Sleep-Powered Wellness explores the paradox of the safe luxurious bedroom and the poor quality sleep it delivers. Are our bedrooms making us sick, tired and unproductive?

Most of us know there are places where we sleep better than others. But few understand the tremendous difference between the conditions that the human body recognizes as safe and comfortable and those that appeal to our sense of aesthetics, safety, luxury and comfort.

More often than not we set out to please the wrong senses when we create our bedrooms. We’re encouraged by stores that abound with sleep-impeding bedroom products, by building codes that support sleep-impeding furniture placement, by lifestyles that demand sleep-impeding routines, and by insurers that require sleep-impeding security systems. All told creating the sleep-impeding bedroom is significantly more expensive than creating the sleep-enhancing one.

Creating the sleep-enhancing bedroom takes a little knowledge… and that’s where ’Sleep-Powered Wellness’ comes in. The book explains where all these sleep impediments came from, how they found their way into our bedrooms and why they need to find their way back out.

In many bedrooms there are so many sleep-impediments its insomniac could quickly become overwhelmed, so after a short review of sleep, the impediments and solutions are discussed in six groups: noise & infrasound; microwaves; light; electricity & distortions in the Earth’s magnetic field; chemicals in contact with our skin; and unbalanced, depleted air ions.

The final chapter reveals a very straight-forward method for identifying, prioritizing and addressing the typical bedrooms’ sleep impediments: whether it’s plugging the cell phone charger into the bedroom socket, sleeping on polyester bedding, being disturbed by shift-working neighbours, or making any of a myriad of mistakes that reduce sleep quality.

Angela Hobbs was herself once a victim of chemicals, electrical, and location specific sensitivities. After using research skills, gleaned from a career in management consulting, to find her own solutions, she shared her story in The Sick House Survival Guide: Simple Steps to Healthier Homes (New Society 2003). Since then a flood of inquiries from all over the world have taken Hobbs on a research-powered journey of discovery that resulted in her growing insight into the multi-faceted mechanisms by which location can influence our sleep to the detriment of our health.Hobbs is now a wellness consultant delivering personal and commercial programs that assess bedrooms, educate people about the steps they can take to improve their sleep, and help corporations increase workforce productivity. She lives with her husband and two sons near Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Angela Hobbs' profile page

‘Sleep-Powered Wellness’ is an invaluable contribution to the health and wellness field. With the escalating pandemic of sleep disorders, many become ensnared by risky long-term medication use to camouflage the problem of troubled sleep. In this wonderful book, the author explores and discusses unrecognized causes and factors contributing to sleep problems. The book is practical, well-written, interesting and provides concrete recommendations for those who are chronically fatigued and debilitated by the challenge of impaired sleep. Through the use of case reports, Angela systematically describes how to identify major contributors to sleep problems and proposes practical and effective solutions. I look forward to recommending this important book to my patients.

- Stephen J. Genuis MD FRCSC DABOG DABEM FAAEM, Clinical Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada

Stephen J. Genuis MD FRCSC DABOG DABEM FAAEM, Clinical Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada

"Angela Hobbs has done it again! Sleep is essential for all of us, and her lucid discussion of factors that can interfere with a good sleep, as well as what can be done to correct the problems, is both easy to read and important information for everyone."
- David O. Carpenter, M.D., Director, Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, NY

David O. Carpenter, M.D., Director, Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, NY

It is no exaggeration to say that for every human being, a good night's sleep is essential for life and health. To be able to stay awake and to function optimally, one has to have the highest possible quality of one's sleep. Most people spend most of their night time in bedrooms, and Angela Hobbs, the author of the new book "Sleep-Powered Wellness - Better Bedrooms for Turbocharged Zzzz's" rightfully spends most of her book inside our bedrooms.

It is a fact that more and more people, and especially our young ones, are having severe problems with their sleep, both regarding it's depth, quality and length. In Sweden, where I work as a neuroscientist at the prestigious Karolinska Institute, wellknown for it's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, more than 1/3 of the entire population has such serious problems, and the percentage seems to increase year-by-year. In other countries the problem is similar, or even worse.

You do not need to agree with all the things that Angela Hobbs says, the book still will give you a lot of food for thoughts. Especially the parts pointing at very simple, easy and cheap suggestions for quick alterations. You may not be able to rid yourself of a lousy boss from one day to another, but you can easily change your bedroom into one that will furnish you with much better conditions to momentarily arrive at the "third pillar of wellness" as Angela Hobbs so elegantly refocus our thinking. Maybe, however, she would have put it as the "first pillar"; you do realize it's enormous importance for your health and your social relationships after you have read this truly thought-provoking, suggestive and mindbuggling book.

I strongly recommend it for reading. Now! Before you go to bed tonight.

- Professor Olle Johansson, The Royal Institute of Technology and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden

Professor Olle Johansson, The Royal Institute of Technology and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden

One of the negative 'hallmarks' of our modern technological age has been a significant increase in insomnia and sleep problems, especially in younger people. Angela Hobbs has managed to go right to the heart of the matter with a practical, very readable and well-researched book that is highly recommended reading for both the public and professionals. This includes people directly impacted by sleep problems, parents concerned about their children's use of wireless devices, doctors and researchers dealing with sleep disorders, and architects in building healthy homes.

Most importantly Hobbs not only examines the many environmental factors that can effect sleep but gives practical solutions to enable the reader to mitigate those factors to achieve what many seek - a healthy and fulfilling nights sleep, night after night.
- Don Maisch, PhD. Author of "The Procrustean Approach: Setting Standards for Telecommunications Frequency Electromagnetic Radiation".

Don Maisch, PhD. Author of "The Procrustean Approach: Setting Standards for Telecommunications Frequency Electromagnetic Radiation".

What a treat to read this extraordinary book! The quality of our sleep is tantamount to the success of our lives - that is a certainty. I live in a world where I speak about the importance of balance, quality sleep, healthy hormones and other wellness principles all day long. In these daily interactions, I see the frustration or even complete ignorance of the general populace when it comes to the health interruptions they encounter daily. Whether chemical assaults, hormone hinderers, poor quality water or even light pollution, most of us are in the dark about the effects on our health. Leave it to a gifted author like Angela Hobbs to bring us into the light. Her latest literary offering is a comprehensive guide on what is making you tired and keeping you awake at night. Not your average book on getting more sleep, this guide will take you to places that will surprise you. She includes lots of opportunity for you to learn new skills for balance and healthy sleep. Entertaining, easy to read, well researched – I learned so much from this book and I know you will too. This book has earned a permanent spot on my office bookshelf. Simply put, an extraordinary book that I am grateful to have read.

- Dr. Fiona Lovely B.A. (Adv.), D.C., Calgary, Canada

Dr. Fiona Lovely B.A. (Adv.), D.C., Calgary, Canada