Sleep and Dreaming

by Jacob Empson

Everyone sleeps and everyone dreams. Yet we are almost entirely unconscious of what is happening to us when we sleep and we forget almost all of our dreams. This third edition of a classic introduction to the subject provides a fascinating insight into this most universal of subjects, critically analysing recent research by psychologists and neuroscientists (much of which has been published in the last ten years) and reviewing historical and cultural beliefs about dreams. Sleep and Dreaming is a comprehensive and rigorous text for undergraduate students, offering a rewarding and engaging introduction to the field.

New to this
- Contains much new material, particularly on the physiology of sleep
- A new chapter by Professor Michael Wang on the psychological treatment of insomnia

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

268 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 1989

Reviews

[Robin Cunninghame Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful introduction to the topic which is easily accessible to the general reader. One wonders what new developments have occurred since he wrote it. The only complaint I have is that in the section on sleep in animals there is no mention of dogs.

[Alli Skala · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never thought something as simple as sleep could be so complex and be so crucial. Can you think back to the last time you went one, or maybe two, days without sleeping? If you think back to the last time you went days without sleeping, you can probably remember how tedious it was to do simple tasks or even stay awake. In the book “Sleep and Dreaming. Third Edition” was inspired by the sleep study at Hull University. The book started out by talking about the background of dreams and interpreting them. It even went as far as to say that dream interpretation is all a sham. I learned that researchers actually have no idea what dreams mean, or if they mean anything at all. The next section talked about the studies that Hull University did. The university connected wires and pads to patients all over their body to track their brain waves, body motions, and heart rate. From that experiment they gained a lot of knowledge about the stages of sleep.
Part two starts off by giving a brief history of REM sleep and the science that went into studying it. In the next section we, as readers, are given the explanation as to why we remember some dreams and not others. Along with that, the book describes to its audience what a dream actually is and what goes on in the brain. My favorite part of the book was part three, where it talked about the psychology of sleep and sleep deprivation. That is where I got a lot of information for my informative essay.
I read this book as a source for my informative essay. This book taught me a lot about sleep and dreaming and has cleared up some of my many questions that I’ve always had about sleep and dreams. I would not recommend this book if you are looking to be entertained. It has a lot of technical terms and is very hard to follow if you don’t have some background information already on sleep studies. Some people who might be interested in reading this book would be anyone who wants to know what goes on inside the body during sleep, the history of sleep study science, and the psychology of sleep. This book was intended for a mature audience and mainly for researchers and doctors.

[Nachtkind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy for a lay person to follow.