The Gift of the Night

A Six-Step Program for Better Sleep

By: Philip Carr-Gomm, Kristen LaMarca - introduction

Narrated by: Philip Carr-Gomm

• An effective, easy six-step program to help you sleep better as well as thirteen specific techniques to help you fall asleep and stay asleep

• Offers an integrative approach combining evidence-based sleep science with holistic and spiritual techniques

• Provides online support in the form of short videos, audio meditations, and exercises from the author’s successful sleep clinic

More than one third of adults suffer from insomnia or some other kind of sleep disorder. With time, a lack of sleep lowers our resilience and impacts our health as well as our performance in all areas of life. Restoring hope to the sleepless, psychologist Philip Carr-Gomm reveals how we can improve our sleep naturally.

A fast and easy-to-follow six-step program to help you sleep better, The Gift of the Night combines knowledge from sleep science and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with techniques drawn from spiritual traditions and insights from the emerging field of psychedelic therapy. This guide presents a myriad of suggestions for creating the best mindset, emotional state, and physical conditions to optimize the environment for sleep, including advice on nutrition and supplements. Based on the success of his sleep clinic, Carr-Gomm offers thirteen natural ways we can drift into a deep and restorative sleep, including hypnotherapy, yoga nidra, sophrology, progressive muscle relaxation, and coloured noise. In addition, a comprehensive sleep troubleshooting guide tackles topics such as sleep phobia, sleep hacking, and lucid dreaming. Helping you get a better night’s rest, this concise and simple guide shows you how to truly benefit from everything the night offers to body and soul.

Critic reviews

“A must-read for all those who find good sleep elusive. Soundly based in contemporary sleep science—also a deeply practical approach.”

“An excellent short guide to sleep from a very welcome integral perspective with a wonderfully varied selection of approaches to try. My new go-to recommendation for clients and colleagues suffering from sleep difficulties.”

“No one can officiate a marriage between mind and spirit better than Philip Carr-Gomm.”

“A brilliant, important, and inspiring book that will be so helpful to so many people.”

“Sleep is one of the great unsolved mysteries of neuroscience. We understand very little of either what it is or why we, or indeed almost every animal that has a central nervous system, do it. With so little hard science as to its nature, those of us who suffer from sleep disturbances must fall back on empirical methodologies that have been shown to work. Philip Carr-Gomm’s book is a practical guide to finding the peace that comes from returning to the patterns of sleep that energize our waking lives. I strongly commend it to you as a very practical and helpful guide.”

“Philip Carr-Gomm’s message on how to access the power of the night for the world of healing, restorative sleeps, and dreams is of value and much needed. His six-step program provides practical and easy ways to fall asleep and to access your creative, healing dreams— an invaluable resource. I highly recommend The Gift of the Night!”

“Sleep as a daily embodied spiritual practice! This workbook is a rare marriage of science and soul.”

“Philip Carr-Gomm presents a succinct but authoritative look at ways to help us sleep better. Science and spirituality are drawn upon equally, with inspiration and techniques coming via sophrology, yoga nidra, and the latest sleep research. The author even taps into the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy, applying elements of the model as a way of optimizing the conditions for sleep. Accessible, practical, and endlessly thought-provoking, reading The Gift of the Night certainly won’t send you to sleep, but the rich content contained within should provide even the greatest insomniacs with plenty of new ways to finally drift off.”

Life changing book for anyone who wants to sleep well

I have struggled with insomnia for many years and have tried many different techniques. “The Gift of the Night” really is a gift. It has helped me to finally be able to fall asleep consistently.
The author has clearly done a lot of research and has a deep understanding of the importance of good sleep and how to achieve it. Preparing in advance for sleep has really helped me to have better sleep habits that set me up for success.
I enjoyed reading and trying the many different sleep methods detailed in the book until I found the ones that work best for me. The audible version of this book is ideal because it allows me to listen to the sleep hypnotherapy text at night. The author narrates the book himself and his voice is perfect for helping me drift off to sleep. I also found the sophrology system surprisingly helpful. It seems to lay the groundwork in advance, so by the time you actually go to bed, your mind and body know what to do.
There is a very helpful FAQ section in the back of the book where he addresses a lot of common questions and myths about sleep. He touches on everything from lucid dreaming, to napping, to microdosing. One of the things I learned was that I have been trying too high a dose of melatonin in the past, which may have contributed to a more disrupted sleep.
I really highly recommend this book if you have trouble falling asleep or getting quality sleep.

Stands out in a crowd

I’ve listened to many ideas about how to sleep better and this is one of the most original I’ve heard. I find his ideas bear up to what I intuitively know and he’s certainly not rehashing all the other advice out there. I trust this author, and he’s really pleasant to listen to. What I’ve tried so far has worked well. I’ll be listening to this again!