The Promise of Sleep © 1999 by William C. Dement (466 pages)

Lengthy but in-depth and interesting account of Dr Dement's sleep research. Much of the content is on his experiments and personal experiences and those interested in the conclusions of his research could just focus on Chapter 14.

What struck me most was that many illnesses are actually sleep disorders that are mis-diagnosed, causing much suffering to patients. And that having a huge sleep debt may lead to accidents and even death!

In short, there're no hard and fast rules about our sleeping needs, everyone's different but one thing's for sure, according to Dr Dement, there's no way we could "train" ourselves to sleeping less yet functioning at the same effectiveness; so we must be wary of books and online articles that teach us how to sleep less.

At this very moment, more than 14,000 km away from home, I am applying the concepts of sleep debt and biological clock to manage jet lag to much success!

Goodnight, it's time to sleep!