Reviewed by Randolph W. Evans, MD Sleep and its disorders are of intense personal and professional interest to physicians. Medical students and residents become intimately familiar with the effects of routine sleep deprivation, which remains a problem for many clinicians throughout their careers. I suspect that some medical students select their specialty based upon their need for sleep with short sleepers choosing surgical areas. The effects of sleep deprivation on physicians are a continuing source of controversy. Some of our patients think little of calling in the middle of the night even for trivial problems.
Chronic insomnia is a widespread and difficult disorder to manage.
Unfortunately, like many common problems, sleep disorders are often neglected in medical education. A book dealing with a topic as interesting as sleep disorders should not be hypnotic. In the chapter on medical causes of disordered sleep, one minor omission is headaches, such as primary headaches, that can cause awakening from sleep, including migraine, cluster, hypnic, and chronic paroxysmal hemicrania. A single author and standardized layout greatly enhance the readability. Illustrative case histories are included throughout.