ISBN:0465070698Book Description
From memory formation to nocturnal therapy, neuroscience's newest discoveries about our dreams.
Psychologists and philosophers have long grappled with the mysteries of dreaming, and now-thanks largely to recent innovations in brain imaging -neuroscientists are starting to join the conversation. In this groundbreaking book, award-winning journalist Andrea Rock traces the brief but fascinating history of this emerging field. She then takes us into modern sleep labs across the country, asking the questions that intrigue us all: Why do we remember only a fraction of our dreams? Why are dreams usually accompanied by intense emotions? Can dreams truly spark creative thought or help solve problems? Are the universal dream interpretations of Freud and Jung valid? Accessible and engaging, The Mind at Night shines a bright light on our nocturnal journeys and tells us what the sleeping mind reveals about our waking hours./p>
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
Perchance to dream...
"We are the stuff that dreams are made of and our little lives are rounded by a sleep." William Shakespeare
In her 200 page study, Rock has done an admirable job tracing out the history and findings of cognitive sleep research. In the process, she's endeavored to tell the story of a phenomenon that followed evolutionarily about a 140 million years ago on the phenomenon of sleep itself.
In this way, the articulated complexities of human dreams track the articulated complexities of the human brain itself. So dreams reflect the fears, anxieties, cares and hopes that are part of our daily lives. In her book, we see healthy sleep as part of a healthy psyche where our day to wounds are healed into our long standing visions of ourselves. Conversely, we also learn how unhealthy dream process can retard emotional recovery from trauma.
Thought provokingly, Rock also addresses the phenomenon of lucid dreaming wherein the dreamer takes advantage of being in a self aware dream state for creative and recreational purposes. Likewise, she discusses some great advances made by the creative thinking and boundry removal possible while one is in a dream state.
Though other reviewer comments about the turgid nature of Rock's writing are well placed, it remains true that even a poorly written book about a fascinating topic nonetheless remains fascinating particularly here wherein the writer has managed to cover a lot of ground in a relatively small space.
Detailed glimpse into the world of dream research
Much as our dreams seem to give us a brief glimpse into our subconscious, The Mind at Night gives the reader a glimpse into the science of dreaming. From psychology to neurophysiology, the book chronicles the various movements of dream research and the numerous fields of science involved with brain function in the past 50 years or so. There seems to be many conflicts, many still not completely resolved, in trying to ascertain the true nature of dreaming. Many in the psychology field tend to stick to the Freudian theories of dream interpretation, while many neurologists and research scientists seem convinced dreams arise, quite simply, from various chemicals produced by our brain during different periods of sleep. Regardless of which is actually correct, The Mind at Night does an excellent job of chronicling the advances in research for both theories, providing a very thorough description of the basis for both. Discussion of dream research is so detailed in The Mind at Night that several of the chapters include the often odd accounts of dreams from the test subjects of the various studies conducted all across the globe. The book does an impressive job of providing a fairly intelligent scientific commentary on dream research while not going too far over the readers head with complex verbiage or description. In one of the earlier chapters, a diagram of the brain is even offered to help explain which parts of the brain expel which chemicals and therefore which parts are responsible for various aspects of dreaming. Drawing on a number of different scientific disciplines and mediums, ranging from studies of schizophrenics to mentioning of chaos theory, The Mind at Night does a wonderful job of reporting on the broad spectrum of dream research that comprises all of the past and present knowledge and theories on what causes us to dream.