Nightmare Obscura: A Dream Engineer's Guide Through the Sleeping Mind

by Michelle Carr, Patricia Rodríguez (Narrator)

A leading sleep expert reveals the latest science behind the dreaming brain and why we have nightmares—offering key insights into how harnessing dreams can improve your sleep and health.

To most, dreams are things that slip away when you reemerge into the waking world, their remnants jumbled up and only half recalled. At their best, they are populated by pleasant recollections and surreal experiences. But at their worst, they can be traumatizing and prevent us from receiving the necessary benefits of sleep.

So why do we dream at all? What makes a person prone to nightmares? How do our bodies interface with our brains when we’re not awake? And how can we harness our sleeping minds to improve our waking lives?

In Nightmare Obscura, dream researcher Michelle Carr unlocks the science behind the sleeping body, exploring the relationship between dreams and mental health, with a deep dive into the neuroscience behind some of the most interesting aspects of dreaming: nightmares, lucid dreams, and the cutting-edge field of dream engineering.

9 hrs. 15 mins.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Psychology, Mental Health, Self Help, Audiobook, Health

10 pages, Audiobook

First published September 4, 2025

Reviews

[TheConnieFox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightmare Obscura is a non fiction book that explores the science of dreaming. This book is based on factual evidence, which is what caught my attention. We all have dreams, but why do we have them? Why do we have nightmares and how does this affect our lives? Michelle Carr does research on these topics. While this book made me feel anxious at times, I found it to be very informative and thought provoking. It gave me a deeper understanding on how dreams work and why they matter!

While doing her research, she figures out the tools on how we can treat our nightmares. She does this by doing dream engineering! I learned a lot from this book and will try to have better, more restful sleep. This book is well written, data driven and was well researched. I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, author and researcher Michelle Carr and Henry Holt & Company for this digital advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is set to be published on November 18, 2025!

[Stacy (Gotham City Librarian) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love just about any content involving dreams. I even have an “Inception” tattoo! I requested this one pretty quickly when I saw it, because it looked really cool.

While the actual subject matter was very interesting, something about the way this was written was lacking for me. It felt sort of dry and academic. I had to go back and re-read many paragraphs to make sure I was retaining information. The author also repeated himself a little bit.

I did learn some new things about how dreams and nightmares affect us on a physical and psychological level, and how various factors can influence dream content. This author has done a lot of work in the field of dream research, which sounds like an awesome career. It goes way beyond symbolism and analysis and has a lot to do with trauma, repair and mental stimulation.

I particularly enjoyed reading about Microdreams, which are those little moments that occur when you’re dozing off and your mind shows you brief images and sounds but they aren’t full on dreams. Your brain can actually delay a sound that you hear in the real world to make it match up with the imagery in your mind. (Example: a loud noise in real life becomes a slamming door in a dream.) Artists such as Dali actually used Microdreams to inspire their work.

There were cool factoids like that to be found throughout the book. Another one is that the sleep paralysis demons are different in every country due to the influence of cultural lore on subconscious fears.

I’m absolutely sold on the idea that dreams and nightmares would be a useful tool to be studied in conjunction with the state of a person’s mental and even physical health, as all of the arguments and evidence presented here is very compelling. A large portion of the book covers this. There are long section about how therapy is used to treat nightmares, especially amongst sufferers of PTSD. Plus, dreaming about actual life experiences or memories helps us process our emotional response and even lessen how emotional we are about those particular memories. It is our mind’s nightly ritual for repairing itself.

Reading about the author’s work in sleep experiments was my favorite part. The fact that she was able to communicate with dreaming people through light cues and eye movements was fascinating to me. She was essentially speaking back and forth with people while those people were asleep!

Technology is getting closer to one day being able to “see” what someone is dreaming about. This of course brings up questions of privacy. But I think it’s very cool that such strides have already been made in dream research, especially with scientific funding currently being gutted left and right.

3.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

[Tasha]

I’ve always been fascinated by dreams and the science of the dreaming brain—excited to dive into this one!

[Alan Chrisman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I have dreams about people news next day and my songs come to me in dreams. Dreams are way sort stimuli, compare memories, file away(NREM (earlier night) and REM (later night). They let us explore various scenarios, our limbs freeze during dreams, so cant act them out. This researcher, a dream "engineer" specializes in nightmares (stress, anxiety) which can affect our health, but can be bettered by visualization and learning to lucid dream(aware you're dreaming). Another book I recommend: "WHY WE SLEEP" by Mathew Walker, PHD.

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michelle Carr is an assistant research professor in the department of psychiatry and addictology at the University of Montreal; she previously completed her PhD in biomedical sciences at the same institution as well as two postdocs at two other institutions, all studying dream science. Her 2025 book Nightmare Obscura is aimed at popular science audiences and describes both her own research, other current findings in dream research, and factoids, tips, and tricks that her audience is probably curious about, like why we dream, analyses of common dream themes, how to increase chances of lucid dreaming, how to exploit microdreams for creative bursts, etc.

I found this to be an interesting, well-written, well-researched and accessible read. Though I would not want to be an experimental subject in many of the dream studies Dr. Carr describes that involve being woken up dozens of times per night and asked to recall dreams, it's fascinating how those studies are leading to insights about dreams that are potentially actionable to improve sleep and waking life. I found the section about learnable techniques to help nightmare sufferers take back control while asleep particularly fascinating. I also enjoyed factoids about common dream themes -- like how many new parents have recurring dreams about losing their newborn in their bedsheets among other anxiety-provoking dream themes, and how visitation dreams (where one dreams about deceased loved ones) are variably interpreted in various cultures.

Personally, with lots of practice, I'm getting better at lucidity in dreams -- I recall being able to take control of bad dreams while they're happening and flip the script, as well as developing cues to clue myself in to dreaming -- my dreaming dead giveaway is that electronics like watches, phones, computers, etc. don't work as expected. I also experience sleep paralysis not infrequently and hypnopompic hallucinations thankfully much less frequently -- though neither experience is pleasant (understatement), I'm usually cognizant enough to realize what's happening and calm myself down, letting the moment pass until I'm fully awake again. Intuitively the themes of my dreams have always made sense to me, though if I could choose, I'd have fewer anxiety dreams even though the anxiety triggers are still present in my waking life!

Further reading: sleep and dreaming
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep by Guy Leschziner
Nightmareland: Travels at the Borders of Sleep, Dreams, and Wakefulness by Lex Nover
Sleeping Beauties: The Mystery of Dormant Innovations in Nature and Culture by Andreas Wagner

My statistics:
Book 3 for 2026
Book 2309 cumulatively

[Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A scientific guide to dreaming and sleeping, explaining how the mind interprets different sensory inputs and memory processing and relays them into dreams. Dream researcher, scientist, and author, Michelle Carr, does an excellent job of explaining the foundational elements of sleep, weaving in examples from her research at a sleep lab.

For me, the most valuable part of this book is learning more about the science of nightmares and understanding what makes people more predisposed to them. I also appreciated the concept that nightmares can also be associated with more positive traits, like having a higher sensitivity to emotional and sensory stimuli or being more open to perceptual experiences, which can make life more vivid as well. Much has been studied about sleep, sleep cycles, and dreams, but this is one of the few books I’ve found about nightmares.

Special thanks to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest, independent review.

[Kate Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Listened to the audio book**

I have been fascinated by dreams for as long as I can remember. so was really intrigued by this book. I really enjoyed listening - even if I found the narrator to be a tad annoying.
This book was quite dense - so had to re-listen to a few bits. Not sure if physically reading the book would have been better for my understanding of the more scientific/complicated sections.
Overall this was an interesting and informative book - but I found it hard to follow at times.

[Amanda R Sims · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nightmare Obscura is one of the most interesting and pertinent books I've read this year. Turns out, a lot of what I thought I knew about dreaming was outdated (likely thanks to my exploration of Microsoft Encarta in childhood). I learned SO MUCH. Like the whole conflict of Inception about being caught in dream purgatory for hundreds of years is just not a thing. Nightmare therapy, however, IS a thing! And the strategies are relatively simple. I took this in small bites, chewing through the density of this text a little at a time. Though the language is extremely accessible, it is densely informative, and I needed a lot of time to digest the content. Highly recommend this updated dream text!
Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for this ARC!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

i am sorry to dr. carr i truly believe you’re a wonderful researcher and academic but dear god your writing reminded me precisely what i DONT want my academic writing to sound like to the general public — sterile, boring, robotic, voice-less, textbook. additionally, i just didn’t enjoy how much cultural and historical discussion of dreaming was shelved in favor of overwrought and over repeated scientific vocab

[Lexine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 - definitely contained some interesting tidbits and learning about dream engineering was very cool.. but.. at the end of the day this is a non fiction book filled with too many science-y details and repetitive study results so what do you expect

[Mimi Schweid]

I am on Chapter 2 of this book and have just requested it from our library to read a physical copy of while listening to it. This book is lovely, but the voice is just soothing enough that it makes me sleepy.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitive at times, but definitely very interesting!

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a couple of books about neurophysiology concerning sleep, and this one offers new and fascinating insight into nightmares and how to use them as a tool to heal from traumatic experiences. It includes a lot of information about how lucid dreaming is believed to work and how one can train oneself to do it. I shall be attempting it!

[Matt Reising · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty interesting but at times felt repetitive.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ended up being more interesting than I had anticipated.
I really enjoyed the parts about nightmares & lucid dreams.

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm obsessed with this book! I am fascinated by dreaming as is, but have never gotten so deep into the science behind dreaming before. This book should truly be treated as a public service announcement for Dream Therapy and how successful it is at treating PTSD and getting a better night's sleep. It even has instructions in the back for lucid dreaming and rewriting nightmares to reduce stress around sleeping. I finished this book over a week ago and I have not stopped talking about it!

[Lori Tatar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating exploration of dreams and nightmares, and their impacts on our daily lives and experiences. From night terrors to lucid dreams of flying, Michelle Carr offers a greater glimpse into the interconnection of our sleeping and waking worlds than what we may have seen before. The connection between the treatment of nightmares and the positive effects of that treatment on other disorders deserves more study and more consideration. Nightmare Obscura: A Dream Engineer’s Guide Through the Sleeping Mind is exciting and informative. I look forward to seeing how much further scientists will progress in this field.

[Art]

I enjoyed this book. I found it interesting overall, because it presented a information that I knew already, but with new insights, and it provided new information, both of which I appreciate. There were also some funny bits, either when the author would quote someone or from the author herself. Funny things can happen when people sleep. I mean that in both senses of the word, which tickles my funny bone. I'm grateful to the author for writing it. :-)

I am grateful to have received an advance reader copy through a Goodreads giveaway. Peace be with you.

[Stu Milde · Rating 3 out of 5]

neat stuff #worth it

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited to start reading this book.
It was interesting for the first chapter, but I was lost after that.
This was written in the form of a science experiment article, and I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again but put in different words.
Love the subject and wish I could have liked it more.
I had a really hard time staying interested in what was written.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for an advance copy of this book that looks at the things that make us bump in the night, that wake us from deep sleeps, that sometimes lock our bodies into the place, something we all share, the world of dreams and of course nightmares.

Sleep has never really been a comfort to me. I don't sleep well, I have bad dreams regularly, wake up with phantom pains, and no matter how short or how long I don't feel any more rested. It makes for long nights a lot of the time, with plenty of time for reading. In fact I started this book after a few hours of trying to get to sleep, and found much that interested me. And a lot that scared me also, worse than many of the books of eldritch horror that take place in the lands of sleep. Also though I found a bit of comfort, knowing I wasn't alone, and that someone was working had at trying to map the dreams we have, be they good or bad. Nightmare Obscura: A Dream Engineer's Guide Through the Sleeping Mind by sleep expert Michelle Carr is a look at what happens when we close our eyes, the importance of sleep and dreams in understanding the world and its experiences, and what one can do to maybe control what one dreams about, or at least understand what dreams are telling us.

Dr. Michelle Carr has always been fascinated by sleep and the many troubles, problems and mysteries that come with it. From lucid dreaming, to horrific nightmares. Even sleep paralysis something I have never experienced, but something the author has. And something I don't ever want to know about. Carr's interest has taken Carr to sleep labs that sound like high roller rooms in luxury hotels, to places where a person would get a cot, a blanket and few electrodes. Carr first describes what sleep labs look for, and what they do, before going into the influences the outside world, mental and physical stimuli, can have on sleep and of course dreaming. Carr explains why the brain does what it does, how it processes things that happened during the day, saving them as memories, or even replaying them in different ways. Carr looks at what dreams are telling us, both about the world, and what is going on in the inner space of our own bodies. Carr also offers suggestions in not only how to listen what dreams and nightmares are telling us, but how to maybe influence our own brains into controlling what we dream about.

Some of what Carr shares about well to quote a famous comic book, Slumberland sounds are both interesting, and Lovecraftian. I can see why dreams are so important in literature as I know my dreams can be both weird, scary, exhilarating and unlike some people I can remember most of my dreams. There is a lot of science, but Carr does a very good job in explaining it, having it make sense, and more importantly something wants to know about. Carr has much experience, with sleepers and shares what Carr has learned, and offers many useful suggestions and plans to help deal with and understand what the brain is telling us. A book I found both useful, and with suggestions I hope to add to my sleep repertoire.

A book that might help people like myself with their sleep problems, a book that might help people understand their night terrors, and dark dreams. A book that is both well-written and very interesting, one that might help with the waking nightmare of modern life we find ourselves in, and maybe even a little bit of restful sleep.

[G Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a little frustrating to see how many reviews are about how overly academic/scientific a book written by an academic/scientist is. To be fair to them, this book is operating on perilous ground: it is a hard science book written for general audiences a la Astrophysics for People in a Hurry or The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, but it is about dreams which is the kind of ephemeral touchy-feely subject that invites... schlock.

There is no shortage of books about what your dreams mean that are variously insightful, amusing or downright predatory and this is none of those things. Dreams are a real phenomena that can be studied, measured and understood like much else that human beings experience. The science of dreaming has come to a place where lucid dreaming and dream engineering is taking its first steps out of the realm of sci-fi/fantasy and into the real world. This book puts forth the current science on what dreams are and how they occur, the experiments that have been done and their results especially re: lucid dreaming and the ways you can become a lucid dreamer through practice and intention.

To that end, I confess that I found the first two thirds of these things the most interesting. The science of dreams truly is a fascinating subject and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the various experiments done to arrive at some conclusions about the way dreams work, our perception of them, and what purpose they may or may not serve. The final third of the book is what I imagine most people will be picking this book up for: how to lucid dream. On that front, I have good news and bad news:

I'm a "the bad news first" kinda guy, so first the bad news: a lot of the "how to lucid dream" techniques are already available online through a simple internet search. You will have to parse the real advice from the made up metaphysical crap, but it's there if you want it. Dr. Carr's book does you the courtesy of telling you which are the ones that actually work. The good news: while you can find legitimate ways to induce lucid dreaming online, Dr. Carr provides a few extra tips shown to be helpful in a lab that I have not found online. Whether that is enough for you to pick this book up is thoroughly your own choice.

Frankly, the guide on "how to lucid dream" is just not that long and largely available online (though it might be buried in nonsense) so I can't recommend this book if all you want is to learn how to fly on command in your dreams. BUT for those who are interested in genuine dream science: the body's response to dreaming, the probable purpose of dreaming, the applications of lucid dreaming re: treating anxiety and trauma, and several other things that I am not quite remembering, this is a fascinating read.

[Jackie Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea that there was such a thing as a dream engineer or dream scientist. Fascinating book. Lots of science and new scientific terms I’d never really heard of. For someone out of their scientific comfort zone perhaps an audiobook was not the best medium to enjoy this book. However, I came to the book wanting to know more and being open minded. That is not to say I didn’t learn anything or others can’t too. Inspiring information.

There are theories and evidence around why some people are prone to nightmares and how dreams help us to process every day lives. The difference between perception and imagination when it comes to dreaming based on sound experiments in lab conditions and not just self-reported data. There were clinical interventions that could be initiated after people are studied. e.g. veterans of military conflict. Tackling nightmares after trauma could prevent occurrence of PTSD in trauma victims and suicide ideation in others.

Evidence from dream research can help with diagnosis, prognosis and clinical therapies for a variety of disorders that are usually only treated in accordance with waking issues. Bad dreams and nightmares can be tackled which might be productive for people with anxiety disorders. This might complement talking therapies and medication or lead to a reduction in such symptoms.

Some Research has indicated that a small number of men over 60 with a sudden onset of bad dreams could be a symptom of cognitive decline or neurological impairment which might progress to such conditions as Parkinson’s. Such research is thus ground breaking in early intervention strategies and treatments.

The book is read by the author who is authoritative in research and in dream engineering. It was particularly interesting to hear of her first research project based in Swansea near where I live. Fascinating developments for many therapeutic purposes. There are handy techniques for nightmares and creating lucid dreams throughout but there is a section at the end for each of these.

I would heartily recommend it. 5 stars.

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nicely arranged/fact filled book on dreaming and nightmares. Not dream/nightmare content analysis, but what is going on in the body (mostly the brain). She explores WHY we dream and when nightmares are problematic. Next she moves on to what we can do about nightmares (if we choose to), how it can benefit us (especially if you suffer from severe nightmares, PTSD (to a point - she lets the reader know there might be times interventions are not optimal for those with PTSD). She offers real, understandable, largely doable (especially if properly motivated) ways to ease the waking and sleeping results of nightmares. They make sense. The last part deals with various other sleeping/nightmare related problems, new innovations for sleeping and dreaming (included devices).

The only slight quibble I have is occasionally when she summarizes the chapter she says something is a fact when earlier it was described as a theory. To me the distinction is important. It's a small thing, but it caught my attention.

I am not a nightmare sufferer, but do have some bad dreams (there is a difference). I intend to use the rewriting methods and maybe aspects of working on lucidity. I think that is fascinating and useful.

An interesting thing happened on the days I spent reading this book. I started being more aware that I was dreaming. Usually, I don't remember or I have a vague notion that I had a dream.

If she writes another book on dreaming, I hope she considers writing one on medications effecting sleep/nightmares (she briefly covered it in this book). I know so many people who suffer with life effecting nightmare disturbances that they never had until they started with the meds. Especially sleep meds (even otc) and antidepressants. I wonder if the therapies in this book would help them since it seems drug induced. Anyway, great book. I'd recommend it even to non nightmarers.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all dream. Many of us have had nightmares or night terrors, some of us talk in our sleep, walk in our sleep, suffer from sleep paralysis or lucid dream. But what does this mean for our waking lives? How far does sleep affect our memory, our mental health and our capacity for healing? That’s what dream scientist Michelle Carr seeks to explore in both her research and her book.

Backing up her theories with science, and exploring the direction sleep research is taking, she explains why we dream, how dreams impact our brains, and the fascinating way her lab team is learning to communicate with lucid dreamers while they’re dreaming. She discusses how nightmare therapy can help with symptoms of PTSD, and how this is often passed over in the diagnosis process. At the back of her book are helpful guides on how to take back control of a dream narrative, how to remember your dreams more clearly and how to deal with nightmares in various ways.

I certainly learnt a lot reading this. I learnt how uncommon it is for adults to suffer night terrors (only 2% get them!) and how crucial lucid dreaming could be for developing skills during sleep. I learnt about the effectiveness of dream journals and the ‘wake back to bed’ method for recalling dreams, and just how connected dreaming is to the physical body and mental health.

If you’ve ever been intrigued by sleep, dreaming and the psychology and biology behind it, and if you’re curious about what modern dream research is looking into, I’d recommend picking this up. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it.

Thank you to @audioinprofile and @netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightmare Obscura by Michelle Carr is an informative look at sleep, dreams, and the dynamic between our dream world(s) and our waking world.

I found the writing to be something between academic and the usual pop-science writing, which worked well for a topic everyone knows a little about while presenting newer and sometimes counterintuitive research findings. The topics range across the field of sleep study as well as dream study and dream engineering, so the reader gets some scientific details and some case study examples. If you were mostly interested in the stories you will find that these are kept concise and to the point rather than sensationalized. The science is kept relatively basic without becoming too elementary. You don't need a science background but the more you have the better.

This book worked well for me as a companion to some MOOCs and short courses I've taken on sleep and dreaming. It reinforced some of what I had learned while filling in gaps I didn't even know were there. If the topic of dream engineering is one of the ones that piqued your curiosity, Carr and the group from MIT (if I remember correctly) had a special issue of Consciousness and Cognition that is well worth looking at and her Aeon essay is also a nice read.

Recommended for anyone interested in dreams and how they can be manipulated to our benefit. Actually, anyone interested in dreams at all, but dream engineering is the place where we might be able to harness them to improve our waking hours.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a well-timed ARC, as the day I picked it up to start reading I had just had an amazing dream about several marmots falling asleep in my lap! Dreams are one of the most universal yet persistently mysterious human experiences. In this work Carr, director of a dream laboratory in Montreal, offers a sneak peek into some of the fascinating, newly-emerging science of sleep, from the basics surrounding the different stages of sleep and what physiological and cerebral activity occurs in each, to exploration of nightmares and their causes and treatment — in fact, one of the most exciting and optimistic themes in the book concerns the surprisingly successful treatment of chronic nightmares through dream therapy. Some chapters lean a bit more toward the clinical/dry, but overall it was welcomingly enlightening, in some cases even giving me insight and labels for experiences I hadn't realized I lacked words for (e.g., microdreams, hypnogogic dreaming, non-REM dreaming, etc.). I've always been rather fascinated by science of sleep and dreaming. Sadly, I'm the only member of my immediate family who recalls dreams with any regularity, and I have been blessed by a lifetime of highly entertaining and goofy ones, so there is a bit of eye-rolling and "here we go again" when I launch into my latest, though I frequently wish I were on the receiving end of someone else's wacky dream narrations now and then.

I received this ARC via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Dominick Cobb from Inception wrote a how-to manual, it would be pretty close to this informative volume. We all do it, but why and how do we dream? How can we remember our dreams better? And is it possible to avoid nightmares? Michelle Carr has studied this all, performed experiments and even dreamed for science and in this book she shares what she’s learned. The language is approachable, even the science, like the phases of sleep, brainwaves and other physical mechanisms that rule our bodies while we’re under. Patricia Rodriguez narrates the audio version, and she has a nice, pleasant voice that sounds friendly and knowledgeable. I especially enjoyed the anecdotes, either about Carr or her subjects. She also includes easy exercises that anyone can do to have lucid dreams (and which I will try), as well as tricks to get more rest while you sleep. I was surprised at how little I knew of this subject, how some outdated concepts have been proven wrong (you don’t only dream during the REM phase!). I don’t have trouble sleeping, nor do I have too many nightmares (my dreams are just weird and make me laugh in the morning), so I was just curious. Anyone having issues with this should pick this up, though, because it’s truly eye-opening.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Macmillan Audio.

[Jackie Sunday · Rating 3 out of 5]

We’re all are curious at times about the dreams we have.

Naturally, I wanted to read more about it. Michelle Carr is an impressive professor who studies the science of dreaming with her main focus on nightmares. She collaborates with scientists who monitor candidates who are in sleeping labs. The researchers ask questions while they in the state of lucid dreaming to understand more about consciousness and memory.

She said dreaming can be viewed as a form of overnight therapy. There is much about how it relates to health disorders such as cardiovascular disease. She said often dreamers try to work on stress from forms of trauma (war, hurricanes, wildfires, concentration camps) and mental health issues. She provides steps that may be helpful to erase the dreaded nightmares.

While it was fascinating, many parts were detailed and it was more like reading an academic document outlining all of the aspects of dreaming. Some of the information was repeated for emphasis. The most interesting chapter for me was regarding the future. Will scientists be able to influence our minds with techniques they develop? It’s a frightening thought.

My thanks to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of November 18, 2025. This is my personal viewpoint.

[Jay Danzig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up from NetGalley because I've been having some pretty intense nightmares lately and honestly didn't expect much, but wow - this book really delivered!

The author has this really cool way of explaining dreams like they're something you can actually understand and work with, not just random scary stuff your brain throws at you. I loved the "engineer" approach - it's not all woo-woo or overly technical, just a really smart way of looking at why we have nightmares and what we can do about them.

What I appreciated most was that it gave me actual tools I could use. Not just "keep a dream journal" (though that's in there too), but real strategies for dealing with recurring nightmares and understanding what might be triggering them. I've already started using some of the techniques and I'm sleeping better.

The writing is really engaging too - I thought a book about dream science might be dry, but the author keeps it interesting and relatable. There were parts where I was like "oh my god, THAT'S why that keeps happening!"

If you struggle with nightmares or are just curious about what's really going on when you sleep, this is definitely worth reading. It's one of those books that actually changes how you think about something.