STOP!! Waking Up Tired by Ralph Montague

Today is my stop on the blog tour for STOP!! Waking Up Tired, a workbook to help improve your sleep, by Ralph Montague. I didn't feel my sleep was too bad but I am frequently tired so figured something wasn't right, and was interested to see if this book could help me. Many thanks to Kelly Lacey at Love Books Tours for my invitation and to the author for my review copy.

 

The Blurb

FED UP WITH WAKING UP TIRED & EXHAUSTED?

You are most certainly not alone. Many people long for a better quality of sleep, however, it’s been made unnecessarily difficult with contradicting advice, thousands of sleep studies and unpronounceable words leaving you more confused than when you started on your quest to simply get a good night’s sleep.

THIS IS WHERE “STOP!! WAKING UP TIRED…” CAN HELP!

This workbook was written to make things simple and easy to action, with a no-nonsense approach to sleep. The information and advice is easy to follow, light-hearted in nature and will help you achieve the deep sleep that dreams are made of.

In this workbook, we will cover the core areas in your life where change needs to happen, in an approach that is easy to action. Split into three sections: Remove, Improve and Action.

- Remove: Discusses the habits and lifestyle choices that are having devastating effects on your sleep.

- Improve: Covers everyday routines where making simple changes, can enhance and dramatically improve your sleep and in turn your health, happiness and outlook on life.

- Action: In line with the philosophy of the STOP!! workbook series, the targets are realistic and actionable to follow, with two action plans to help make the first step to stop waking up tired, a very real and exciting reality and the second step, the pathway to rejuvenating nights of deep, relaxed slumber.

With journal-style questions and prompts throughout the book, as part of the actioning process, STOP!! Waking Up Tired… allows you to get a clear understanding of where you are today, where you can be in a matter of just a few days, and where you could only dream of a few days ago, for a new more energetic and happy future you.

When partnered with other titles within the series, STOP!! workbooks can help you become the person you always dreamed you could be.

IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT NOT WAKING UP TIRED EVERY MORNING, HAVING MORE ENERGY AND SLEEPING BETTER BUT DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START, THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN FOR YOU.

Stop!! Waking Up Tired was released by FCM Publishing on 16th March this year.

 

My Review

So I reckoned it could only be helpful to read a book designed to improve my sleep and STOP!! Waking Up Tired offered me that. Part instruction manual, part work book, part journal, it gives information in clear simple steps with places to make notes of your current situation and plans for improvement. 

Early in the book there is a multiple choice quiz to determine your chronotype - the natural indication of your body to sleep at a certain time, also has an influence on appetite, exercise, productivity and core body temperature. I'm a bear, if you're interested! 

Then, taking a different subject area each chapter, Ralph details what we can remove, or improve to make our sleep better. Subjects covered include mobile phones, tvs, etc, alcohol and caffeine, what you eat, noise and the state of your bedroom. There are questions at the end of each chapter with room for notes, together with a short action plan around that topic. Many of the causes of poor sleep given are probably common sense but it's good to have them presented all together and the author gives lots of helpful suggestions for changing things, or at least improving them. Some of these suggestions involve spending money but there are plenty that are free, which is where I'll start. All of them are presented with the understanding that change takes time and effort, and that not all the suggestions are for everyone . 

I didn't get why the chapter on waking up to go to the bathroom was only aimed at men (other than for women to learn what men went through with their bladders). I'm fairly sure women sometimes/often need to use the loo in the night - this one certainly does! I would've liked some more discussion in the medication chapter and there were a few places in the book that could've been better edited/proofread. But, overall, I think STOP!! Waking Up Tired is a really useful book stuffed full of suggestions, big and small, to help improve our sleep. I won't be doing them all but there are some I'm going to try, starting with being more consistent with my sleeping and waking times, eating earlier and going to bed a bit earlier to help get the hours I need. So the book has been a helpful nudge in the right direction for me and one I will go back to - I just need to start putting things into practice now! And I see that the author's next STOP!! workbook is going to be in reducing stress, so I 'ok be checking that out too. 

The Author

Ralph is a longevity coach from Monmouthshire, Great Britain with a focus on sleep and energy mastery. Ralph’s passion for longevity evolved from working within the anti-ageing industry for over twenty years. This, coupled with hands-on experience of living life to the full in his younger years, and wanting to maximise health in his current years, prompted Ralph to put his knowledge and expertise into a series of informative and entertaining self-help books, to encourage people to live longer, with truly life-changing results for readers.

Ralph studied at Reading University completing a BSc in Investment Banking, followed by an MSc in Real Estate and is also the author of the UK’s leading aesthetics business book; The Profitable Clinic.

Ralph is an expert when it comes to longevity, having maintained his youth with the tips in his book, and owning the following longevity and anti-aging devices; Cryotherapy Chamber, Localised Cryotherapy Device, Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber (HBOT), Oxygen Facial Device, Skin Repair Pen, Fat Freezing Machine, Red Light Therapy, Adaptive Oxygen Therapy, HIFU Machine and a HIFEM Accelerated Muscle Stimulation device – all at his home address. Ralph recalls with humour an afterparty with friends, as six of them squeezed into his single use hyperbaric oxygen chamber that evening, well morning!

The first within the STOP!! Series, is aptly named STOP!! Killing yourself – The Beginners Guide to Living Longer by Removing and Improving, encouraging readers to maximise their longevity with easy-to-follow guidance, checklists and prompts.

Ralph has just finished his next project; Sleep Mastery courses, helping individuals and companies achieve rested and rejuvenating sleep habits. Ralph plans to have a series of books dedicated to longevity, sleep and energy with simplistic, no-nonsense advice, for minimal fuss and maximum results.

Ralph says; “I’ve lived the life and partied (too) hard for most of it, now it’s time to unwind and relax to ensure my remaining years are filled with as much joy as my younger years, but with a laid back lifestyle instead of a full-throttle one! I want to share what I’ve learnt on my journey incorporating this new approach with others who may be in my position – I’m the proof in the pudding that it works.”