This is true, but quite simplified. I always recommend a great book by the pioneer of sleep science William C. Dement "The Promise Of Sleep" http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happ... It explains this and many other aspects of sleep that you need to know to manage it effectively.
It depends on what you understand under "self-help books".
The generic, feel-good ones, sure, those are trash that usually doesn't work (they still might work given the specific situation).
The well researched, written by scientists and psychologists - I found a few that I love. In fact I'm going to buy ten pieces of one book for this Christmas because I have found it crucial.
These are the three well researched books I've read in the past 18 months that turned my life around for the better and that I heartily recommend:
[1] The Promise of Sleep
[2] Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development
[3] Learned Optimism (that's the one I'm buying ten times for this year's Christmas)
The one recommended in the article, 59 Seconds, is waiting on a pile of books (not exclusively from the self-help category, with The Algorithm Design Manual, Street Smarts, Architecture of Open Source Applications, Learn You a Haskell etc.) to be read soon.
If anyone is really interested in how sleep works and how to manage your sleep, you should really read William C. Dement's conclusive work "The Promise Of Sleep". He's a pioneer of sleep science from Stanford with a great experience and thousands of helped patients. His book is as exciting as it is useful and full of research data, analytics and explanations. A real pleasure to read. After this book, all articles would seem a drop in the ocean.
The generic, feel-good ones, sure, those are trash that usually doesn't work (they still might work given the specific situation).
The well researched, written by scientists and psychologists - I found a few that I love. In fact I'm going to buy ten pieces of one book for this Christmas because I have found it crucial.
These are the three well researched books I've read in the past 18 months that turned my life around for the better and that I heartily recommend:
[1] The Promise of Sleep
[2] Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development
[3] Learned Optimism (that's the one I'm buying ten times for this year's Christmas)
The one recommended in the article, 59 Seconds, is waiting on a pile of books (not exclusively from the self-help category, with The Algorithm Design Manual, Street Smarts, Architecture of Open Source Applications, Learn You a Haskell etc.) to be read soon.
Let's read, think and become better people.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happ...
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Self-theories-Motivation-Personality-D...
[3] http://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1...
http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happ...