Tucson, AZ ; March 9, 2006 – Stressing that we have become hypnotized by hypnotics and need to awaken from the sleeping pill trance, Dr. Rubin Naiman, the sleep and dream specialist for Dr. Andrew Weil’s Program in Integrative Medicine, offers a viable alternative to sleeping pills in his new book HEALING NIGHT: The Science and Spirit of Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening (Syren Book Company).

As sleep maladies increase so does the popularity of sleeping pills or hypnotics. According to The New York Times, approximately 42 million sleeping pill prescriptions were filled last year, up nearly 60 percent from 2000. Yet, the heated contest about which hypnotic might work better, diverts our attention from the real forces damaging our nights, believes Naiman.

Acknowledging that sleep disorders have emerged as the most prevalent health concern in the industrialized world, affecting not only our health, welfare, and safety, but our very consciousness, Naiman reveals how the erosion of night by artificial light and the devaluation of sleep and dreaming have led to an epidemic of sleep disorders and chronically dazed waking consciousness.

“Sleep cannot be reduced to squiggly EEG tracings or the complex cascade of neural humors. There is a critical but forgotten, deeply personal, distinctly spiritual, and even mythic dimension to sleep that is shrouded by our limited medical perspective,” says Naiman.

“Our inclination to take something to sleep,” says Naiman, “must be tempered with the essential psychological and spiritual need to let go of something in order to sleep.” Emphasizing the critical role of dusk and darkness as a natural medium for letting go, he emphasizes that “night is the best sleep medicine.”

By providing an accessible, truly integrative approach to sleep and dreams that is both pragmatic and effective, HEALING NIGHT lays the foundation for a timely, original, and viable alternative to conventional sleep medicine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rubin R. Naiman is a psychologist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arizona’s Health Sciences Center. He is also the sleep and dream specialist for Dr. Andrew Weil’s world renowned Program in Integrative Medicine. A sleep specialist at Miraval Resort, he founded the sleep program at Canyon Ranch Resort, and teaches and maintains a private practice in Tucson, Arizona. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Naiman has worked with a diverse clientele ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs to world class athletes, from homemakers to statesmen and entertainers. Dr. Naiman is also creator of THE SLEEP ADVISOR, an innovative software program that addresses sleep disorders (TheSleepAdvisor.com). For more information visit www.drnaiman.com.

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