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The Mind At Night: The New Science Of How And Why We Dream
by
Andrea Rock
Over the past few decades, there has been a revolution in scientific knowledge about why we dream, what's actually happening to the brain when we do, and what the sleeping mind reveals about our waking hours. Beginning with the birth of dream research in the 1950s, award-winning science reporter Andrea Rock traces the brief but fascinating history of this emerging scientif...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
March 2nd 2004
by Basic Books
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Some of the other reviews criticize the lack of depth, but honestly, how much can you pack into 200ish pages? Given the brevity of the book, the author paints a fine picture of what we currently know about dreaming and where the field might be headed next. She weaves in background history and personal stories so that it isn't just another dry science textbook. This is a good, compact, and highly readable introduction to the science of dreaming.
This is a book about the science of dreaming - NOT dream interpretation. It took me forever to read the 200 pages and even though I found parts of it enlightening, I felt relieved when I was finished. I learned that your body actually sometimes becomes paralyzed when you dream. I had a hard distinguishing between "lucid dreaming" and being awake. Seem like a very fine line to me.
The Mind at Night is an interesting and accessible overview of research into....how and why we dream, just as the title says. I am particularly curious about the finding that too much REM sleep (the kind we need to organize our brains and function well) can contribute to depression. Unfortunately, the book doesn't go into what might be the cause of excessive REM. So....I'm writing to the researcher mentioned in the book. Why not?
A fascinating book (well, obviously) that is felled by the author's jarring brevity with the actual importance of the experiments and discoveries of the aggregate of scientists profiled within. It is no surprise then that the book itself is a light read, coming in at just around 200 pages. Recommended, but, only as a introductory supplement to other texts with more breadth.
I am hugely interested in dreams (shameless plug for my DREAMzine- www.thisendlesspresent.com ) and I studied Psychology, so this book combines two things that are completely fascinating to me. It details a vast array of topics relating to dreaming, and is full of theories with summarized research findings and experimental data, and quotes from Neuropsychologists and Dream/Sleep Researchers galore. It is written for average people to read and comprehend, and most of the time it will read easil...more
Neuroscience and cognition are big draws for me anyway, but this book was quite impressive. The author chronicles the history of research on dreaming. She writes in a highly accessible manner, making the research results understandable, yet accurate. I couldn't put down the book, and have read portions of it numerous times since.
This book provides an excellent history and discussion of current research around dreaming. It is by the far the most approachable book on the topic I've read. Each chapter explores a different aspect of the mind at mind and calls out specific researchers leading the exploration of that area. The books builds upon itself such that the later topics, while dealing with more current and technical material, are digestible as previous chapters laid the groundwork for understanding them.
I really liked the beginning of this book. All the information on why we need to sleep and dream was extremely interesting. However I was also very glad to have finished it. More than halfway through the book got a little tedious. I found the information on lucid dreaming and even how you can get a creative edge while dreaming to be dull and perhaps dry (I'm not sure if that's quite the right word).
This book discusses current theories about dreams and how they arise in the brain. The author goes over the research done by the main scientists in the field. An interesting book, and understandable to the layperson. (At least to me.)
All sorts of interesting stuff on a more scientific level about dreaming. I often go back and re-read sections of this book. Too bad there isn't more research approved for this kind of thing. I'd love to know more.
Fascinating and readable nonfiction about what our brains do while we sleep. Totally entertaining and informative.
Good overview of the whole thing. Oppossums, seven hours of REM sleep average ! Awesome oppossum !
Good synthesis of (relatively) recent work in cognitive science on dreaming. Especially liked her accounts of lucid dreaming and of the links between dreaming and consciousness.
First ten pages primarily talks about the beginning of REM. Klietman and Aserinsky both discovered the early dreaming process now learned today. Remarkable test subjects provided key evidence and further learning. New revelations would soon follow through Dement.
Interesting book, interesting chapter titles, full of research anecdotes. It presents the biological functions of sleep, namely rewiring, re-enforcing, integrating, filtering and pruning neural networks. I found it particularly interesting that depression could be alleviated by repeatedly waking people in REM sleep. Also, rewiring your motor cortex takes 3 days.
This book allows you to understand the mind of sleeping.
But, if you what to understand what your dream is truly represted. This book is not suitable.
But, if you what to understand what your dream is truly represted. This book is not suitable.
Very informative and up to date.
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