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Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep
What is dreaming? Why are dreams so strange and why are they so hard to remember? In this fascinating book, Harvard researcher Allan Hobson offers an intriguing look at our nightly odyssey through the illusory world of dreams.
Hobson describes how the theory of dreaming has advanced dramatically over the past fifty years, sparked by the use of EEGs in the 1950s and by recent innovations in brain imaging. We have learned for instance that, in dreaming, some areas of the brain are very active--the visual and auditory
centers, for instance--while others are completely shut down, including the centers for self-awareness, logic, and memory. Thus we can have visually vivid dreams, but be utterly unaware that the sequence of events or locales may be bizarre and, quite often, impossible. And because the memory center
is inactive, we don't remember the dream at all, unless we wake up while it is in progress. Hobson also shows that modern research has disproved most of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (as one scientist put it, "Freud was 50% right and 100% wrong"), but we have gained new insight into the
nature of mental illness. The book also discusses dream disorders (nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking), the possible link between dreaming and the regulation of body temperature, the effects of sleep deprivation, and much more.
With special boxed features that highlight intriguing questions--Do we dream in color? (yes), Do animals dream? (probably), Do men and women dream differently? (no)-- Dreaming offers a cutting-edge account of the most mysterious area of our mental life.
Hobson describes how the theory of dreaming has advanced dramatically over the past fifty years, sparked by the use of EEGs in the 1950s and by recent innovations in brain imaging. We have learned for instance that, in dreaming, some areas of the brain are very active--the visual and auditory
centers, for instance--while others are completely shut down, including the centers for self-awareness, logic, and memory. Thus we can have visually vivid dreams, but be utterly unaware that the sequence of events or locales may be bizarre and, quite often, impossible. And because the memory center
is inactive, we don't remember the dream at all, unless we wake up while it is in progress. Hobson also shows that modern research has disproved most of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (as one scientist put it, "Freud was 50% right and 100% wrong"), but we have gained new insight into the
nature of mental illness. The book also discusses dream disorders (nightmares, night terrors, sleep walking), the possible link between dreaming and the regulation of body temperature, the effects of sleep deprivation, and much more.
With special boxed features that highlight intriguing questions--Do we dream in color? (yes), Do animals dream? (probably), Do men and women dream differently? (no)-- Dreaming offers a cutting-edge account of the most mysterious area of our mental life.
184 pages, Paperback
First published October 24, 2002
5 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
J. Allan Hobson
47 books24 followersJohn Allan Hobson is an American psychiatrist and dream researcher. He is known for his research on rapid eye movement sleep. He is Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, and Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 11, 2024
“Freud, like his followers, religiously believed that dream bizarreness was a psychological defence against an unacceptable unconscious wish. This seemed unlikely to many people in 1900. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it seems impossible to us.”
This is a book about the biology of sleep and dreams—EEGs and neurotransmitters, rather than pop-psychology—and its author has little patience with the latter. It’s not just Freud though; throughout history people have concentrated on the content of dreams, for everything from medical diagnosis to fortune-telling, from religious prophesy to psychoanalysis, and Hobson isn’t saying that dreams have no meaning. What he is saying is that when you stop trying to read things into the content of dreams by “interpreting” specific details, and look at their form instead, you finally begin to get somewhere. And by “form” he means their more general features, the underlying characteristics shared by all dreams, as well as what the sleeping brain itself is doing while dreaming them.
This of course means neuroscience, and Dreaming reads like a progress report of where this had got to by the 2000s. It covers: the eclipsing of psychology by biology; then brainwaves and the biochemistry of sleep; dream disorders; dreams and mental illness; dreaming, memory and learning; and he considers what dreaming might be for (there’s no evidence that the content of dreams has any significant influence on our waking behaviour for example). An interesting read, written in prose which is both clear and (particularly when talking about Sigmund Freud) lively.
This is a book about the biology of sleep and dreams—EEGs and neurotransmitters, rather than pop-psychology—and its author has little patience with the latter. It’s not just Freud though; throughout history people have concentrated on the content of dreams, for everything from medical diagnosis to fortune-telling, from religious prophesy to psychoanalysis, and Hobson isn’t saying that dreams have no meaning. What he is saying is that when you stop trying to read things into the content of dreams by “interpreting” specific details, and look at their form instead, you finally begin to get somewhere. And by “form” he means their more general features, the underlying characteristics shared by all dreams, as well as what the sleeping brain itself is doing while dreaming them.
This of course means neuroscience, and Dreaming reads like a progress report of where this had got to by the 2000s. It covers: the eclipsing of psychology by biology; then brainwaves and the biochemistry of sleep; dream disorders; dreams and mental illness; dreaming, memory and learning; and he considers what dreaming might be for (there’s no evidence that the content of dreams has any significant influence on our waking behaviour for example). An interesting read, written in prose which is both clear and (particularly when talking about Sigmund Freud) lively.
October 28, 2019
Right after I was suggested to read this book, I had a social science dream very similar to what I was experiencing at the university. It's difficult to quantify this field.
(It's a shame I don't recall the specific name of the professor who taught PSC200! I use that textbook to better understand trends in society. Some lady... The WCU website does not help. Perhaps that's deliberate - you have to ask around campus? Я не снаю... at least I don't know for sure. That's something I'd be interested to study in the future! Quantifiers по-русски! I don't know how to get there yet but I think I could eventually!)
I am determined! You know, actually? That's really strange! When I was younger, I did a lot of learning Russian when I was semi-conscious, almost asleep. I was practically in a dreaming state. So that is why I am thinking of that beautiful language specifically when I think of this book. The book itself talks mostly about REM stuff, you know, the whole nine yards, all the stuff which you've already researched online. I liked its graphs and pictures: particularly the one on p60 which identified how EEGs tend to go. Having had two or three which I remember, I can safely say mine looked like none of those three. Then again, I was never strictly asleep when I was having an EEG taken, and the three graphs are of calm people sleeping - also, my mind is more unique than New York.
The REM for nightmares is much more like what my graph resembled, unfortunately. How peculiar. I have a lot of terrors when I'm asleep, so that's why I don't like to sleep.
So, if you want to learn about this stuff too, pick this book up! Interesno material.
(It's a shame I don't recall the specific name of the professor who taught PSC200! I use that textbook to better understand trends in society. Some lady... The WCU website does not help. Perhaps that's deliberate - you have to ask around campus? Я не снаю... at least I don't know for sure. That's something I'd be interested to study in the future! Quantifiers по-русски! I don't know how to get there yet but I think I could eventually!)
I am determined! You know, actually? That's really strange! When I was younger, I did a lot of learning Russian when I was semi-conscious, almost asleep. I was practically in a dreaming state. So that is why I am thinking of that beautiful language specifically when I think of this book. The book itself talks mostly about REM stuff, you know, the whole nine yards, all the stuff which you've already researched online. I liked its graphs and pictures: particularly the one on p60 which identified how EEGs tend to go. Having had two or three which I remember, I can safely say mine looked like none of those three. Then again, I was never strictly asleep when I was having an EEG taken, and the three graphs are of calm people sleeping - also, my mind is more unique than New York.
The REM for nightmares is much more like what my graph resembled, unfortunately. How peculiar. I have a lot of terrors when I'm asleep, so that's why I don't like to sleep.
So, if you want to learn about this stuff too, pick this book up! Interesno material.
March 5, 2016
Dreams are fascinating. They lose quite a bit, however, when reduced to science. I'm sure that's not what Hobson had in mind when he wrote this little book. Still, the reductionism and materialism espoused remove all the magic from dreams. For some of us, our dreams are all we have. In turns charming and technical, this study applies neuroscience to the world of imagination. Several very good observations are made, but the loss of consciousness is unfortunate. For more, please see my blog: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
December 15, 2012
I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. Hobson tends to ramble and doesn't explain the science behind sleep much at all. He didn't explore neurology as much as he should have and his comments on evolution are very backdated. It is a big disappointment.
April 22, 2021
A book with such interesting artwork on the cover with the title Dreaming, promised much. Sadly the book was more about the subtitle, an introduction to the science of sleep. Unfortunately I’d read Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker previously and that was more up to date, more engaging, not so dry, infinitely more interesting, used more reference material and delivered a lot more in terms of learning.
This book was all the opposite.
Dry. Overly complicated. Not really answering the questions posed by the chapter titles and basically a bait and switch. Dream interpretation as a chapter title was nothing of the sort. Lucid dreaming was reduced to one of his side thought inserts and all his figures, tables and diagrams were incomprehensible and I rarely saw the point, they didn’t “illustrate” ... maybe I just didn’t care to be conscious enough to read and reread paragraphs in order to get around what he was trying to say.
His dreams... talk about basic, perhaps they were précis?. My dreams when written down stretch to 8-10 sides of A4 - I gave up keeping a dream journal in my teens bcos I didn’t have time to write it all down before college. His dreams, what was the purpose of them other than curiosities, and vote right on the part of the reader? He uses them as examples but I failed to see the connections. He states a lot about experience in dreams that just isn’t true in my dreams, I frequently do things he says you can’t... remember things, narrate that things aren’t the way they should be, reference things in waking life, say “you’re not meant to be here, you’re dead” or “ill have to tell so and so about this” He skipped over lucid dreaming saying “you can train yourself to be lucid by ....” then said nothing more about it.
His relationship in the book to Freud is odd. He throws his name around as if he’s a first year Uni student and Freud is the only book he’s read. There are so many other people to write about, especially as Freud is not the leading light - perhaps he’s the person who turned the light on this. He does acknowledge this in a late chapter. I don’t think he even mentioned Jung! (Maybe once).
The book reads likes it’s really out of date, compared to Why We Sleep, although is only 2002. Likely a lot has changed in neuroscience, sleep study and knowledge of the brain since then but goodness this author focuses on all the wrong things.
There were a few points that read smoothly and I could take it in and feel oh that’s interesting, but most of my reading jagged. It posed more questions than it answered and he really got bogged down by brain chemistry which is fascinating and I really wanted to take it all in but I’d need to reread the book over and over to get it all. Especially bits on brain chemistry and depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s etc. (Tenuous connection to dreaming and sleep). He drops in interesting statements then speaks no more of it.
His few words on consciousness made me smile. I studied the psychology of consciousness at Uni in a module and it was DEEP. Texts books were Daniel Dennet and other meaty reads. He reduced consciousness to a small chapter with such statement of fact and “just so” I could’ve sobbed for all the years psychologists, philosophers, religious people, raging evangelical atheists (looking at you, Dawkins) and others have spent pondering and debating this weighty and lofty topic. Talk about glossing over!
I think this book will be kept as a reference book, rather than a pleasing learning read. I’ll dip in and out via the index. For example he went mad for cholinergic systems over a few chapters and that bears more reading.
He tries to write engagingly and conversationally but .. it just doesn’t work. Read Walker. Seriously. It’s the kind of book you interrupt whoever you’re with every few lines to say “woah, you’ve got to hear this! Did you know...?”
This book was all the opposite.
Dry. Overly complicated. Not really answering the questions posed by the chapter titles and basically a bait and switch. Dream interpretation as a chapter title was nothing of the sort. Lucid dreaming was reduced to one of his side thought inserts and all his figures, tables and diagrams were incomprehensible and I rarely saw the point, they didn’t “illustrate” ... maybe I just didn’t care to be conscious enough to read and reread paragraphs in order to get around what he was trying to say.
His dreams... talk about basic, perhaps they were précis?. My dreams when written down stretch to 8-10 sides of A4 - I gave up keeping a dream journal in my teens bcos I didn’t have time to write it all down before college. His dreams, what was the purpose of them other than curiosities, and vote right on the part of the reader? He uses them as examples but I failed to see the connections. He states a lot about experience in dreams that just isn’t true in my dreams, I frequently do things he says you can’t... remember things, narrate that things aren’t the way they should be, reference things in waking life, say “you’re not meant to be here, you’re dead” or “ill have to tell so and so about this” He skipped over lucid dreaming saying “you can train yourself to be lucid by ....” then said nothing more about it.
His relationship in the book to Freud is odd. He throws his name around as if he’s a first year Uni student and Freud is the only book he’s read. There are so many other people to write about, especially as Freud is not the leading light - perhaps he’s the person who turned the light on this. He does acknowledge this in a late chapter. I don’t think he even mentioned Jung! (Maybe once).
The book reads likes it’s really out of date, compared to Why We Sleep, although is only 2002. Likely a lot has changed in neuroscience, sleep study and knowledge of the brain since then but goodness this author focuses on all the wrong things.
There were a few points that read smoothly and I could take it in and feel oh that’s interesting, but most of my reading jagged. It posed more questions than it answered and he really got bogged down by brain chemistry which is fascinating and I really wanted to take it all in but I’d need to reread the book over and over to get it all. Especially bits on brain chemistry and depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s etc. (Tenuous connection to dreaming and sleep). He drops in interesting statements then speaks no more of it.
His few words on consciousness made me smile. I studied the psychology of consciousness at Uni in a module and it was DEEP. Texts books were Daniel Dennet and other meaty reads. He reduced consciousness to a small chapter with such statement of fact and “just so” I could’ve sobbed for all the years psychologists, philosophers, religious people, raging evangelical atheists (looking at you, Dawkins) and others have spent pondering and debating this weighty and lofty topic. Talk about glossing over!
I think this book will be kept as a reference book, rather than a pleasing learning read. I’ll dip in and out via the index. For example he went mad for cholinergic systems over a few chapters and that bears more reading.
He tries to write engagingly and conversationally but .. it just doesn’t work. Read Walker. Seriously. It’s the kind of book you interrupt whoever you’re with every few lines to say “woah, you’ve got to hear this! Did you know...?”
July 24, 2017
The ideas put forth are backed up by sleep research and neurobiology, making it difficult to argue with. My biggest complaint is that the language is often not relatable, making this book harder to read than it needed to be. Does provide learning value to readers and has ideas that can be directly applied for personal growth and development.
March 30, 2022
I will admit I skimmed this book. I was looking more for research on what causes nightmares and how to mitigate them, especially in people with mental illness. I got what causes dreams in general, which was interesting to learn about, but ill have to narrow my search next time. I can appreciate how honest the author is by sharing his own dreams as a part of his research though.
July 8, 2013
This is largely an "activation-synthesis" research compilation on dreaming. It is written with a style halfway between academic and conversational.
A few takeaways for me:
-- the "structure" of dreaming: largely to consolidate memory and learning process.
-- the "noise" of dreaming: activation of various motor and visual cortex, but without conscious mind to censor it, we have bizarre actions and visuals
-- the "emotional core" of repeated dreams: this is the meaningful contents that Freud and his psychoanalytical brethren used to unlock unconscious mind
-- the "fun" of dreams: can one learn to lucid dreaming? Or at least trying to record our dreams. The key is not to "over-fitting" the dreams, instead, trying to untangle the structure, noise, and emotion out of it.
Dreaming is part of life, although a very different (and often more interesting one) than waking life.
A few takeaways for me:
-- the "structure" of dreaming: largely to consolidate memory and learning process.
-- the "noise" of dreaming: activation of various motor and visual cortex, but without conscious mind to censor it, we have bizarre actions and visuals
-- the "emotional core" of repeated dreams: this is the meaningful contents that Freud and his psychoanalytical brethren used to unlock unconscious mind
-- the "fun" of dreams: can one learn to lucid dreaming? Or at least trying to record our dreams. The key is not to "over-fitting" the dreams, instead, trying to untangle the structure, noise, and emotion out of it.
Dreaming is part of life, although a very different (and often more interesting one) than waking life.
Want to read
August 22, 2011NTS: Brother has this for Kindle, borrow it from him!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews