Book Review - This is Natto by Daniel Erichsen
A circular problem is one that, the more you try to escape it, the more entrenched you get - a bit like a spiders web. Recently I’d been waking up at 2:18 am precisely because I was afraid of waking up at 2:18am. Sleep was escaping me, so I knew it was time to plump up the pillows, download ‘This is Natto’ by Daniel Erichsen, and get reading.
Set it and Forget it
I’d already read and reviewed ‘Set it and forget it’ by the same author, and had found it to be effective. Rather than reread it, I thought I’d try another book of Daniels, released a year later. It didn’t bother me in the slightest having to purchase another title - I access so much of his free content via Spotify podcast and Youtube that I was more than happy to purchase. Anyway, what price a good nights sleep?
Insomnia
Why did I need to purchase another book? My sleep problems are too boring to go into, except to say that they are recurring and bloody annoying. I know I ordered my first book on sleep problems back in 2017, so it’s been going on since then. One of the things I most like to do when I can’t sleep is read books about why I can’t sleep, as you’ll see from this blog post.
Daniels first book helped me because it allowed me to see that a lot of my problems stemmed from my thinking about sleep. His approach is about lowering hyperarousal, about moving to an approach where you basically don’t care about sleep. And his book and materials worked for me after a life stressor increased my hyperarousal levels. Rather than accept this is as something that just happens, I started to blame diet/artificial light/thyroid/bed - and started up my old sleep hygiene habits again. I just blamed everything else rather than the real cause - my thoughts about my sleep.
Natto
Natto stands for ‘Non attachment to the outcome’. Basically, what he is asking you to do is not worry about sleeping anymore. Sounds easy, huh?
It’s a simple answer to a complex problem. What it has encouraged me to do is to really drill down into the thinking behind my sleeping. For example, I have all of these rules surrounding sleep hygiene. No caffeine after 1pm is a big one, and I’ve followed it strictly for years. On the occasions I’ve lived dangerously and forgot and had a cuppa, before I’d finished I knew I wouldn’t be getting a good nights sleep. Or rather, I had decided.
Now? I love my afternoon cuppa. I’ll go out of my way to ensure that I have my lovely mug of Barrys tea (the greatest tea ever, obviously) every day, 3pm or 430pm, whatever. I’m basically saying to these rules I’ve built around sleep - get stuffed - I have no fear of you, insomnia. You can do your worst, make my waking life hell, make me a sleep deprived wreck - but you’ll never take away my afternoon cuppa.
4:12 Am wakeup
Wake up at 4:12 am? Firstly, try not to look at the clock. That will only cause more anxiety. And if you do - no big deal. Look at all this spare time you have. I’ll write, read, listen to podcasts - whatever I feel like doing. Previously I’d toss and turn, hoping for sleep. Now I befriend wakefulness and embrace the night. I’m writing this review just after 4:30am, so excuse the splling rrors…..
The thing is, and you’ll learn it from ‘This is Natto’, is that you can’t produce sleep. Nothing outside of your body can produce sleep drive. Effort will stop you sleeping.
The main difference between ‘This is natto’ and ‘Set it and forget it’ is that in this title he probably drills down a bit more into his methodology, and his philosophy is more honed. I don’t mind if there’s repetition to be honest, because for me the main takeaway is that we can only improve our attitude towards sleep through education, and for me these books have been a huge part of that.
Summary
If you are struggling with sleep, don’t be hard on yourself. Make yourself a nice cup of Barrys tea, and read this book or listen to some of Daniels materials listed earlier. His strategy is easy to understand and apply, and you’ll begin to feel you are really getting to grips with your sleeping issues. And as much as I love Daniels work, hopefully I don’t have to spend much more time reading more books about sleep, as interesting as they are, but I’m glad to know they’re on my shelf.
This is Natto - Published February 15, 2021 - 220 pages