REVIEW and INTERVIEW
Simple Sleep Solutions
and How to Profit from Your Dreams
and How to Profit from Your Dreams
by JP Nicolais
Author JP Nicolais stops by today for an interview about his Simple Sleep Solutions. You can also read my review and an excerpt from the booklet.
Description
This image-rich guide to better sleep provides the author's proven solution with a 90% success rate.
Learn how to adapt the author’s technique to develop your own sleep solutions. The technique is ideal for falling back to sleep and can also be used to fall asleep initially. You don't need special training or equipment to personalize this proven technique, but creativity, a willingness to experiment and an active imagination are helpful. It’s so simple, you won’t believe it until you try it.
An expert in dream psychology describes how to access our dreams and how to use our dreams to develop creative solutions for our waking life.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
The Beginning
Most of us, including me, have spent a lot of hours awake when we wanted to or could have been sleeping. Why does this happen? How can we improve our situations and wake up refreshed, alert and ready to ease into or charge into our day?
Years ago, I was having a really bad stretch of insomnia, sleeping 3 hours 1 night, 6 the next, 3 the next etc. ... You get the picture.
I started trying to figure out what was wrong, and how I could make my days and nights more pleasant and less painful. So I started a long exploration of several decades into the mystery of sleep.
I’m going to share the best of what I learned over many years, and give you one flexible solution in detail that I’ve been using for over a decade. It works for me over 90% of the time.
I want you to use my solution, adapt it to your situation or come up with an entirely new solution that works for you. Feel free to share your solution with others through me on Twitter @SASPublishing or via email at sleepsolutions@outlook.com.
Here we go.
Chapter 2
Sleep Enhancers and Demons
The Enhancers
I’ve discovered that the following actions and attitudes promote restful sleep. The more of these that you can incorporate into your life, the better you’ll sleep:
A clear conscience
Having a purpose or mission in your life
Caring about others – spouse, children, parents, friends, employees, pets – your choice. I call it the ‘We Factor’.
Spending time before bedtime doing something enjoyable, alone or with someone: a walk, a talk, a massage, a prayer, etc.
Caring about things—garden, lakes, streams, a cause
Moderate exercise—triathlons not recommended near bed time!!
Moderate eating and caffeine use prior to bed time
Discussing your sleep issues with someone you trust
A comfortable bed: I’ve been using the Sleep Number® Bed for 7 years, and I find that my sleep is restful and I rarely experience morning back pain.
The Demons
Lurking inside and outside of us are the following energies and actions that inhibit sleep:
Excessive stress and worry (Contact me immediately if you can avoid either one completely.)
Nicotine
Heavy consumption of caffeine and alcohol
Overwork and ‘over play’
Search for the perfect medical cure—not to be confused with consulting a medical professional about your sleeping issues.
The Wisdom of Dr. Peter Lambley
I discovered this fi ne English psychologist and author in my search for sound sleep and cures for insomnia and related nocturnal disruptions. These wise suggestions are from his book, “Insomnia and Other Sleep Problems”, published in 1982. It is out of print but is available on used book sites such as www.half.com and www.abebooks.com.
Here are some of his insights and recommendations:
Sometimes, you can’t avoid interrupted sleep—you’re a new parent, you have a major test or presentation coming up, you’ve just had surgery, or you’re ill and coughing violently.
His simplest and most obvious insight: Sleeping problems are the result of waking problems.
Most sleeping solutions are in the sleeper’s hands.
Sleeping problems are most prevalent among urban dwellers.
Sometimes, you should leave insomnia alone and deal with the problem that’s keeping you awake.
Sometimes, you should welcome insomnia as a creative experience, and sometimes you should consult a physician.
Praise for the Book
"When it comes to 'self-help' books I am quite the skeptic. This book is the exception which proves my rule. The title is not a misnomer-these are truly simple solutions. Simple solutions that work. What works for the author is revisiting a happy place - his childhood neighborhood. For my visualization work, I renovate houses. Works 90% of the time. Should the reader decide to learn even more about sleep and dreams, the book also includes an extensive resource list." ~ K. Brown
"This book didn't put me to sleep but the techniques did. The author describes how he developed personal methods to get to sleep or get back to sleep. Visualization has helped him and he includes methods to develop your own individual system. He walks around the neighborhood of his youth and relives pleasant memories. Using his advice I've tried reviewing the words to songs I'm learning. That helps put me to sleep and learn the songs." ~ Charles L. Miller
"This is an easy read, costs very little and has some very good ideas you can put into practice and they work!" ~ Stephen Ciucci
My Review
By Lynda Dickson
In Simple Sleep Solutions, the author shares a simple technique that works for him 90% of the time. After discussing some basic factors that may influence sleep, he shares his technique and cites some reasons for its effectiveness. He also provides tips for adapting the technique to suit your own needs. The second part of the book deals with dreams and how they can affect both your sleeping and waking life. Tips for remembering your dreams are also provided. The book is illustrated throughout with photographs that help set the mood and promote relaxation.
This book is very spiritual in nature, and it is clear that the author is passionate about the subject and keen to help others with their sleep problems. The technique outlined is certainly worth trying if you have trouble sleeping. There is also a list of websites and articles providing solutions of a more physical nature.
Interview With the Author
For what age group do you recommend your book?
Teens and older, but adults can teach children to learn the imagination technique.
What sparked the idea for this book?
Years of struggling with insomnia helped me uncover a solution that’s easily adaptable to each person’s experience.
What was the hardest part to write in this book?
It was easy to write. Learning self-publishing platforms was a challenge.
How do you hope this book affects its readers?
I’m on a mission to help people take control of their basic need for sleep as a way to improve the quality of their life, work, and relationships. As an ongoing service, I provide information for readers on my website.
How long did it take you to write this book?
3 months.
What is your writing routine?
I write whenever I feel inspired.
How did you get your book published?
I self-published it first in English and Spanish, and then had the English language version republished by Xlibris.
What advice do you have for someone who would like to become a published writer?
Find something that you’re passionate about and then learn the craft and tools of writing. I consider myself a healer first and a writer by accident.
What do you like to do when you're not writing?
I love sports both as a spectator and as a tennis player. I’m a selective fiction reader and a voracious nonfiction reader.
What does your family think of your writing?
They support my desire to empower others.
Please tell us a bit about your childhood.
I was an active child who played sports and physical games with friends, and I was a good student who loved book learning. I developed an early interest in spirituality and was always searching for sunshine after I discovered Arizona Highways Magazine.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
When I was 70, I realized that I had something beneficial to share with others.
Which writers have influenced you the most?
Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
I hear from friends and family, but not from strangers. That is why I’m focusing on outreach and marketing.
What can we look forward to from you in the future?
I’m collaborating with a psychologist to add more healthcare knowledge and credibility to my healing work.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by today, JP. Best of luck with your future projects.
From the Author
I'm a recovering small business owner and nonprofit exec who has a passion for creating life solutions especially for life's basic needs. I grew up in Pennsylvania but spent most of my life in Washington DC until our family move to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to engage in my fundraising work. My wife and I live in a small community with our two Jack Russells, Pip and Sophie. As I began looking for ways to help individuals I was coaching regarding career and life issues, I realized that many of them suffered from insomnia but didn't have tools to deal with one of their essential needs. I shared with them the technique I painfully and slowly discovered, and decided to create a book to teach others how to create their own personalized path to improved sleep.
I started becoming a book fanatic when I was 5, and was a child peruser of encyclopedias and travel magazines. Discovering Arizona Highways was a revelation because the area where I lived seemed to be perpetually cloudy. Writing was not a natural journey because I was more of a verbal communicator, but during my high school and college careers, I was forced to write various fiction and nonfiction, but I never became very excited about these exercises. I guess I'm really a writer by accident. My real goal is to provide people with healing and empowering information and solutions, and writing is the vehicle I use to communicate with others.
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