I am destined to fail unless I do that, I am already in tears before I've even started. For someone like me there's nothing even remotely effortless about the positivity part. I found that the most off-putting in an otherwise sound approach to insomnia.

Yes, here I am, yet another member of the longterm insomnia crowd. I found this e-book on Amazon five weeks ago during a desperate search for help. I'm afraid my review will be a bit wordy, but there's so much to say about this book. I've been a chronic insomniac for 20 years. The prescribed medication I was currently taking had, yet again, grown impotent as each medication before had done. Having tried everything my doctors were willing to share with me, as well as countless other efforts to aid sleep such as avoiding caffeine, exercising appropriately, etc., I didn't know where to turn. Utterly miserable, I hoped I might find some kind of book on Amazon and found an insomnia aid book/CD product where one of its reviewers mentioned another author's name and her book. It was such a thoughtful comment, I immediately turned away from that product to learn more about The Effortless Sleep Method. I wasn't willing to wait to receive a print copy in the mail and ordered the Kindle download for my computer. I read it from cover to cover at once. Every point stood out to me like a beacon. As other reviewers have mentioned, many ideas in this book are those that insomniacs have known or heard about before. The genius of this method is in its presentation and the way Sasha connects all the dots that can lead to insomnia. It is indeed a thoughtful book that only asks the reader to relax and honestly consider its points. She doesn't just understand the mechanics of being able to sleep, she understands the layered psychology of sleep. I resolved to start my committment to my recovery that first night and tried a couple of the relaxation techniques. To my surprise, I kept finding myself waking up (which meant I had actually fallen asleep--without meds!) I experienced 3 bursts of deep Delta sleep throughout the night. It doesn't matter how long each one lasted. As recommended, I purposely didn't check the clock, but I am confident it was that good hombre Delta sleep. It felt so good! I had such a wondrous day as a result and couldn't wait to go it again the next night. Just as amazing as my success with 3 little sleeps, I also experienced a major reduction of the unbearable restless legs and arms syndrome that developed during a bout of illness last spring. One of the relaxation techniques immediately addressed that issue. I sensed the relief and simultaneously felt surprised and grateful. Five weeks since, the RLS has still eased so that I can barely sense it most of the time. My joy of living had spiraled to zero before I read this book. I haven't experienced one single sleepless night since that first night of real sleep five weeks ago. I purposely waited to post a review until I'd spent more than a few days/nights of recovery. I can't believe how easily I fall asleep now. I mean, I do believe it, but it still amazes me. I know that other persons with this problem can relate to the huge sense of relief. I have so far told my son, my parents, and a few close friends about this book and my recovery. Knowing what a sleep-deprived mess I'd been for two decades, they are happy for me but rather speechless. I understand that folks reading these glowing reviews may be quite skeptical, but I assure you I am as amazed myself. Thank you, Sasha, for being who you are. Your sensitive understanding and brilliant connections have given me back my life. *Update: It is now April 13, 2013, and I am still using the techniques I learned in this book, still sleeping well and still recommending this book. I have an occasional short sleep night or a night with sponly a few hours of sleep, but I am happy to deal with it because it is so much better than an entire week of no sleep. My days are full and joyous. *Update: November 7, 2015--STILL getting a good, refreshing night's sleep each and every night! Good sleep hygiene apparently has trained my mind. But, has anyone read the new study a university professor researched on our ancestors' sleep habits? Old documents show persons referring to "first sleep" and "second sleep," while they spent an hour or more in between the sleeps active with personal pursuits. It seems that, in the old days, folks didn't sweat waking up in the middle of the night. Follow this link for more: http://slumberwise.com/science/your-ancestors-didnt-sleep-like-you/

This book was, literally, an answer to a desperate prayer. In the middle of yet another sleepless, anxiety-filled night I called out to God, or whoever was listening, begged for relief, and asked for the answer to be specific. Well, the answer came in the form of "The Effortless Sleep Method." I did a search on Amazon.com in the morning and this is the book that came up. I purchased it immediately, read it in a day, and it became obvious to me that this approach was different. The author is spot-on. The fact that she LIVED this nightmare, can relate fully to the reader, was refreshing. I've seen other reviewers call her "condescending" but what I found is that she speaks the absolute truth, and that truth might be hard for some to hear. After years of believing there was something "wrong" with me, that I was "different" from other people in that I "couldn't" fall asleep at night, she turned it around and helped me to see that it was really a mindset. I began to recognize the anxiety/fear for what is was and separate it from my ability to fall asleep at night. This was immensely helpful. I won't claim as others have that I started sleeping well from that first night, however, in the end I am back to sleeping well. The first few weeks were rough, but I followed her method completely and am now sleeping naturally and well. Yes, a lot of the rules are simple sleep hygiene, but that is the basis for the rest. I have recommended this book to several others and the universal review is that this book simply speaks the truth. As an insomnia sufferer, you'll find yourself nodding in agreement to the content on almost every page. The other thing that was truly helpful was the author herself. She has a website/blog that you can use to contact the author and she will answer any questions you might have. I did make use of this blog and she answered my questions personally and in great depth. Her support was another huge part of my recovery. I am forever grateful to Ms. Stephens for both this book and for her personal interest in helping those who suffer in the deep of the night. Buy the book and be prepared to get back to being yourself - fully rested.

A seriously flawed book with some helpful hints at the end. The author is repetitive, condescending, and full of assumptions about the reader. She emphasizes in the first chapter that a reader MUST read the book from front to back before implementing her sleep strategy, but she is ironically so repetitive that this is not necessary. Chapter 10 contains everything you need to know, as it summarizes everything else she has written about. The content of Chapter 10 is even summarized again in Chapter 11! I purchased this book because it had good reviews, but I have to wonder how honest those reviews truly are. As for the content of the book, the "Effortless Sleep Method" is simply 12 common sense sleep hygeine rules. There is nothing special or unique about it, but some of the suggestions were new to me and therefore helpful. The author initially acknowledges that there are different types of insomnia, yet throughout the book she only addresses those that have difficulty falling asleep. For those of us who can fall asleep with ease but can't seem to stay there, this was frustrating. I also have to wonder how many people will benefit from her last rule: put your life first. The author writes that she would refuse to make plans with friends and family or go on vacation because the anticipation of those plans would cause her to suffer another sleepless night. To me this sounds like someone with serious social anxiety issues who probably would have slept just fine if those issues were addressed by a psychologist.

I developed insomnia in grad school and then spent two years on sleeping pills, which worked at knocking me out and allowing me to think I was getting good sleep. Then I was able to get off pills entirely for a couple years when I went paleo (caveman diet). Then my sleeping problem came back, without warning, and I was back on pills. Except this time, the pills did not work. I tried different types. At one point, I was taking double or triple the prescribed dosage, and I was still unable to fall and stay asleep. It was TERRIBLE. Then I found this book. I'm a pretty negative, skeptical person, but at the same time, I'm willing to give something a full-hearted try. I did exactly that. I followed this author's advice, went cold turkey off the sleeping pills, and after several horrible (but slowly improving) weeks of being off the sleeping pills and being unable to sleep, things slowly got better and better. Within a month, I was telling people that I was sleeping well, and within a couple months, I had completely forgotten that I even used to have a sleeping problem. Now I sleep well. Not as well as my beau, who can fall asleep in minutes and sleep incredibly deeply. But pretty well. Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night, I'll get up and urinate, and then go back to sleep. I wish I didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night, but it's only about 35% of the nights that I wake up halfway through the night (basically the nights that someone else is in my too-small-for-two-people bed). All in all, this book was a TOTAL SUCCESS for me. I can't believe that it worked as well as it did. Much of it is mental - learning to not stress out when something doesn't go perfectly (e.g., every once in a while, I'll have a bad sleeping night. But unlike before, I don't obsess about it the next night). Prior to reading this book, I had pretty good sleep hygiene. I have black-out curtains and a white noise machine (read: loud fan), I live in a quiet building, and I've trained my roommate to be really quiet when I go to sleep. I was also using ear plugs (which I now don't use anymore because they are unnecessary). I also eat paleo and do crossfit, which I think helps with sleep. The one big thing that I changed due to this book is my sleep/wake time. I was getting up at 4am to go to the gym Monday-Friday and then staying up until 2-4am on Friday and Saturday nights. I have since changed by gym/work schedule around so that I'm getting up around 6:30am Monday-Friday instead of 4am. I still often stay up late on Friday and Saturday nights. Changing my wake time Monday-Friday probably played a role in my recovery. (The author recommends normalizing your sleep/wake times). My sleep/wake times aren't _consistent_, but they are at least more consistent than they were. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Libro meraviglioso, mi sta aiutando molto per il periodo stressante e l,insonnia che ne è scaturita. Molto meglio della psicologa da cui andavo prima come aiuto, direi mille volte più utile ed efficace!

Read and apply if you are struggling with insomnia! Very helpful

My first night after reading this book was a beautiful night of sleep and that alone is worth the price of this book!

This book must be read for every insomniac. It has so many things to offer and the author herself has suffered from sleeping problems for 15 years. From the side effects of pills to relaxation techniques this book has everything and most important of all this book is different from other books as it forces us to face our sleep problem head on. I think I will become a better sleeper as each day passes.

I finished reading this eBook on Friday (4 days ago) and I can definitely say that something has changed, something quite amazing. The essence of Sasha Stephens' message about insomnia is clear: stop breathing life into the Insomnia Monster by thinking and talking negatively about it (either to yourself or others). I am a nutritional therapist and for years I have used my skills in nutrition to ease my insomnia...and I did pretty well! I used to barely sleep at all before studying nutritional medicine. I used to suffer from sleep paralysis, nightmares, all the forms of sleep disturbance (waking early, waking often, not falling asleep for hours, if at all). Over the years I then began to understand and practice sleep hygiene and my diet was near-perfect. Eventually I gave up alcohol and caffeine completely and I regularly exercised. I constantly worried though, why wasn't my sleep perfect when I did everything right? I had run countless lab tests on various hormones (cortisol, melatonin, thyroid hormones etc etc). I discovered imbalances and corrected them through diet, yet still I worried and thought, "why don't I sleep 7-8 hours every night?" "Why am I tired most days?" On and on I went until I stumbled upon this eBook...and the reason I stumbled upon it was because I was creating a website about insomnia and wanted to see who had written bestsellers on the subject and what those books were missing so I could fill in the gaps. I had never bothered buying a book about insomnia before because I always thought I understood that it could only be nutrition/hormone-related and I didn't want any 'quick fixes' that invariably don't work. I read The Effortless Sleep Method in about 3 hours...it cost me £2.49 - a ridiculously small price for such a huge benefit. Sasha Stephens does write about sleep hygiene and she writes about relaxation methods and other useful but standard insomnia practices. It wasn't any of those that changed everything for me, it was just two simple ideas: 1) Stop worrying what time you go to bed; stop worrying how many times you wake up; stop worrying that you're tired in the morning; stop worrying how many hours you slept...STOP WORRYING! So I did. Immediately. 2) Don't do anything in your bed except sleep and have sex. And I did. My previous routine on a work day was to wake up, make a cup of tea and go back to bed for a bit to watch TV, check email etc for about 30 minutes. On a weekend I would do this too but sometimes for longer (ok sometimes for HOURS on a Sunday!). So I stopped worrying and started using positive language with myself in regard to insomnia. I also started to get out of bed as soon as I woke up. What suddenly became clear to me was that I haven't been an insomniac for years! I had done so much work and regained my health so well that I sleep every night. However, I had put some magic number on it which was 7-8 solid hours every night without fail and if I don't achieve that continuously I must have failed somehow. How ridiculous! So now I don't care what time I go to bed and I don't lie around in my bed watching TV or on my laptop in the morning. It's been a mere FOUR DAYS and I feel that something very deeply rooted has switched in me. I have suffered from motivation problems for years and yet the past two days at work have been so different and I feel...more awake! The title of this review is 'Tentatively Excited' because I don't want to speak too soon. The truth is though, I feel as though I've slain the Insomnia Monster (which I created in the first place!) Be aware though that I had already done so much work health-wise to ensure a good night's sleep, it was the psychological side I hadn't bothered with. I still feel strongly that being physically healthy is also incredibly important for quality sleep but I must say, the mind is extremely powerful so I definitely recommend anyone having sleep difficulties to read this book!