Description: The 4am Mystery: that’s an actual thing by the way. Even before a global health crisis took the shape of COVID-19, people around the world were finding themselves sleep deprived, awake in the middle of the night.

You might be someone who says, no matter what you do, you just can’t sleep. Sometimes you know why: your thoughts are racing, or a nightmare has startled you into consciousness. Other nights, you might toss and turn and, just as you finally doze off, the alarm blares.

Regardless, this book was written for you.

Verdict: Answers in the Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal explores why you’re awake, how you can manage your mind at night, and what might help if it’s your dream content wreaking havoc.

Drawing on nearly two decades of therapeutic work, research, and an ancient wisdom proven to helpfully manage the mind, author Delphi Ellis connects the dots between sleep, dreams and our mental health.

Indeed, she particularly highlights the impact of grief and loss on our well-being, which can ultimately affect the quality of our night-time rest - even if no one has died.

The book is split into three parts: Part I busts some myths about sleep and dreams in general, Part II focuses on how to sleep better, and Part III specifically explores dreams and why we have them.

Inclusive of chapters such as Faulty Winks, The Big Myths of Sleep, Into Darkness, Dreaming About Death, the fascinatingly-named The Sleep Cycle Repair Kit, and amongst of others Put Your Dreams to Bed and How We Can Work with Our Dreams, et al., it opens (after an expressive Preface that details what the book is and, importantly, what the book isn’t) on an expansive Introduction entitled Help for a Sleepless Society, where Delphi explains the phenomenon that surrounds sleep (and how it is essential and yet inconvenient - how we want it and yet cannot always achieve it), and more interesting, the actual science behind sleep.

Simply put, Answers in the Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal guides the reader on a journey to make friends with night-time, learning what the dark might have to offer, to achieve a calmer, healthier, happier life.

About the Author - Delphi is a qualified counsellor, well-being trainer and mindfulness practitioner who has worked in a therapeutic setting since 2002. She started her helping career supporting people in grief, mainly those bereaved by murder and suicide.

She now works in the community promoting mental health maintenance and recovery, mindful leadership and workplace wellness. She lives in Bedfordshire, UK.

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