Guest: Colleen Carney, PhD co-author of Goodnight Mind: Turn Off Your Noisy Thoughts and Get A Good Night’s Sleep

About the book: Do you find yourself lying awake at night, ruminating about the events of the day? Do you toss and turn, worrying about what you have to do in the morning or what you did earlier in the day? If so, you are not alone. In fact, insomnia is the most common sleep disorder faced by the general population today. The most common complaint in those who have trouble sleeping is having a “noisy mind.” Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, it seems like you cannot silence all the internal dialogue. So what do you do when your mind is spinning and your thoughts just won’t stop? Accessible, enjoyable, and grounded in evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Goodnight Mind directly addresses the effects of rumination—or having an overactive brain—on your ability to sleep well. Written by two psychologists who specialize in sleep disorders, the book contains helpful exercises and insights into how you can better manage your thoughts at bedtime, and finally get some sleep. Traditional treatment for insomnia is usually focused on medications that promote sedation rather than on the behavioral causes of insomnia. Unfortunately, medication can often lead to addiction, and a host of other side effects. This is a great book for anyone who is looking for effective therapy to treat insomnia without the use of medication. This informative, small-format book is easy-to-read and lightweight, making it perfect for late-night reading. About the author: Colleen E. Carney, PhD, is associate professor and director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She was a National Sleep Foundation Pickwick Fellow at Duke University Medical Center, where she was on faculty, and she founded the Comorbid Insomnia Clinic at the Duke Insomnia and Sleep Research Program. Carney is well-known for her publications in the area of insomnia and its relation to other disorders, most notably, depression, anxiety, and pain. She has made numerous presentations at national research conferences, including the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the Association for Professional Sleep Societies (APSS). She is the current president of the ABCT’s Special Interest Group for insomnia and other sleep disorders. Currently, Carney is conducting research, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, on treating insomnia in people with depression.