Been having a bit of insomnia lately. Too lazy to exercise. Cant focus enough to count sheep (cant get past 10). Don’t like electronic devices emitting radiation at night. So, I have decided to explore the immense potential of books to help me snooze.
Recommend me dense, impenetrable, and/or boring books. I would appreciate books with pictures, preferably in black-and-white. I am thinking animal husbandry journals, lab manuals, and the like. Older the better - love keeping myself outdated. No philosophy or literature-heavy stuff please - it just pisses me off. Suggestions?
While I enjoyed reading Guns, Germs, and Steel Diamond’s follow on book Collapse just bored me to sleep over and over. I’d read a page or two, if that, and would find myself drowsy.
So my rule of thumb: Find a book you liked okay by an author whose subsequent book was far less successful. Read that one.
“Options trading: the hidden reality” by Charles Cottle. It is a rapidly working sleep-inducer. Oddly enough, it is also possibly one of the best books ever written on options trading. I’m better for having read it, but it took me a long long time. And I read about 3 books/week when not on vacation.
I know you specified books, but podcasts are recommended by a fair amount of sleep doctors. Key things on a podcast:
no annoying adds
can’t be too interesting but enough to kinda grab your interest
Avoid the hosts that sound like they just did a whole lot of meth. Boring monotone is much better
For example, I’m a home brewer. There’s a podcast called basic brewing radio. Host and sidekick are my generation, make jokes I get, the subject matter can range from mildly related to something I’m really interested in, they general speak in a monotone, no adds, etc. Some of the programs that I really want to fully hear can take up to 10 repeats before I get through them since I fall asleep part way thru. It’s perfect for me and inducing sleep for me.
All I have to do is have a notebook nearby where I can write about whatever profound thoughts I’m having at the moment. Works like a charm. I bore the heck out of me.
I had great luck with Remembrance of Things Past/Swann’s Way. Could not get more than a couple of pages in without feeling quite sleepy. It was my bedtime read for years. Just lulled me right to sleep. Yes it’s a literary classic, so not what you asked for–or what you asked not for. But hey, if it works…
Also, both my husband and I had trouble reading the whole Dr. Seuss classic The Sleep Book to our kids without falling asleep our own selves. We would attempt to skip pages. Uh, by accident. Our kids would catch it. But by the end they were sleepy too. If we made it to the end.
