And Survival, Sugar, Lights Out: Sleep

Pocket Books should be ashamed of publishing such a badly-written horribly edited book. Really too bad because I think the theories deserve some real thought and documented research. One hundred pages of references doesn't mean a thing if you can't line up a fact with a reference (who did the research that says we only get one billion heart beats?). A 30-page glossary seems nice, but the 2 words I tried to find weren't in there, and I'm sure some that are there aren't in the book. One of the final chapters mentions an appendix twice -- but the book has no appendix! Minor, but showing how badly this book wasn't edited, the last page (About the Authors) has the title of the book wrong!
Although this book was very, very frustrating to read, I wanted to learn what it has to teach. I wish I knew which parts were from real science and which were pulled out of hats. Reviewers who say it is an easy read couldn't have tried to understand all the words ... for example, in one page, she discusses Newtonian physics, Quantum physics, supersymmetry and string theory AND Chaos theory. She may use simple words, but her thoughts ping-pong around through complex and questionable ideas and trying to "connect the dots" and discern the truth make in-depth reading very slow and frustrating.
T.S. Wiley should have hired a ghost writer. Hopefully someone else will write this book the right way and help us see what in here is fact.

Lights Out contains some sound, common-sense advice: get more sleep, eat less sugar and carbohydrates, drink plenty of water, stay away from artificial fats. It also contains a lot of bizarre conspiracy theories, overblown claims, and sociobiological rhetoric about evolutionary winners and losers. I don't doubt that a low-carbohydrate diet can help you lose weight and avoid insulin resistance; I intend to try it myself. And I've always slept between nine and ten hours a night unless I fired up the alarm clock, so I think they've got something there, too. But the authors are so eager to make their polemical point that they ignore contrary considerations, such as low rates of heart disease in Third World countries where people eat mostly grains and carbohydrates. They mention French people as an example of healthy eaters, but ignore how the French consume lots of alcoholic beverages which should be a verboten form of sugar under their nutritional system. I think Wiley and Formby have rushed their book into print and they need a more systematic, methodical approach.

Suppose--just suppose--it was proven that you and virtually everyone you knew was doing something terribly dangerous to your health. Now imagine that correcting this hazard was not only simple but relaxing and already on-hand. If that was the case, you'd change your ways, right? Well, there is in fact strong evidence--I'd almost call it proof--that modern Americans are gradually killing themselves via long-term sleep deprivation, and we need to be aware of the problems we are causing ourselves, right now!

Fact: the average American adult just 100 years ago spent 9.5 hours of every 24 hours asleep. The average American adult in the year 2000 slept just 6.2 hours per night.

If your answer to those statistics is, "So what?" you definitely need to read this book.

The cold hard fact seems to be this: human beings were (pick your choice here) A) designed by God; B) evolved in nature; C) grew used over hundreds of generations to spending perhaps as much as half their lives asleep. Certainly even by the most conservative of views, we humans need to sleep at least a third of our existence. How many of us get even eight hours a night anymore? Sadly only about one in six. It's only been in the last 5-6 generations, since the advent of electrical lighting, that humans have shifted away from the natural day/night, sleep/wake cycles by which our species was regulated. Is it coincidental that it is also in that time period we have seen this massive onset of catastrophic illnesses (especially mental illness) in record breaking numbers? No. Nor is sleep the only factor in the escalation of catastrophic illness, but it is one large piece in the puzzle. More than likely human beings simply have not had time to adjust in the course of a hundred years or so to massives changes in the sleep cycles their forebears spent perhaps ten-thousand generations acclimating themselves to.

Sleep is the time of healing, of unwinding, of our body producing mood-regulating hormones such as melatonin (which can ONLY be manufactured in total darkness and only during one specific segment of the nightly sleep cycle). A lack of sufficient sleep interrupts the production of insulin, testosterone, estrogen, seratonin, can lead to diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease, cancer, senility, infertility, and a laundry list of other medically-incontrovertible health crises, including, paradoxically, sleep apnea!

And yet we modern Americans continue to stay up nights, working on computers, watching television, reading, burning the proverbial midnight oil, even while our culture reels under the effects of an epidemic of disease, mental illness and seemingly perpetual malaise. It is even said that one automobile accident in seven is related to "drowsy driver syndrome" a contributing factor in as many as 3,000 highway deaths and 30,000 injuries annually!

Nothing that can be written in the space of a brief review can do justice to the overpowering weight of argument, study, fact, and anecdotal testimony presented by Wiley in her excellent, frightening book. I admit I do not get the quantity of sleep she recommends and that evidence shows is needed (9 ½ hours nightly) but after reading Lights Out I am more aware of the problems that lack of sleep can generate and am working toward mending my Queen of Nightowl ways. If this book's more than 100-pages of notes and references to scientific studies (conducted by a number of governments and some of the most prestigious institutions of learning on planet earth all independently arriving at the same findings) are correct, then human beings have been playing God and inverting the light/dark cycles of planet earth, and we could be in a LOT of long-term trouble as a result!

The authors present some interesting and compelling ideas about the relationship of light-dark and seasonal cycles to our eating habits, mental stability, and cancer. This is the first book I've seen that brings in the relationship of sleep cycles and light-dark to our health, and which also asserts that depression is nature's way of getting rid of some of us. A lot of what they say makes a lot of sense. It made enough sense that I even evicted my LED alarm clock in favor of the old-fashioned kind that doesn't glow in the dark. There are also some of the clearest explanations of hormones, serotonin, GABA, etc. that I have ever read. Their conclusion that adult-onset diabetes is an end-stage insulin response to prevent freezing is mind-boggling!
I can only give the book 3 stars however because I can't check the references for myself to find out for myself if what they assert is upheld by the research. True, almost a third of the book is a listing of scientific papers, but there are no little numbers at the ends of sentences or paragraphs to link the papers with the text. The research is sorted only by chapter and listed alphabetically by author within, and most of the chapters have hundreds of references. Just because a paper is published in a respected journal doesn't mean it's good science or that it actually says what the authors report it says.
I also have to downgrade the book some for its hysterical "the sky is falling" tone. Perhaps it was done this way to get our attention, but I would have preferred a more even tone. The conclusions are alarming enough (if true) as is.

Alot of the information presented concerning evolution is unsubstantiated, and untrue, however the information about light poisoning and lack of quality, timly sleep is probably absolutely correct. The writing dragged a bit and was somewhat repetitive but, I enjoyed the colorful terminology. I wish Ms. Wiley had given better references for her suppositions.
I read the book 2 weeks ago. Since that time, I have made several changes in my sleep habits. I have painted my bedroom walls dark colors instead of the glaring, bright white they were. I keep the lights in the house somewhat dimmed after dark. I covered all the red, green and blue lights (I didnt realize there were so many lite sources in my bedroom) on the clocks, vcr, telephones ect, in my room.

I immediately started trying to get that recommended 9.5 hours of sleep. Today is the first day that I have been able to sleep the full nine and a half hours in almost complete darkness. It was difficult to build up from 7 hrs to 9.5. I do feel better, and I find myself getting more things done during the day. I am even more emotionally calm, and believe that my BP has gone down. I fully anticipate losing weight by sleeping more and giving my body time to repair itself, and, am looking forward to Ms. Wiley's next literary effort.

Sleep is, without a doubt, one of the most important aspects of life and health, and this book has a ton of really useful information about sleep and the multitude of problems that can arise from sleep pathologies. I really appreciate the time and dedication it must have taken for the author to bring such an important and yet often ignored subject to light. On the other hand, it's incredibly whiny and preachy and quite frankly, annoying. I do recommend it, just prepare yourself for a rather painful and obnoxious read.

I agree with those reviewers who point out the many positive, scientific aspects of this book. It's an important read for anyone interested in the epidemic of adult-onset diabetes and obesity in America, as well as for those generally interested in health, longevity, evolution of the human species, etc.

I part ways with those who complain about T. S. Wiley's writing style. I found it amusing and accessible, whereas most books covering this sort of topic with so many footnotes would tend to put one to sleep within a few pages. If one is total stickler for scientific accuracy and lack of opinion in such writing, stick to reading juried science journals, I guess. This is a popular press, general public book and the writing is on target for that population. It makes the book easy to read and entertaining, allowing even the average Joe and Jane to burn through the pages and still understand everything.

As someone with a solid science and engineering background, the glossed over bits didn't detract from the essential message at all in my opinion. But this is really no argument against others' opinions, either. Writing style is greatly a matter of personal taste. Some people will always like or dislike a particular author's style. I believe this book is important enough to ignore any such agreements to disagree on the subject of style.

Well! I must say that as a (now, former) follower of "Diet for a New America" and a vegetarian (also former), this book upset me, made me mad, scared me, was an affront to my morality, and, finally, woke me up. If I hadn't been steadily gaining weight and illnesses on my vegetarian, low-fat lifestyle for years, however, I might not have even bought it, so I was obviously already begining to realise on my own that something was very wrong (does this sound like you, too?). Thanks to these authors, the puzzle pieces now fit. I found their reasoning well supported, their science analitically sharp, and their off beat and irreverent humor refreshing. It will be interesting to see how their work is ultimately recieved. Since they are not selling anything, and their advice goes against the 'party line', chances are they'll be buried. however, I hope YOU wont overlook this enlightening (pun intended) overview of what's killing us all, especially if you have any major health concerns that you're losing sleep over (ditto re: the pun). The answers you've been looking for are all right here! There are alot of editorial errors that can be distracting. Amazingly, in the 'About the Authors' section, the book is refered to by the early draft title choice, later discarded in favor of "Lights Out!", which is ammusing (it's really true!, no one's perfect!), but for me, these mistakes didn't marr the simple, intelligent message, advice and answers that are the gifts of this remarkable and honest look at the real 'plagues' of modern man.

Even before it was officially published, the book woke up medical and government experts, some of whom ere shocked, stunned and surprised by authors/researchers T.S.
Wiley and Bent Formby's claims that 9.5 hours of sleep a night can lower blood pressure, erase depression, prevent cancer and help people lose weight. (Their theory, in a much
reduced nutshell: Our physiology has been programmed since Day One to eat and breed in sync with seasonal variations in light exposure; in other words, "with the invention of the light bulb 70 years ago, we fundamentally altered this delicate biological rhythm.") Why have we been kept in the dark about such supposed healthy connections? The answers are here, along with various tips and tricks, secrets and suggestions. These guys have done their homework --- their notes and resources make up a third of the book's 350 pages --- but before stocking up on room-darkening shades and tossing all those three-ways, spend time carefully reading their claims. Then ask your doctor. And shrink.

Though the information in the book is supposedly common sense few of us actually put it into practice. I have slept seasonally about 16 years ago. My health and fitness took off astronomically. I now more fully understand the hormonal and the neurotransmitter reasons why sleeping this way has such a powerful influence on health. This book is not written in a dull researcher type of style but make no mistake that the research backing their claims is sound. My only complaint is Wiley's and Formby's claim that the reason for our increase in longevity is the use of antibiotics and surgical procedures. How they could see all the BS in the research world and make this totally unsubstantiated claim is beyond me. Maybe they have yet to realize life is not mechanistic/reductionisctic but vitalistic/wholistic. All of our problems are not from sleep deprivation but rather a confluence of mental/emotional, physical, and chemical interactions. I do, however concede that sleep deprivation, processed foods, and light toxicity to be major contributors to modern society's rapidly increasing obesity and other autoimmune disorders.

I believe the basic premise of this book, that is, that man needs to respect and act in concert with his evolutionary legacy, even if it's inconvenient in our modern culture. Nothing is more common sense than this. We all need reasonable ways to live more in concert with that natural world which gave us what we have and made us the animals we are.
The authors of this book, however, digress into what appear to be paranoid diatribes against those who would question, censor or ridicule their work. These are gratuitous, and make me think that they have lost scientific perspective and hence their credibility. This is too bad, because there are good points here. The book is worthwhile if one can wade through the conspiracies and horror stories. I only hope for someone who can write a straight, mainstream, scientifically supported, populist work which will carry the same basic messages without all the fringe anecdotes and us-against-them mumbo-jumbo.

This book has changed my life. For the better. I've read a lot of books in my lifetime, but this is the first one that I've been compelled to recommend to everyone I know; the first one I've ever publicly "reviewed". Unlike a few "critics" who claim that the book was hard to read, I found it a fast-paced, easy read. I wasn't looking for any quick fixes; I was genuinely intrigued by the premise and I had to force myself to put the book down to go to bed at night. I was torn between wanting to follow the author's advice to get to bed and reading what else she had to say. In all the high-protein/low-carbohydrate diet books I've read, none have made the connection between sleep and diet. T.S. made it possible for me to lose my skepticism about the merits of the low-carbohydrate diet. I tested it for myself, and found that, indeed, when I slept at least 9.5 hours in a totally dark room, I awoke more refreshed, had more energy and craved virtually no sugar the following day. Finally, we have a vital connection that makes success on the Atkins' diet (and similar hi-protein/lo-carb diets) not only attainable, but easy. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in restoring vitality and living a long, healthy life. T.S. Wiley, thank you for writing this book. I look forward to your next one. And to the reader of this review, I've never felt so strongly in favor of a book in my entire life. You owe it to yourself to read what this author has to say. It's absolutely revolutionary and yet, it's so simple: Get your butt to bed earlier, and you will be healthier in every way for it! Good night and pleasant dreams...

This is an awful book. It purports to present scientific evidence that has been missed by "bozos" (a name for other scientists), for a theory that we are being "light-poisoned". That is, "...when it comes to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and depression, everything we believe is a lie" (p.197). Why do we get sick? "[T]he medical profession hasn't a clue why. Neither do the researchers" The real truth is that "When you stay up with the lights on out of season, you're screwing up all the plates that are spinning all at once on tall sticks in the universe that is inside you." The authors think all our medical problems stem from one simple premise: We are not getting a long enough night's sleep in a dark enough room--in the Winter! I really believe that ideas presented as scientific deserve to be written up in a coherent, orderly manner. The main problem with with this book is that it is: A. an extreme polemic ("When it comes to our government [read "...FDA, the surgeon general's office, or the...Department of Health and Human Services."]....There is no truth." And, B. so poorly written--as was Lester Packer's unfortunate Antioxidant Miracle last year--(syntax; 97 pages of notes, none of them tied into the text; misspelled major researcher's names--Gerald Reaven [also misspelled by the Eades in their new book: The Protein Power Lifeplan]), that it appears to have been composed at white-hot speed and rushed to publication without editing (book title: "Kept in the Dark" pp. 353-4). Well, it kept me in the dark. The public deserves better when doctors and scientists write for mass-consumption.

Experienced researchers T.S. Wiley and Bent Formby digest a huge amount of scientific data (and no doubt a lot of very dry reading) into a fairly easy to read and entertaining book. While it may lack the specific footnotes some critics complain about, the research is all referenced in the endnotes which comprise literally a third of the book, they are so extensive.
Wiley and Formby worked together at the Sansum Medical Research Institute at Santa Barbara, California, which is pretty much the definitive source of research on diabetes. Combined with collaboration from researchers around the world and especially at the National Insitutes of Health, their results are authoritative and well-supported.
The book reveals the basis for many health symptoms displayed by modern society and ties together the bits and pieces of research that appear in the popular press, making sense of the whole. A reader of this book who has above average interest in, or exposure to medical research into our health, will find themselves saying "ah-ha! That makes sense. No wonder that happens." Often, a bit of common sense mixed with some scientific knowledge will confirm what the writers are saying in this book.
While the presentation is occasionally a bit too light hearted, and some of the purely speculative suppositions might strike the reader as approaching absurd, the conclusions of the core material are without visible flaws. The writing style may not be ideal for every reader, but it is far more accessible and easy to read than just about any other writing on this or related subjects. Truly T.S. Wiley's journalistic talents have translated some difficult research into the common language.
On a personal level, as someone who has suffered from feeling comatose most every morning since college, regardless of the amount I slept, and who has experienced jet lag many times from numerous to and from USA/Europe, the information about melatonin and seratonin levels instantly rang true. Getting away from the flickering bright light of TV or computer early in the evening, and sleeping in a dark room has made it possible for me to actually be functional early in the morning when the sun comes up. I finished reading this book this spring, so have not had time to test its theories through a winter cycle. This winter will be the critical test. At this point, I have every confidence that the book will prove to be accurate, and instead of gaining weight, I'll lose it. Further, over the long-term, I should be healthier, happier and more energetic.
I highly recommend this book to anyone, but particularly to night-owls and computer junkies all of sorts.

This book struck all the right chords with me. First of all I was already convinced of the importance of a low carb. diet. I have also been feeling that I need to get more sleep (I spend too much time on the internet).
I would have to say that this book has given me much more motivation then I have ever had to get to bed and to cut down on sugars and starches.
My only complaint is in the variance in the authors assertions. Most of their claims are substantiated by "scientific proof" but their are others where they make suggestions such as to drink coffee because it is an anti-oxydent but they don't tell the whole story.
I love coffee and I am of course looking for any reason to keep drinking it and I would have loved to read more on what is known about the implications of drinking coffee and all the other suggestions they make near the end of the book.
It is for this reason alone that I have given only 4 stars to this very valuable book. I do suggest that this book may save your life or at least prolong it.

Wacko, but worth reading. Wiley and Formby presented important research involving sleep and survival. The studies with short-night/long-night mice and cancer were revealing. Hopefully young medical students will read and repeat these studies with mouse models of other diseases, like Parkinsons and Lou Gehrig's.
Notwithstanding Formby's credentials and Wiley'sresearch in endocrinology, the authors lost credibility by making flippant reocmmendations to drink coffee and smoke cigars. The discussion of research reinforced only thier assertions regarding carbohydrates vs. protein, and the dangers of sleeping out of sync with the circadian rhythms of the planet.
The dicsussion of exercise was one-sided. Hysterical exercising might become stressful to the body, but the authors didn't discuss the many activities all animals do that increase the heart rate: playing, sparring, dancing, working, hunting, etc.
The material often got off the subject and became tiresome. Just when I was expecting a good conclusion, in almost the last paragraph, they forced in some anecdote about the surfacing of JFK's casket in the ocean.
The book was also poorly edited. I found a typo in the second page of introduction. It was one-third references, but had no footnotes.
I imagined a very pushy personality behind the writing. Also in the introduction was the imperative, "Listen Up!." OK, now I'm listening real close. So I begin to "hear" two or three one-line paragraphs per page, thrown in like punch lines to make the story seem more intense.

The concept for this book is intriguing. If the hypothesis is correct, it would be a most compelling idea for managing our health and emotions.

But... While the author repeatedly says "studies show," she never puts in the reference for *what* study. You can't search the sources. The apparent attitude is that repeating the same leap-of-faith associations many, many times will result in all of us accepting them to be true. Politicians do this regularly. So do used car salesmen. It's not an appropriate scientific investigation.

I confess that I didn't finish the book. I got fed up with the lack of justification and repeated attempts to link Gaia, quantum physics, and serotonin.

This is *not* the scientific method of developing an hypothesis, formulating a test, and observing the results.

Charlie

What I find almost as remarkable as this book itself, is the vehemence that 2 out of 8 previous reviewers objected with. I hadn't read Lights Out until after I read the following reviews. I must admitt, it was the two negative reviews that sparcked my curiosity. They made it sound like nothing less than heracy. But I suppose all scienticts come up against that when they first introduce a new idea. Upon reading the book, I found myself intrigued by the concept, and entertained by the narritive. When I looked again at the the reviews, I was surprised to find that these two individuals took it so personally. At it's worst, Lights Out occationally slips into a alarmist tone, but on the whole it's an excellent work, and an exciting read. These individuals seemed not to object to the book, or the science involved so much as the AUTHOR, personally. One review becomes so personally impassioned that if I were Wiley or Formby, I'd laugh out loud. It must be grattifying to see that ones work can have such an exaggerated effect on bored, self-important poeple. The two individuals (whos reviews can be seen below) may have unwittingly done Lights Out a service; after all, banned books are the ones everybody wants to read.

Although I agree with other customer reviewers that this book has been 'dumbed down' for a mass-market audience and is poorly written, (overly colloquial, generalized in places, verging on conspiracy theory, a tad repetitive...) I have found the ideas it contains to be very helpful and interesting. The connections that the authors make between the wide range of research on diet, sleep and evolution are fascinating. The main ideas resonated with me, and I recommed it if you suffer or have suffered from any kind of systemic virus, fatigue, or depression. The information and supplement/dietary/sleep suggestions have been priceless and very beneficial for me -- I recommend giving this book a read. If you can look past the mediocre writing, you will find it valuable.

This book was not well organized or presented. The author was very negative about lifestyles that didn't match his beliefs to living and sleeping better. I would have liked to have seen more studies cited and more factual information presented. The main points to sleep better in the book would be easily found on the internet on food/diet sites or how to sleep better sites. Not recommended.

Lights Out is one of the finest "science" books I've read in a long time. Sometimes facinating, sometimes frightening, always cool. The writers seem to have an excellent grasp of their material, which they manage to convey with out talking down to the reader, or exploiting the pedantic, arrogant, lecture speak that doctors often employ. Most importantly, it seems to be the authors main objective to tell us the truth, the whole disturbing truth, with no strings (or promises) attached. A remarkable thing in and of itself, since the truth garners so little media attention these days, as it can't be trademarked (in the proud tradition of The Zone, Carbohydrate Addicts, etc) and sold with a catch phrase and a power bar. Think of Lights Out as a sort of Warren Report, updated for people who AREN'T stoned.

This book is packed with fascinating insight, based on sound research and comprehensive study. Most of the conclusions seem like common sense, but only after the research has been presented. It is, however, appallingly written, as if by a schoolkid trying to impress. Surely it would have been better to get a proper writer to present the valuable findings and theories?

Despite the amateurish presentation, I would recommend anyone to battle through the prose - the results are worth it and the advice given at the end is sound and sensible.

This book contains some interesting ideas but I found it very difficult to read and appreciate any of it. It reads like an episode of Hard Copy- sensationalistic, apocalyptic, etc. It is way too clear that Wiley used to be an investigative reporter. Furthermore, they throw out many 'truths' that are completely unsupported with references. I got the impression that they are trying to enlighten us in almost a religious sense and that we are just supposed to take what they say on faith. Sure, there are many references in the back, but not one is connected to any text in the book. Also, the editing is horrendous. The ideas are fresh and interesting, but the execution is so bad that I can't recommend this book- it was a real chore to read.

Lights Out was recommended to me by a chiropractor. While I agree with the basic premise that Americans just don't get enough sleep, I found this a poor book to get that information from. As I read through the book I found myself skipping whole sections because it's poorly written, judgmental, negative, unorganized and some of the assumptions made are erroneous. I'm familiar with some of the research she used as examples, and while the final conclusions she drew seem mostly correct, her explanation of the research and reasoning was flawed. If she's gotten some of the simple things incorrect then what else has she gotten incorrect? I also had questions about areas she didn't even touch on. While the sun has a large influence on life on this planet, she completely ignores the moon and its influence. Another issue she ignores is that people have different circadian rhythms; some are "morning" people and some are "night" people. There's a lot more to REM sleep and when it takes place than she wrote about. It's important that people go through a final sleep pattern before they wake in the morning, and for some that falls later than dawn. Her premises seem to assume one size fits all and that's just not true.

"Of course, in your cells, it takes exactly one day, or one turn around the sun, for a complete feedback loop." - p.81

Since when did the earth make a trip around the sun in a day? I haven't heard of many cells living 365 days either.

Such a mistake is alarming.

Nevertheless, there are many good ideas throughout the book... Although I'll have to admit, it is a disappointment to come upon such an ill-conceived line.

I found this book to be quite facinating. I tended to find alot of it quite reasonable and agreed with it that sleep is one of the pieces to the puzzle of our health and wellness. The light aspect made a lot of sense. The only part that I really had trouble with was the "millions of Years","man's existance time line", etc. which there really doesn't seem to be any proof for. This must be their scientific background vrs. my biblical background. I found this to be a good book for anyone looking for answers to some of our serious health and mental problems today.

If anything, Lights Out is done a disservice by it's own publicity. From the cover and the following reviews, I thought it was yet another wanna-be fad diet, only this one was reffered to as "the drool on your pillow diet." Ouch. I'm not one for diet books or self help. I only read it in the first place because I couldn't get my mother to stop reading it out-loud. Actually, to my grate surprise, Lights Out is a thoughtful, and provacative treatment of evolutionary biology. It explains how we work on a molecular level, and explains why we're the way we are from cave men on down. It explains things as as pragmatic as why you should go to bed, and why dieting always makes people fat and crabby. As well as overwhelming things, such as why the so-called diseases of civilization have singled us out, why we're speeding our own end as a species THROUGH medical advances, and basicly why evolution sucks. At first the theories seem no less than brillient, but once read, take on an erie quality of common sense, leaving the reader wondering why no one else knows any of this. That's when the book gets scary- apparently everyone knows (the FDA, the Surgon General, everybody) and the rest of us haven't been told for some seriously sick reasons. It reads like a mystery novel, so I don't wanna give too much away. But the bottom line is my mother can't be everywhere, reading out-loud at everyone, so it's up to you to go check it out for yourselves. It's well worth the trip.

The main premise of this book is that artificial lighting tricks our bodies into thinking it's a permanent summer, so we binge on carbohydrates to prepare for a hungry winter that never comes. However, we have four seasons, not two, and animals fatten up for the winter in the fall, when daylight hours are decreasing, not in summer. For example, bears, the champion hibernators, prefer carrion (meat) and fats in the summer, but gorge on fruits and other carbohydrates in the fall.
In just the first chapter of this book, I lost count of how many times the authors made statements I knew to be wrong or knew counterexamples for, cited a statistic to "prove" an unrelated fact, or used statistics in a meaningless way. Sprinkled throughout the book are examples that infer causality from correlation.
For example, they repeatedly mention that exercise and low-fat eating have taken hold with large parts of the American population, while diabetes, cancer, and heart disease keep rising. This doesn't prove anything - do people who exercise get these diseases at the same rate as people who do not?
The authors repeatedly state that running and other vigorous exercise cause a terror reaction in humans, even though we run while hunting but cannot outrun most predators.
On page 175 they cited the "Eskimo" (Inuit) diet as an example of how good low-carb, high-fat, high-protein diets are for you... even though these high-latitude peoples are certainly not sleeping in tune with sunrise and sunset. A more likely answer is that thousands of generations of natural selection have produced Inuit who can thrive on such a diet, especially given the physical work that goes into sustaining their lifestyle.
There are no references to mid-latitude peoples who choose to live without artificial lighting, such as many Amish and Mennonite groups. I'd be curious to know what their obesity and disease prevalences are. Cultures that take siestas would be another obvious group to test these hypotheses against.
There is an extensive bibliography, but they are sorted alphabetically by chapter, with no cross-referencing, making it nearly impossible to verify any given statement.
The clever mix of conventional and uncontroventional premises makes it difficult to sort out truth from untruth. It's well-accepted that modern high-sugar diets and stressful living are unhealthy. It's certainly true that many low-fat foods are no healthier, since they replace fat with sugar.
It may well be true that sleep problems are a cause and not an effect of modern illnesses, but the authors of this book chose to write a pseudo-scientific book promoting yet another low-carb panacea diet rather than any kind of proof of their premise.

I really enjoyed the book, though I think it could have been written a little less complicated.
Last night we watched a show called Pilot Guides on OLN, where Ian Wright went to Armenia and Georgia. He visited a hilltown in Georgia with no electricity that was snowed in 8 months of the year. The people looked very healthy. They seemed to be living the lifestyle proposed in the book. It would be interesting if a study was done of these people to prove the research.

Yikes. Not only is the book poorly written, but it became clear early on that the author really had no understanding of what she was talking about. I'll save you time and money by summarizing the book: cut back on carbohydrates and get more sleep, or you're going to die. In fact, you're probably a hair's breadth away from dying right now. You could keel over before finishing this review, so read please faster.

There may be a handful of good ideas in this book, but they're surrounded by so much confusing, alarmist nonsense that it gets lost in the noise.

One last thing: there's a section late in the book subtitled "Only the paranoid survive." If that's true, the authors are going to outlive us all.

I read the book. The author, according to her self praise and my minimal research, is not a doctor nor does she have any advanced degree in anthropology or biology. The bottom line of the book is what our mothers have always told us; cut out sugar and get more sleep. According to the book, or at least the message I walked away with was, since the discovery of fire and then agriculture, we've gone to hell in a hand basket, and evolution has led humanity to a state of crash and burn. At best, check out the book at the library so you can save your money. It is not a book that you will want to loan in an effort to educate friends or want to re-read.

This is really sickening. All of these reviews read just like the book itself, which I had the misfortune of flipping through this afternoon at the bookstore. Don't the author and/or their editor have enough integrity to leave reviews to third parties? In any case, I feel sorry for the happless readers of the book. Not only will they be browbeat by bad prose and quacky science, but if they're diabetic and take some of the book's ill-informed advice, they could end up in the hospital.

I have reviewed places where people lived well over 100 years old age. There is always a pattern that those that are longest lived, do not have electricity, lives in the mountains, ozone levels are high and eat fresh foods. Best of all, no chlorinated and fluoridated water?

While the book or some reviewers may argue about living in the equator has nothing to do with seasons since there is no seasons. I agree with you. But what is most important is the understanding of the melatonin itself. Melatonin CAN only be generated when you sleep enough and sleep in the dark! This is the only way your body can recover. Prolactin is another one that works more or less on the same mechanism. Your body's circadium rhythms depends on it.

I have hear news all the time of people working very late in the offices comes home and found their weight increased. And when they get home early and sleep quickly their weight becomes normal. This fact is so well known that I can no longer deny it in fact, I have witnessed over 100 people who get obese come home late from offices at certain times getting obese.

What was suprising is the melatonin has a control on the apetite. What was not mentioned is also don't eat late night foods, which is also an important point. Sleeping in a dark room is critical. However, I have noticed many people who cannot sleep in dark room as well, such as having their electronic clocks or mobile phones near their bed. These also seem to induce abnormal high blood pressures due to electromagnetic disturbances and also disturb melatonin production.

What is also not mentioned in the book is the issue eating too much calcium and fluoride. Calcium and fluoride accumulates in in the pineal gland in the order of thousands of ppm and it CHOKES your pineal gland to death, which is also responsible for reduction in melatonin output. IN fact the single key biomarkers for aging is the calcification of the pineal gland.

Melatonin drops precipitously after the age of 20. Which is sooner than most can realize, but then on the other hand your immune system - the thymus glands does the same thing after the age of 20 it starts to shrink. What's so interesting is it only happens to just for people who get vaccinated!

So if you want to reduce weight you need to reduce that blood serum calcium levels and stay away from that fluoride toothpaste. I no longer use any fluoride tootpaste for 6 months now and boy have I looked much younger and reduced weight as a result of it.

One thing that can reduce blood calcium serum is the magnesium and vitamin D - very helpful with the melatonin indirectly.

So thank you for that information that lights is related to weight reduction, although there are other relationships that interplay as well. You know, I would like to get a bigger pineal gland wouldn't you - more melatonin production - well I think there is one berries that does that acai berries and someone mentions one Indian sungazers who has large well developed pineal gland from such a practice! Sungazing... funny.. how sunlight can also help melatonin!! Or is it the cycle of light and dark that helps melatonin? How about this: sun has full spectrum of light and we live in artificial light all the time?

Explores the links between the invention of electric light, diseases, depression, etc. This book changed the way I live, quite literally. Some people seem afraid of these ideas, but all is explained in the book. Once you think about these things, it all seems quite self-evident. Of all the books I've read over the years, this is one of the most important.

Not sleeping enough? Tired a lot? Here's an explanation. It makes so much sense it's like looking in the mirror and recognizing yourself. Fascinating information that even your skeptic friends will relate to. Very sprecific without being pedantic or boring. A great book.

The general premise of the book (get more sleep, eat less carbs, follow our internal circadian rhythms) is sound, backed by scientific proof. However, T.S. Wiley is prone to making large jumps in logic. For instance, she writes about vegetarians slowly killing themselves by not eating enough protein. What about the slowly growing body of evidence that vegetarian lifestyles can prevent heart disease, Alzheimer's, and other ailments?

Wiley is also very adamant that we have not had enough time to adapt to the introduction of a grain/farming lifestyle, explaining that the only reasons our ancestors survived was due to the amount of energy that was required to farm. Again - what about the theories that certain blood types evolved precisely because of the new agrarian lifestyle? Many cultures still exist on a primarily grain diet, and have low incidences of heart disease, diabetes, etc.

Another large jump is her lack of explanation for our increased life-spans since Paleolithic times; not sure that just "introduction of anti-biotics" covers it.

Other readers have already mentioned wrinting style, so I will only add that the small "soundbites" scattered between practically every paragraph served only to annoy after the first twenty or so pages.

Having read a lot of diet/exersice and also mind/body books, let me give a few last words of advice to Wiley and Co.:

1. Readers want to see the "true-life" stories. Where are the stories of people who have heeded this advice and went on to kick cancer, battle obesity, overcome diabetes, etc.?

2. Skip the overly scientific analysis. The basic message could be distilled into 2 chapters, to be augmented with optional plans for change.

3. Give personal testimony about how these methods have changed your life.

4. I realize that this would have to be a more expanded book to account for the above, but there are about three chapters in the middle that could be removed to make room!

poorly written. rife with intellectual dishonesty. asserting conjecture as fact. i wondered if the authors needed to "show results" to justify their research. who is funding them? i hope not my tax dollar. they haven't said anything solid that isn't common sense. awful.

I came across this book while looking for books about circadian rhythms and the body clock. I found an excerpt of this book and decided to read it to see what the book is like. My conclusion is that it's scary. While I get the idea (sugar is bad for us, too much light after dark affects our sleep and sleep is important, etc.) just reading the sample text made my brain hurt. It's not very coherant, jumps from one topic to another - bright lights at night are bad, so is sugar, back to the bright lights, and then on to exercising!
In a short space I had statistics thrown in, scare tactics, generalizations, and judgement of other people's lifestyle choices ("pathetically, many of us have at least once in the last ten years attempted to become vegans" - yeah, people usually become vegan for ethical reasons).
Some of this information would be very interesting if it was well presented, and maybe it is in later chapters , after all I've only read the first couple of chapters, but they were enough to put me off the rest of the book.

I could not believe the amount of evolutionary thinking (which is not science and only a theory), therefore having no science to back up anything they were stating! There has got to be better books on this subject! I threw mine in the trash!